Word 2010 corrupts Word 2007 tables

Topic

New Reply

I have some one-page documents that use Word tables extensively for formatting. I created the documents in Word 2007 on a Win 7 computer. I copied these docs over to another Win 7 computer that has Word 2010.

When I open the docs in Word 2010 on the 2nd computer, the table formatting has changed and the doc no longer fits on one page. I can see that the row heights are taller; there is a large space above the text in each cell, and I don’t know where that is coming from. I checked these settings on both versions:

Paragraph formatting:
Spacing, before & after, is 0.
Line Spacing is Single

Table formatting:
Cell Margin, top & bottom, is 0.
Row Specify Height box is NOT checked.

One example of the problem: In Word 2007, the row heights are .18″. In 2010, the row heights become .29″.

I tried changing the 2010 row heights to what they are in the 2007 version, but 2010 seems to preserve that space at the top of each cell, and the actual text in the cell is no longer visible.

This problem happens whether I save the file in Word 2007 as a .doc or .docx file.

Also tried searching for others reporting the same problem, and either it hasn’t happened to anybody else, or I’m not phrasing the search well.

I’m usually able to resolve problems like this, but this one has me stumped. I’d sure appreciate any ideas or help!

Thank you.

Jan

Reply | Quote

Replies

Hi Jan,

Check whether the document has its ‘automatically update document Styles’ property checked (Developer>Document Template). If so, the issue might be that it is reformatting to document to conform with the template Styles on the host PC.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote

Thanks Paul. I see that you responded within minutes! I just got back here now.

Both docs (2010 and 2007) do not have ‘automatically update document Styles’ property checked. I’ve also been checking the Styles used in the docs, and they look the same so far. But on the 2010 version, the Normal template is the same, paragraph formatting is the same, and it behaves as if I use Paragraph Spacing Before = 12.

Any other ideas anyone?

Thank you.

Reply | Quote

The simplest solution would be to turn off the ‘automatically update document Styles’ option – at the origin.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Reply | Quote

Check the defaults (Styles pane > Manage styles > Set defaults). Make sure that the settings in the defaults and those in the normal paragraph style are the same.

Reply | Quote

Well, it turned out that it was not the tables causing the problems. It was the font I was using: Lucida Sans. I finally just revised about 4 of the docs to use Arial, and the problem is gone. I have no idea why this happened.

Thanks Paul and Pam for your efforts!
Jan

Reply | Quote