Document vs. Print Preview (97)

Topic

New Reply

i have a very frustrating problem

excel is printing data in a different configuration than is displayed in the document. it seems like when i go to preview, it shifts the columns or something to change the amount of text that will fit on each line. the printer prints what is in the preview, and not what is on the screen. we have 4 different printers, and all of them do the same thing. other users have experienced a similar problem with excel. what can be done to fix this problem? to me it seems like an excel problem, and not a printer problem, since all 4 of the printers preview the same incorrect formatting.

one other thing, i am using all arial 10 pt font. i have tried many different fonts and sizes, and all show differently than the preview. please help!!!!

thanks in advance
accessman

Reply | Quote

Replies

AccessMan

I guess if this was MS-Access then you would be answering the questions Hum… OK lets get to business.

1) Try and select a smaller print area. On the worksheet in question, select from the File Menu, Print Preview. Or hit the Print Preview button on the toolbar, this will get you the page breaks that Excel things should be used.
2) If you don’t see any marks on some borders of cells, these are the page breaks, THEN… You have set the page to print without any zooming.
2a) Goto into Print Preview and on the Choose setup from the buttons on the top, and then activate the Page tab and check if you have Fit to xxx Page(s) wide by yyy Tall and uncheck it and try and print.

But again if this does not work, tell me what printer driver you are using, and if you can send me a copy of the workbook, that would be fine.

Wassim

Reply | Quote

wassim
thanks for your reply
perhaps i was not very good at explaining exactly what my problem was. i will try to better this time.

the problem does not seem to be with the page setup, margins or print area. what seems to be happening is that all of the columns seem to be widening a bit (or the text seems to be narrowing a bit) causing more text to fit on each line. {if this reply was done right, there should be a picture of 4 samples of my problem below}

the first is a picture of one area of my spreadsheet during document editing. the second is the same area in print preview (notice the text has shifted). the same is true for the lower two, an area on the same spreadsheet, more towards the center of the printed page.

it doesn’t seem to be a printer driver issue, because it messes up for all 4 of our printers, and on several people’s computers.

please help!!

thanks in advance
AccessMan
(Office 97)

Reply | Quote

AccessMan

Try and use Hard CRs in your cells. If you want to break the line(s) the way you want them to look, try Alt+Enter and this will give you a new line where you place it.

Excel is trying to print the document the way it sees fit, the column widths are not matching what is on screen and what gets printed, so you see the changes.

Excel BTW uses two different drivers for the screen and the printer…

Wassim

Reply | Quote

wassim
thanks again
i don’t neccessarily want lines to break in any given place, i just want to avoid a small word (1 or 2 letters or something) to hang at the end on the next line. i just want to be able to work on something that will be the final output.

is there a way to make excel print what it sees???

this should not be happening!! is there a driver fix or something? i am tired of catering to microsoft programs by doing things wrong so the program interprets them correctly. i would imagine many other people feel the same way.

thanks
AccessMan

Reply | Quote

AccessMan

You could try and check the MSKB and see if you find any info there.

Also you can order the latest version of Excel 97 I think it is SR-2 (J) but that would mean you have to update EVERYONE’s PCs, and this may not be feasible.

Also you can try and get the updated drivers for your printer(s). You know once you buy software that is the beginning of the trip and not the end of it, so you need to keep things curent.

I also would suggest that you give us info about your hardware and software, and OS to make a reply worthwhile.

Try and make all columns wide enough so that you eliminate this from the conflict.

Best of luck…

Wassim

Reply | Quote

I have had this problem, and have no solution: Excel 97 is not truly exactly WYSIWYG. You may want to look at the Format Cells, Wrap and Shrink to Fit options, and the Format Column Autofit option and see if some combination of these eliminates your problem.

Reply | Quote

john
thank you for being someone who has had this problem before. not real thrilled about your reply, but i guess i will just have to make due.

thanks again
Accessman

Reply | Quote

I have become a big fan of Page Break Previewing my print documents. Have you worked with that view of things? It can be accessed from within Print Preview. There is also a Toolbar button you can add to the toolbar. Anyway, try that. You can mess with the columns and drag page break lines and see perhaps a little more. Then do a Print Preview. I wonder if the WYSIWYG has problems with there being bold settings within cells?

Reply | Quote

Hi,
According to Q163621 on the MSKB, this is a known issue:
SYMPTOMS
When you print or preview a worksheet, the column widths fail to be printed or appear as they appear on the screen in normal view.

CAUSE
Depending on the fonts you use, column widths and row heights may appear differently when you print or view a worksheet in print preview. This behavior occurs when you use proportionally spaced fonts, such as a proportional TrueType font.

This problem does not occur when you use monospace fonts (fonts with fixed widths), such as Courier New. The discrepancy in font metrics is a function of how Microsoft Windows reports the font information to Microsoft Excel.

WORKAROUND
To work around the column width problem, use either of the following methods.

Method 1: Use a Monospace Font

Select the cells that contain the data. On the Format menu, click Cells.

In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Font tab and select a monospace font, such as Courier New.

Method 2: Manually Resize the Column

Drag the boundary on the right side of the column heading until the column is the width you want.

-or-

Select the column you want to resize, point to Column on the Format menu and click Width. Type a smaller number and click OK.

On the File menu, click Print Preview to preview the page.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 as necessary until the column appears correctly.

Hope that helps.

Reply | Quote

rory
thanks for your reply. i have just recently found that same article. that is exactly the problem i am having. however, i have also tried both workarounds, only to find that neither of them work. i have tried txt and courier new fonts, neither of which worked.
the second workaround suggests sizing the column… does this mean checking the print preview each time you resize to see what the results will be? this is not very productive.

anyway, thanks to everyone who has put time into helping me with this problem. don’t know what i’ll do next

Accessman

Reply | Quote

You can adjust the margins from within the PrintPreview window but I agree, it’s not a great workaround!
Can you not put it into Access (or is that where it came from?)
After some brief experimentation (no guarantees here), have you tried setting the alignment to Left (Indent) with an indent of 1? So far my previews all look like my originals….

Later…..
…no, it was pure coincidence – sorry!

Reply | Quote

hmm..
you had me going there… i tried the left indent format, and every one i tried seemed to work… however, then i tried several at once, and i started to see that things didn’t work right there either. i tried it with courier new font as well – no luck. adjusting the margins in the print preview helps a little, but not the most favorable solution. maybe it will have to do for now.

i created this in excel, not access, and i don’t think it can be put into access. it is a very complicated chart showing diseases and treatments, with many different sizes of cells. i don’t think access is that flexible in spreadsheet form. perhaps in a report or something, but i am not sure (many of the cells are quite large as well)

thanks for your input

Accessman

Reply | Quote

Just a thought.

From the samples you included earlier, it looks as though Excel may not be the ideal application for this. If the document is just formatted text, you might look at Word, or, if you are using lookups in Excel, you might find Access reports a better solution. In either case, it should not be too much work to move things from Excel.

Reply | Quote