Word2000 SR1 changes layout of pre-SR1 docs

[rrogerr]

Docs with linked and placed pictures, and drawn lines, prepared and saved with a pre-SR1 version of Word 2000 appear with a quite different layout when opened in post-SR1 Word2000. Anyone know of a way of retrieving the original layout? Or is it necessary to keep both versions of Word available, and remember which were prepared on which version?

[DaveA]

I have NOT had that problem. I supect the normal.dot got changed some how. Discribe the differences of the before and after SR1A

[rrogerr]

Thanks for picking this up, Dave.

I needed to edit a 48 page document [with 100+ linked pictures] which had been prepared and saved on a PC with Word 2000 pre-SR1. Different sections of this document had different margin etc settings.
I opened it on a new PC that has a post-SR1 version: the layout of the pages was rubbished, and where the line-drawing facility of Word had been used to make a partial frame around a bit of text some of the lines came out twice the original length and some half.
I had to take it back to the older machine to edit it.

Similarly, a well-filled single-page doc produced on the older PC became a "1 page and 1 line on the next page" document on the new PC.

I'm not clear where the normal.dot template comes into the equation - does Word not save as part of the document all its page sizes, margin settings etc?

Roger

[DaveA]

The styles that are based on the normal style will change from one machine to another unless the styles are the SAME. All of this information is saved in the NORMAL.dot template of each machine. I.E., if one machine has Times Roman New as the default of the normal style and the other machine has Arial as the default in the normal style you will see the difference of the two fonts. The margin settings, Font size and anything that is different between the two machines is result in having some changes made in the normal style.this has been a ISSUE with most software that the settings can and WILL be changed from one machine to another. It makes since anytime things are BASED on a file that is changed. When I define NEW styles I try and NOT base them on the Normal style, I have better luck with this when I am sharing files.

I hope you understand what I have been saying.

Also keep in mind that the default printer settings will change the layout do to the different limits of each printer.

[Dreamboat]

Have you changed printer or driver? This can also greatly affect the layout. Tip: Whenever you use drawing features in Word, and once they're exactly how you want them, group them.

[Phil Rabichow]

Hi Dave:
I come up with a somewhat different result than you, if I understand your post. Suppose I have a different normal style than you do, and I create (or use Word's built-in styles that are based on the normal style) to create a document. I then send the document to you.

Regardless of your style definitions (almost), you should see the document as I created it, with my styles. The hierarchy that Word uses for style definitions is document, attached template, normal template. So if I have three different styles called Style1, one with Arial font in a document, one in Garamond font in an attached template, & one in Times New Roman in the normal template, & I send you the document, Style1 should be Arial. That's true even if you attach it to your own custom template with Style1 or have a totally different Style1 in the normal template.

I know of only a few times that this won't be true (but I'd be happy to know if you find this wrong). It won't be true if:
1. There is some display problem (perhaps video driver)
2. The font doesn't exist on the 2nd computer (& was not embedded in the document).
3. The document is set to "update document styles", so that the original styles are overwritten by the attached template styles.
4. The property was not defined in the original style. For example, most styles have font color set to "automatic", or undefined. If you define your normal style as green, & I send you a style based on my normal style with color undefined, it will turn green on your machine (maybe it's just envious<g>).

If you have different results that aren't based on one of those, I'd really like to know. At the same time, I agree that it's best to create styles that are not based on normal & have unique names when those files are likely to be shared with others.

[DaveA]

I have NOT had this problem since 'retirement' and have up graded to Office 2000. Before retirement I was working in a company of over several 100,000 workers. In my local area we had about 500 people, that shared and/or accessed the different files with different versions of software and hardware, including MAC's. We were having all kinds of problems with the display of these file.
We did find that every different printer would give us some problems, we had 35 different types and/or models of printers. Were using MS WORD 6, Office 95 and Office 97 for the PC's and do NOT remember what version for the Mac's.
We did find that the different Normal templates would give us the most problems. We even tried to control the configuration of Normal template, which created a hole different set problems.

[rrogerr]

Dave and Dreamboat

Yes, you are exactly right about the fonts, and the machines have different printers.
What a mess!
This means I will have to have a coding system which tells which machine each document was originated on, and will not be able [ever?] to edit large layout-critical docs on any machine other than the one they were generated on.
Unless someone has a crafty solution.......

At least I know it isn

[DaveA]

You are NOT ALONE. In most cases if one does NOT redefine to many things the files will come over with out to much of a problem. These ideas that we have stated is just a sample of the issues that one will have with MS Office. If you were spend some time on the NEW Machine and NEW versions and see what one needs to change to get the same results. Document these changes and share them with the other users.