Can anyone advise on a WORD.DOC problem?

ebaybaby

Hi All,
I have to send WORD DOCS most of the day for work. On this doc I have a table filled with info and a I have to include a picture.

The past few times I have forwarded these docs to someone else via an email attachment, they are telling me the document is distorted, the pictures are squished etc, they display fine to me though when I go back and check!?

Can anyone give me any advice please? I feel sooo stupid!!!!!

paddyrg

Are you both using Microsoft Office (not Libre Office or similar)? Same version number (eg Office 13)? Same platform (eg PC vs Mac vs Android Tablet vs...)?

If all of that is the same, are you using any funny fonts? Try setting the whole document in Ariel and see if there are still problems? It could be that the other person doesn't have the same font installed, and so font substitution has wrecked your delicate formatting.

All else fails, save it as a PDF, and although they can't easily edit it, they should see the same thing you do.

agrinnall

As paddy says, it could be platform. I've had problems recently with images in a Word document opened on my Windows 7 system but created on a Mac, I've had to get the creator to save it as a PDF in order to ensure the images can be seen as expected.

alanclarke

As paddyrg says PDF is one option and you could also upload DOC file to OneDrive and then "Share" the document with whoever needs to view it, it open in the viewers browser using Microsoft Word Online so looks the same whatever operating system they use.

The people that view it do not need to have a OneDrive account. It's free to sign up and you get a few GB of data included. https://www.onedrive.com

grumpycrab

Have your been messing with the Normal template or using a custom one?

ThemeOne

If you're satisfied the document is correctly formatted at your end, then you can do little more than send it as a PDF if the recipient's having problems viewing it.

You can't be responsible for how they've set up their own system, so ultimately it's their problem not yours.

bingo_bango

+1 for a PDF. That way none of the recipient's idiosyncrasies will impact on your careful composition.
It also means they can't moan at you because it 'doesn't look right'.

It does have the drawback of not allowing them to edit the data (should they need to do so) but at least you can prove the formatting was fine when it was sent!

ebaybaby

Thanks everyone, sent as PDF and all fine! They shouldn't need to edit any of it so I shall use this way in future!

Themeone, I get what your saying but, if I was to say that to the companies I'm dealing with they would just discount me and go somewhere else!

agrinnall

ebaybaby wrote: »

Thanks everyone, sent as PDF and all fine! They shouldn't need to edit any of it so I shall use this way in future!

Themeone, I get what your saying but, if I was to say that to the companies I'm dealing with they would just discount me and go somewhere else!

Glad the PDF solution worked and was acceptable this time.

Given what you say about companies that you deal with it might be worth trying to find out what the underlying issue is this time, as you may be able to do something about it that could prevent you losing business in the future. For instance, if it is a platform incompatability, then buying a Mac if you are currently on Windows might do the trick, although obviously you'd have to weight up the extra cost against the extra income you might get.

ThemeOne

ebaybaby wrote: »

Themeone, I get what your saying but, if I was to say that to the companies I'm dealing with they would just discount me and go somewhere else!

Hopefully you won't now need to have any discussion with them now the PDF solution works. Many companies have PDF editing software these days too.

SouthUKMan

Hi. Although many versions of MS Office / Word have been released over the years, most users only use a very small number of basic features. In my experience (until recently, I taught MS Office and ICT to adults for five years) there are very few compatibility issues between different versions of Word when it comes to using basic features likes tables, and inserting pictures, etc. One of the common faults with documents not displaying 100% as intended on another PC results from incompatible fonts. For example, the latest version of Office includes some fonts that aren't available in older versions of Office. So, the software substitutes the font for a similar one. However, similar is not the same. I've seen this cause problems time and time again...particularly when people want to make a document fit exactly to one or two pages, but then find it nudges over by a line or two when displayed on a different PC. As one of the other posters said, try and ensure you use a very standard font such as Arial or Times Roman...both of which are clear, professional and more importantly have been available in Office from the year dot!