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Summary: Microsoft Word documents display differently on different systems because of differences between the systems. Getting Microsoft Word documents to display identically typically means processing them into something else. I have a document which was created in Word XP and is 226 pages. When I send it to a client who is using Word 2003, it looks totally different and is over 330 pages. How can I send the client the document without it changing? Also, they wanted a pdf version, which looks nothing like the word document. How can I get the word document to look like the pdf? Well, to be honest, you're trying to do something that Word documents aren't really intended to do. As counter-intuitive as it sounds Word isn't really about making the document look exactly the same everywhere. But your client is on the right track, actually, since that's what PDF files attempt to do. In a nutshell: it's all about the system, and the printer. • The most common reason documents look different on one machine as compared to another is the printer. When Word displays a document in "Print Layout" form, it actually uses the characteristics of the currently selected printer to determine what the layout should look like. Obvious items such as default margins, paper size, and other charaterstics of printers in general can have a document appear quite differently when viewed, or printed, on one system versus another. "The most common reason documents look different on one
machine as compared to another is the printer."
In fact, if you have more than one printer on your system, you can watch this happen. While the document is up in Word, hit File, Print and then select another printer. When you do this the Cancel button will change to Close. Select Close, to close the document without printing it, and the document you're viewing will be redisplayed, taking the characteristics of the new printer into account. Depending on the differences between your printers, the change can be subtle, or quite dramatic. Another possible difference is the use of fonts which are not common to all systems. If you create a document using one font, and then view that document on another system where that font is not installed, Word will attempt to substitute something "close" to the font you wanted. Unfortunately, "close" is fairly vague, and can often be startlingly different from the original. PDF files are one approach at solving this problem. PDF, which stands for "Portable Document Format", is a document format that attempts to be rendered exactly the same everywhere, no matter what your system or printer characteristics. Most commonly, PDF creation software acts like a printer - but in a sense it's a printer that's the same everywhere. You create your portable document by printer to a PDF virtual printer. The result, a PDF file, can then be viewed anywhere with a PDF reader, and should look, and even print to a real printer, exactly the same as your original PDF. There are several options to creating PDF files. Adobe Acrobat is the most recognized tool, and actually defines the PDF standard. Another, cheaper alternative is the free and open-source PDFCreator. So my bottom line recommendation is simply to create a PDF, authoring your document so that the PDF comes out the way you want it to, and then share that with your client. If you need to share editable Word documents, then simply realize that they will not display, or print, exactly the same everywhere. Related:
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This issue is bigger than Ben Hur and yet so few people know about it. As Leo has stated, printer and fonts can change the look when the document is opened on another computer. Problems due to printer characteristics are fairly easily fixed by setting the page setup on the target computer to be the same as that on the source computer. Fonts... well just stick to the common fonts on the source computer for maximal compatibility. Other sources of major problems on target computers are 'styles', or lack of them, and 'lists'. It's beyond the scope of this brief comment here to explain why but they are the source of many problems. It's more noticeable in large documents because page numbers in cross references and table of contents are obviously wrong. On closer inspection you'll start to notice that lists are not always correct, more noticeable with numbered lists, and that some styles are no longer correct. Word is not designed for handling large document collaboration, which includes sending clients reports. As Leo has suggested, create the PDF of your report and send that your client. If they want changes, have them communicate them back and you make the necessary changes and then PDF the revised report again. It's the only way that you can be absolutely certain that your client sees what you intended. Posted by: Greg Webb at August 13, 2006 06:00 AMHi, I would like to know how to change the font inside the comments locally. If I use the Format, Style and Formatting, this will change all the comments globally. I need to change the font just for one of the comments. Thanks for your advice. My sister's printer prints out everything but her website address on her works cited pages of her references. When she send it to me it comes out fine but won't print out for her. She has MS Word and uses a HP PC Please help I have two computers a laptop and a desktop. They both have Win XP and Office 2003 and were working fine. But recetly I bought a bigger HD to my desktop and reinstalled everything. Now the documents I write in my laptop look different in my desktop! Its driving me nuts as it was not happening before. Same configuration of the paper layout, same printer, same style and type of word, same programs, etc. But the lay out is different! any clue? Posted by: Jane F at May 28, 2007 08:02 AMi have a similar but bigger problem... the thing is that i installed the same font on 2 different machines (both with same os and software) the font is gill sans condensed, but it looks different on each one... the machines have exactly the same stuff and configuration... i even checked the screen dpi, the font smothness, etc but had no luck, anyone had this problem before? they look way too different, as if it was another font, but if i open a flash document, it would warn you if the font wasn't installed, but it doesn't (so this means that the font is installed) it just displays different... any clue? Posted by: question at June 12, 2007 11:59 AMPost a comment on "Why does my Microsoft Word document display differently on different computers?":
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