[P1] Word formatting in Mac, PC

[Jack Rodgers]

On Sunday, July 27, 2003, at 04:38  PM, Kim Gammelgård wrote:

> We only use
> WinNT and Win2000, and even on the same printer on the same platform 
> we end
> up with different results.
>
> Word is not a serious page layout program, and should not be expected 
> to
> behave like one:

Word is a text editor that has had page layout tacked on. It does not 
take much to cause a new pagination throwing everything off since the 
entire document is treated as one large text block.

A page layout program restricts text to a block that you assign. If you 
add or delete chargers it re-spaces the entire block to fit. Word drags 
the end of the document forward or backward and everything up to the 
point of the edit. There are Crazy Word Ways to compensate for this...

Essentially, you should ignore everything that happens until just 
before you print and then you can do one of those complete saves, style 
and adjust, and save compacted again. Then print.  Most likely when you 
open the document next everything will have changed...   :)

You can do word processing inside Quark, Pagemaker and InDesign and 
Framemaker and avoid all of the problems Word presents. In face, when I 
was doing newsletters I developed the knack of both filling up the text 
boxes and ending the article on the last available line and close to 
the last character available.

I remember my first page layout program. I used to drag and drop 
graphics on top of multiple columns of text just to watch it think, 
decide, and then wrap the text around the box. Then I drag the graphic 
a bit and watch it redo this. Great fun. I could do this for hours...

You must try a demo of InDesign. A bit of time to readjust to it and 
then you will never think of Word for layouts again.

---
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