Word 2003, overlapping text in table

I

Il

Someone, please help!

I'm on Word 2003 (SP3). We have a Word form with Text Boxes inserted into
tables. Sometimes, but not always, as text is entered into the fields, the
table gets jumbled with rows overlapping preceeding rows (usually starting
with the top of the table). The number of rows doesn't seem to be a factor
(as it sometimes happens with a table with as few as 3 rows or as many as
30). It may be that a table breaking across pages is the common thread. Not
that this makes sense, but that seems to be the only pattern. Sometimes, if
I insert extra spaces in the Word doc *before* the table, it "unjumbled" the
table. But, I'm working on a doc right ow where not even this is working.

I've searched all over, including MS help, and they recommend 2
"work-arounds" - neither of which actually work. One suggests changing the
View from Print or Normal to Reading Layout. Yes, the text in the table is
then readable - but it still prints overlapped. The second suggestion was to
change the Compatibility option to Word 2003, which mine already was.

Anyone?!??
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I assume you mean text form fields rather than text boxes (the latter are
not compatible with form fields). Would it help to set the table rows to an
Exact height?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
I

Il

Yes, Text Form Fields.

And, no, unfortunatley, setting Table Properties to Row, Specify Height did
not fix the problem. Neither did distributing rows evenly. I'm out of
ideas!

In case this jogs any ideas for others, here's Microsoft's acknowledgement
of the problem and those 2 "work-arounds" that I mentioned (that didn't work
for me): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/820534 .

Thanks.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

That KB article addresses problems in viewing text in Reading Layout view.
It doesn't recommend using Reading Layout view as a solution to the problem
in viewing or printing a document. Have you tried updating your printer
driver?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
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it might be obsolete already, anyway:
I've noticed it happens when table encounters page break i.e. avoiding page breakes within table helped in my case.
 
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Old thread, but I had the same problem today with a table that overlapped a table below it when typing exceeded default field size rather than increasing the field size to accommodate the text. The fix was to un-check "Allow Overlap" in Table Properties - Table Positioning. This was not at the end of the page and only a problem on one table, seemingly identical to all others in the document. Any ideas on why this would be?

OS - Win 7
Office 2010
 

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