Word prints Outline-View-only paragraph formatting to printer

[IndexTurret]

Hey Microsoft, this sure appears to be a bug to me. Don't have time to
navigate your labyrinthine universe of websites to figure out a better place
to report it.
I send my outlined document (in which most paragraphs are Heading styles,
thus forming an outline easily edited in Outline View) to my printer, and
instead of printing with the correct paragraph formatting (that is, what
Print Preview shows), it prints on paper with the paragraph formatting that's
SUPPOSED to be only on-screen when in outline view (single-spaced, no hanging
indent, left indent set artificially based on outline level). That on-screen,
Outline-View-only paragraph formatting is NOT supposed to go to the printer!

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...5&dg=microsoft.public.word.application.errors

 

[Beth Melton]

This isn't a bug, it's actually a feature.

The ability to print an outline for a document is a big request so if you
print directly from Outline View that's what you get. Perhaps if you had a
better idea of how this is typically used that would help you see the
feature aspect. Collapse your outline to say, Level 2 so you see only
Heading 1 and Heading 2 and send the document to the printer. The result is
a printed outline of your document and can make a handy reference.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[IndexTurret]

Oh! I see. That makes sense. So it is a feature after all. However, this
means that I can't send docs to the printer directly from a file-mgmt app
like Win Explorer or PowerDesk (using right-click>Print) and have them print
the "correct" way. I have to open each one individually and change View to
Print Layout, then print from within Word. I guess there's no help for that.
Ah well. Thanks for giving me a reasonable rationale for why it's the way it
is. Makes sense.

 

[Beth Melton]

I suspect once you saw how handy it can actually be you'd understand that it
is indeed a feature, but, Oy! I realize what you are encountering now. Yeah,
if the document has been saved in Outline View then Word will open the file
and issue the Print command and you end up with a printed Outline view.

You could head over to one of the Word VBA newsgroups and see if anyone has
a sample macro you can modify that will loop through all of the documents in
a folder, open them, switch the view, and then save and close if you think
that will help. This is fairly simple to do.

Also note if all you are doing is opening a document and changing the view
this change will not be saved. You need to modify the document content in
some way, such as type a space and then press Backspace.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/