Formatting Differences between Word Versions

Greg's office has a mixture of machines, all running different versions of Word. Some are running Word 2000, some Word 2003, some Word 2007, and others Word 2010. The folks in the office frequently have to exchange documents for editing. Whenever Greg receives a document prepared with an older version of Word and opens it in Word 2010, the line spacing and even the font spacing are frequently different, so much so that the pagination can be completely different on the two versions. Greg is wondering what causes this and if there is a cure.

There are a lot of factors that go into determining how Word renders a document—so many that it is sometimes hard to pinpoint the cause for any given problem. There are a couple of things you can check out, however.

One possible cause is the printer drivers used on the different machines. Different printer drivers can render different fonts in subtly different ways, which can affect pagination over the course of a document. Check to make sure that the two machines have the same version of printer driver, and that they are both using the same printer driver.

Once the printer drivers are the same, you will need to make sure that both versions of Word use the printer driver to do their layout. In Word 2010, follow these steps:

1. Display the File tab of the ribbon.
2. Click the Options button. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
3. Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the options and use the Lay Out This Document As If Created In drop-down list to choose which version of Word should be considered the standard for layout.
5. Click OK.

Now, in the other machines in the office, display the compatibility options and make sure that they are set the same way you set them in Word 2010. (How you display and change the compatibility options depends on the version of Word you are using. In most versions through Word 2003 display the Compatibility tab of the Options dialog box. In Word 2007 display the Word Options dialog box and click Advanced at the left side. The compatibility options are at the bottom of those displayed on the screen.) Hopefully the printed versions on the two machines will now be much closer to identical.

If that still doesn't work, then you might try round-tripping the document through the RTF filter. Save the document in RTF format, then reload it from the RTF file. This may help to clear up any formatting idiosyncrasies that may have crept into the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10418) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Formatting Differences between Word Versions.