Text in MS Word X had weird spacing

[MattG]

I'm trying to figure out why the spacing between letters looks so strange. It shows up like this in Print Previews, as well as on actual printed documents.

I took a screen shot so you can see what I mean:

See how it looks like there's a space between the 'n' and 't' in "Students," between the 'e' and 'd' in "identified," and the 'o' and 'n' in "contact?" There isn't actually a space, that's just how it's rendered. Why is it doing this? The weird thing is, if I go and open this document up in MS Word for Windows, everything looks (and prints) fine. I'm using a regular Arial font (and I've tried several different fonts--it does this no matter what).

Is there a way to fix this?

 

[russed]

i have noticed that but on mine it appears to come out normally in print!

 

[JFreak]

word is just crap. learn indesign and use it instead. you'll love it.

 

[bennetsaysargh]

i've realized this problem at home and in school. i guess they didn't fix it yet.

 

[aricher]

I agree with JFreak - Word is crap (every try to push a place photo around in Word?) But not everyone has the need (or cash) for InDesign or Quark. In my office I do all my hardcore page layout in I.D. or Quark but all the PC monkeys always give me their PowerPoint or Word docs to fix.

I get MattG's sort of problem in PowerPoint and Word all the time - usually when I get documents that were originally created on a PC. I chalk up my problems to font differences between the PC and Mac versions of Office - most people in my office are still using PC Off. 98 while I'm on Off. X. Anyone else have this problem - any fixes? I've already tried reinstalling and activating all the fonts included on the Off. X disk.

 

[Awimoway]

Word is not crap. It is a fine word processor. InDesign and Quark are layout programs. I would kill myself if I had to do word processing in a layout program.

This problem has been around for a very long time. I remember when I was in high school, ten years ago, that the Macs used for the school paper did this all the time. It was very disorienting and one of those little things that convinced me that Macs were garbage. Thank God I eventually changed my mind.

 

[stoid]

I have this problem all the time. It's a flaw in the way MS Word renders on screen text. It should print out just fine. Maybe the next version of Office will fix this?

 

[JFreak]

Word is not crap. It is a fine word processor. InDesign and Quark are layout programs. I would kill myself if I had to do word processing in a layout program.

if word is not considered a layout program, then why on earth people are not using textedit for producing plain text? it is an excellent text editor! there just is not a thing missing in producing text with it, and if its layout capabilites are not enough, then the next step up is definetely a layout program, because it most definetely is enough for plain word processing.

as a layout program, word just plainly sucks. as a text editor it is just too bloated. it is good in nothing and sucks in everything it tries to do.

why not do produce text in textedit and make the layout in indesign, if you are so much killing yourself in typing text into indesign. i have no problem in doing that (producing text in indesign), but when i ask someone else make text in my documents, i certainly don't want them sending me a word document. a plain-text ascii file is always the best option in transferring text. it just takes ages to clean a word document into usable form.

to repeat myself: word sucks. there's nothing good in it, except compatiblity with word documents. that itself is nothing worthy of praise, but currently vast majority uses word format for some unknown reason that's only justified by stupidity.

 

[Awimoway]

as a layout program, word just plainly sucks. as a text editor it is just too bloated.

I freely concede that it sucks as a layout program, and I use InDesign/Quark for that. But a lot of people can't afford and don't need Word AND a major professional layout program. Besides, one man's bloatware is another man's tools. I find Word's advanced find and replace features, its macros, and other text editing features very useful.

You do it your way. I'll do it mine.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Word 2004 Features

I have this problem all the time. It's a flaw in the way MS Word renders on screen text. It should print out just fine. Maybe the next version of Office will fix this?

That could be one of the new 'features'!!!!

Word 2004
* Notebook layout view
* Record audio directly into your word documents
* Improved font rendering on screen

I am sold, I got to have the next version.

 

[zamyatin]

if word is not considered a layout program, then why on earth people are not using textedit for producing plain text? it is an excellent text editor! there just is not a thing missing in producing text with it, and if its layout capabilites are not enough, then the next step up is definetely a layout program, because it most definetely is enough for plain word processing.

as a layout program, word just plainly sucks. as a text editor it is just too bloated. it is good in nothing and sucks in everything it tries to do.

why not do produce text in textedit and make the layout in indesign, if you are so much killing yourself in typing text into indesign. i have no problem in doing that (producing text in indesign), but when i ask someone else make text in my documents, i certainly don't want them sending me a word document. a plain-text ascii file is always the best option in transferring text. it just takes ages to clean a word document into usable form.

to repeat myself: word sucks. there's nothing good in it, except compatiblity with word documents. that itself is nothing worthy of praise, but currently vast majority uses word format for some unknown reason that's only justified by stupidity.

Agreed. TextEdit does 90% of the tasks that most people end up using MS Word to do. And since it's free with OS X, I cannot justify not using it! MS Word is grotesquely expensive, and for little benefit. OpenOffice on OS X is good enough now to supplant MS Word (for skilled users such as those on this forum), and is only getting better. Within about two years, it will probably have a majority share of the Mac word processing/spreadsheet/presentation market. (Try NeoOffice/J for now, www.neooffice.org/java/)

 

[Windowlicker]

word is just crap.

well, if it's not crap, at least it's light years away from the Apple-easy-to-use.. I used to like apple works much more, but now i'm kind of forced to use office. I don't think it sucks, but it could be so much better. I wish apple released their own office package. then nothing could beat a mac.. people would not only get their own media center (iLife) and all the other nice stuff (such as mail.app, address book, iCal, Safari...), but also an office package.

wasn't there some talk about iWrite or something like that months ago?

 

[MattG]

i have noticed that but on mine it appears to come out normally in print!

Unfortunately that's not the case for me. Prints the same way it appears on the screen.

Does anyone in here have any experience using Appleworks? How well do Appleworks files translate into Word docs? I don't have a problem using Appleworks, however when the time comes when a coworker needs to edit one of my docs, he/she needs to be able to open it in Word for Windows.

 

[Sdgngrl]

Word Does Not Suck

Every time I hear someone complain that Word sucks and I find out why someone believes this is true, I discover that the person simply does not know how to operate Word properly. Don't feel bad; it takes years of extensive usage to become a pro, but you would be terribly surprised at how much the program is capable of, if you know how it works and how it handles various processes.