Format when opening Word 97 doc in Word 2003

[Guest]

I have over 100 documents, some with 100 to 600 pages. All were created in
Word 97, but I have transferred them to XP with Word 2003. Most are
technical manuals with very precise formatting. When opened in 2003, lines
may be slightly longer or other very slight change in layout causing lines
flowing to another line. This results in page overflow. One document went
from 283 to 289 pages, for example. I have tried setting compatibility
options (Word 97, Printer metrics on or off, etc.) and every other thing I
can think of but am unable to fix the problem.

Reformatting all of these documents would take forever and I could never get
it just right again. Any ideas will be sincerely appreciated.

 

[Stefan Blom]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


"Charlie''s Word VBA questions"
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[Guest]

Many thanks for the reference.

However, it suggests removing all manual page breaks. I don't see how that
helps in addition to all the work. I wonder if Word 2003 has a different
algorithm for adjusting spaces between words. That would make each line very
slightly longer. If so, any way around it?

Do you or anyone else have any other suggestions?

Thank you.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can try enabling the Compatibility Option to do spacing like
WordPerfect. But if you have a lot of manual page breaks, you're just asking
for grief. I'm not sure what "work" is involved in removing them. Find and
Replace ^m with nothing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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"Charlie''s Word VBA questions"

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your quick response. You are right, removing manual page
breaks is easy. However, these are technical manuals with many embedded
graphics, tables and the like. Also, new topics usually start on a new page
regardless of where the previous topic ended. That would be lost if I
removed the manual page breaks. Also, I don't understand how this would
affect line overflow which seems to be the biggest problem.
I'll try the "space like WP". Thanks --

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

New topics will still start on a new page if you add "Page break before" to
the style used for the main topic heading. The suggestions offered in the
referenced article are designed to make documents more portable between
printers, but it's your choice whether you use them or not.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

"Charlie''s Word VBA questions"

 

[Guest]

I have no need to transport documents or to switch printers. I have tried to
change the printer from an HP to a Canon and it made no difference.

That would still mean that I would have to go through every document and
insert a style for each one. Most of them are Normal style. And,
regardless, it will still have the problem of adding new pages. It seems to
me that the problem is caused by spacing although I believe the font, space
between lines, etc. has not changed.

Is there any Word criteria for how close a character can come to the right
margin? Even just a pixel or two can cause a word being forced to the next
line.

I really appreciate your help, but maybe there is no answer to this one.