Unpredictable character spacing

[Guest]

I have Word 2002, and I've noticed that the spacing between characters
changes slightly after I have finished working on a document (apparently
after I have saved and closed a document and then reopened it). This can
cause problems for me in two ways: 1. if a line of text that "barely fits"
when I wrote it expands slightly, it may jump to the next line, causing
potential page break issue, and 2. if I'm combining text with drawings, when
the character spacing changes slightly, the text and drawings no longer match
up (such as an arrow pointing to a word or a circle around a word). It does
not seem to be a "kern" problem, and obviously, I checked to make sure
"character spacing" (condensed or expanded) has not been changed.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Are you changing the formatting to make things fit during session 1, and
then during session 2, some of those settings are being undone?

If that's the case, then it might be that the attached template is set to
"Automatically update document styles," and is undoing your changes each
time. Check Tools - Templates and Add-ins for the setting, and remove the
check if it's enabled.

You can also fix the problem permanently, if this is what's been happening,
but changing the formatting of the underlying styles, and saving those
changed styles to the template. That way, assuming the scenario I've
outlined is indeed the problem, when you create a new document based on that
template, nothing will need to be adjusted.

If this scenario isn't the explanation, another thing that can cause it is
if Word *thinks* that one printer device is the default when you first write
the document, but that a different printer device is the default when you
open the document later.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
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