Printer metrics (for John again)


*  I disagree with your advice to turn off "Use printer metrics".  Word will
repaginate every time the printer changes anyway, but if you don't use
printer metrics, the user won't be able to see the precise effect.  Word
will use the printer metrics at print time, and what they get won't be the
same as what they saw on screen.

From Microsoft's online documentation "Description of the Compatibility
Options that are available in the Options dialog box in Word 2003, Word 2002, and Word 2000":

"Use printer metrics to lay out document: If this option is selected, Word uses the information from the printer driver that is installed, as in some earlier versions of Word. If this option is turned off (default), Word uses built-in metrics to lay out the document. This means your document looks the same, no matter what printer driver is installed."

Word's default behavior since at least Word 97-98 has been NOT to reformat according to your specific printer. But many long-time Word users still haven't caught on, because they're using old templates that have this outdated option still checked in their Compatibility Options, and this is transferred to all new documents based on those templates.

This is one of the reasons I now advise Word users to clear all (or nearly all) Compatibility Options from their templates whenever they move to a new Word version. Otherwise, you're laboring under less desirable legacy behavior -- in this case, about a decade old!

Aaron



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