Document display and print preview don’t match, but preview and printout match

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My boss, a lawyer, uses a lot blank, underlined spaces in his legal documents (for signatures and such). Normally we use the underline with the Shift + Tab to create the spaces.

The lines aren’t showing up in the document while he’s in the editing screen (i.e. the normal view where you’re typing it all up), but when he goes to print preview, the lines are there. They also print out as they should.

The problem is that because he can’t see them while he’s typing, he puts new ones in, then there are weird half double underlined blank spaces in the print preview and final document in places. He’s wasting a lot of time messing with it. And he describes it as chronic.

Normally, the problem is the reverse (formatting in the document not printing).

His machine is running Windows 8 with Office 2010.

I spent some time trying to fix it but I’m lost. I haven’t found an answer to this problem anywhere else after quite a bit of time searching various combinations of keywords.

Any advice appreciated.

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The only thing I would know is to try the reveal hidden [formatting] characters while editing to see if they reappear.

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Are you using a Legal Template?
http://www.ehow.com/how_7469378_use-word-type-legal-form.html

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine/2012/march_april/get-the-most-out-of-microsoft-word.html

Some books that look helpful:
http://oregonlawpracticemanagement.com/2010/06/28/its-here-formatting-legal-documents-with-microsoft-word-2010/
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Professionals-Unveiling-Secrets-Processing/dp/061534402X

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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NotDorothy,

It pains me to hear that your boss struggles with this every time — spacing? Yikes! However, finding a way to get an attorney to take time from his practice to learn stuff is one of the great mysteries of the Universe. So maybe you could start with something a little more practical and work on the other stuff over the long-run. Are you familiar with AutoText?

Fun Fact: Word 2010 added back the AutoText functionality of Word 2003 IF you save your AutoText in the Normal.dotm template (and you will by default). Create your signature block, then select it. Press Alt+F3 to get the “Create New Building Block” dialog.

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Make sure the Gallery is set to AutoText — it should be by default. When your boss starts to type the name of the AutoText (it should be at least four characters long), he’ll get the prompt to press enter to insert the AutoText. To make it easy, tell him to make sure his cursor is where he wants the signature block before he starts typing the name of the AutoText entry.

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So you know, AutoText and Building Blocks can be managed through the Quick Parts button on the Insert tab of the ribbon:

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Hope this helps!

Best, Kim

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I’m having him try the reveal hidden text. (He went to an appointment, so I won’t know for a while whether this is the solution.)

When I looked up a how-to, I noticed that “print hidden text” is a separate check box in that menu in the site’s screenshot, so I think the lines may be printing because it’s checked, but not appearing because the show “hidden text” box isn’t checked.

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Have him do his typing in the print view instead of draft view.

Legal Users Guide to Microsoft Word

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Check the line spacing…
If the line spacing for that style is set to “exactly”, then the lines won’t show up except in print preview. Subscripts and superscripts are also cut off when viewing in a mode other than print preview. This stops lines from looking like they are 1.5 or double-spaced when [parts of] characters go above or below the baseline for text.

Changing line spacing to anything else (such as “automatic”) will allow the characters to show up in other than print preview, but some lines will look like they are spaced incorrectly; this line spacing sometimes carries through to the printed document.

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There’s another tiny issue here, and I mean that literally. The underline character is often slightly lower on the line than the underline drawn under a word or a tab. In some programs, they even have a different thickness from each other.

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Underline a few tabs, then turn underline off, and type the underline character without any space in between. (This is Times New Roman 12 pt.) You might not see the offset on your monitor set at 100% zoom, but you’ll see it when you print it out. This may explain why your method works and his doesn’t.

One other possibility is that it’s not Word but his hardware. Does he have a different monitor? If you open one of his documents on your computer, are the lines missing?

Can you post one of his (sanitized) documents? And one of yours, too, for comparison?

Kim

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