Hello!

I have a problem that seems strange to me. I am currently formatting a long document, where I have figures, tables, section breaks, pages in landscape or portrait mode, etc.

It was working fine, until I tried to save it as a pdf (or tried to print it). As soon as I press the print button (or the pdf one), it messes up my document. The styles of some section are completely changed.

I provided a small example (attached). Just try to save it as a pdf, or to clic 'File -> Print...', and that will be enough to change the format of the document.

When I remove the 2 section breaks, there seems to be still the same problem, so I actually have no idea what is happening.



Any idea? I might miss something very obvious.

Thanks!

Al

ps: It seems to do the same thing on Windows 7 and XP. Also, in the document I attached, the good tables and figures are not included and thus it's gonna say 'Error! Reference source not found', but what it does to the rest of the text remains the same whether or not the good figures are included or not in the document.

Attached Files

A jeter.docx (76.2 KB, 15 views)

Well, it works fine now that I've removed all the extra carriage returns in my document...

Thanks anyway!

I didn't see your reply before I posted my own...

If carriage returns were added by pressing Enter at the beginning of paragraphs, that probably explains what went wrong with the cross-references. The reason is that cross-reference (REF) fields make use of hidden bookmarks that enclose each referenced item. If you add text, or carriage returns/paragraph marks, at the beginning of a cross-referenced paragraph, the added content will end up inside the bookmark.

To work around the problem, always add text at the end of the paragraph preceding a cross-referenced/bookmarked paragraph.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Something is wrong with the cross-reference targets in the document. You should be able to print the document if you first lock the cross-reference fields, which prevents them from updating on print. Select the whole document (Ctrl+A) and then lock fields by pressing Ctrl+F11.

Later, to unlock the fields, select all again and press Ctrl+Shift+F11.

To figure out the source of trouble, further troubleshooting will be needed, though.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks Stefan! I did not know that, I am submitting my thesis in a few days, and I seem to discover more and more (bloody annoying) tricks in MS Word.

I did not know you could lock fields, that is very handy!

Thanks again!