Looking for some help. My document's vertical line spacing is different when opened on my two computers even though every setting I can find is identical (including printer).

I have printed a page to "Microsoft print to PDF." Everything is identical except that the space between lines of text is slightly larger when opened on my desktop. Page was printed on the same printer.

This is the very same file opened on each of the two computer which I have edited on both computers many times in the past. Now, suddenly, they display differently. The 246 page document (as previously published) is now 294 pages when opened on my desktop.

I have verified the following on both computers:
1. All font settings are identical, including advanced.
2. All paragraph settings are identical, including advanced.
3. The versions of Word are identical.
4. The printer settings are identical.
5. All margins and layout settings are identical including gutter.
6. Every line of text and every blank line are identical.
7. Both machines are Windows 10.
8. Fonts are all installed and have been fine during past edits on both machines.



Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

• Why has my page layout changed when I open my document on a different machine? by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP
• What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my formatting?
• What must we do to ensure that one and the same document is displayed - Microsoft Community

What you are seeing is far from unusual.

I suspect that the above links will tell you what is happening, why, and what you can do about it. If not, please write back and possibly attach a sample document giving you problems. Tell us what you have tried (specifics, not "everything").

How to attach a screenshot or file in this forum.

Charles Kenyon

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, the links were no help. I had already checked everything they suggested.

I know that this symptom is common but something is very strange about mine. First, I have been using these two machines for over five years while working on the manuscript that is displaying the problem. I was just correcting a two small grammatical errors when I encountered the problem.

I'm pretty good with Word and have checked every setting that I can imagine and have gone line by line the first few pages. I can find absolutely no difference except the spacing is different on the resulting document.

I actually created my final document for publishing on the problem machine earlier this year. Everything was fine then. I have made no changes to the machine or Word.

Here is the list again of what I have checked:
I have verified the following on both computers:
1. All font settings are identical, including advanced.
2. All paragraph settings are identical, including advanced.
3. The versions of Word are identical.
4. The printer settings are identical.
5. All margins and layout settings are identical including gutter.
6. Every line of text and every blank line are identical.
7. Both machines are Windows 10.
8. Fonts are all installed and have been fine during past edits on both machines.

Thank you again.

Charles Kenyon

I should add, I spent the past five years bouncing between these two machines writing my manuscript with zero problems. I published earlier this year. Today I am just adding a couple of commas when I encountered the problem. Again, no changes to the machine at all. I'm baffled.

Thank you

Does the problem arise if you start Word in safe mode?
Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC - Microsoft Office

Does the problem document have the attribute to update styles from the template?

No, Word is not in safe mode.

I really appreciate the ideas but it's no to the second question as well.

Ugh, I'm frustrated.

I have created a document to illustrate the problem. It was made by editing the original document so all of the properties are identical to my original problem document. It was created on my laptop.

It displays and prints as one page on my laptop which matches what my book printer sees. On my desktop it displays and prints as two pages (see PDFs). As I mentioned earlier, the document displayed identically until a few days ago.

The PDFs were created using Microsoft print to PDF.

Thank you in advance.

Attached Files

	Spacing Test.docx (90.1 KB, 11 views)
	Laptop printed as PDF.pdf (105.7 KB, 12 views)
	Desktop printed as PDF.pdf (121.4 KB, 8 views)

Are both machines set to the same default printer (via Windows > Settings), and if so, do both machines have the same version of the default printer driver?

Word uses the default printer to determine how to lay out the text of a document - the driver describes the area of a page, in which Word adds content. When two computers have different default printers, you can end up with small variances in layout and in print output. (For example, when inspecting your test PDFs in Acrobat Pro, I can see that the desktop version has line spacing of 1.59, while the desktop version has 1.38.)

Note that even if you use the same printer to create a printed or PDF'd document -- in your case, Microsoft's PDF distiller -- the default printer setting is still affecting how Word lays out the document.

In the past, I have seen issues with two users with the same version of Word viewing/printing the same file and getting different page counts due to spacing driven by default drivers, as well as small font-size variations (0.2 pt) when PDFing the same file (with the same PDF program). (The font size in both of your PDFs is the same.)

Try setting a fixed value for Line Spacing and see if that improves the situation.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Peterson and Stefan Blom

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was a way for the weekend.

Yes, the default printer is the same on both machines.

The line spacing is fixed.

Thank you for taking the time to help though.

Today I tried a little experiment. I changed the default printer to four different printers. The document displayed and printed identically. No change at all in line spacing.

This is a computer that I used when creating the manuscript over the period of a year starting in 2017 and then made multiple edits since that time. It is only now that the problem has occurred. I am the only user and I have made no changes to the machine.

Things I haven't mentioned: I am an electronics engineer so I do understand the hardware involved very well. Also, the laptop which displays and prints properly is having serious hardware issues. So, I may soon be left without a computer on which to edit my manuscript.

That means I am becoming a little desperate. If anyone has another idea I would greatly appreciate it. And, thank you again to those who have tried to help!

Sahboonim,

I feel your frustration. Sometimes it's almost impossible to pinpoint what's going on in the document or the hardware that can address these problems.

I did open your Word doc that you posted, and I note that what jumped out at me with Reveal Formatting on is that you have Character Spacing condensed by 0.1 point in the body, and condensed by 0.05 pt in the heading. and a Shading of Clear (White) behind the text. I'm wondering whether you have done a deep dive into the formatting by using (SHIFT + F1) to Reveal Formatting and nosing through each section of your page.

Also, I do see that the heading has a fixed spacing (1.5 lines) and the main body is set to Multiple 1.1.

Maybe try turning the condensing off and seeing whether that is a factor. And, I'm not sure whether the highlighting behind a paragraph adds anything to the spacing?

Have you considered copying your "normal" template from one machine to the other?

Just some guesses,

Ann

In your sample document, the Line Spacing is NOT set to "Exactly," so it certainly hasn't been set to a fixed value.

Any variable spacing (Single, Double, Multiple 1.08 etc.) means that the actual spacing between text lines may vary depending on the computer, operating system and printer drivers.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hello Stefan Blom,

Thank you for responding again.

I never indicated that I had set the spacing "Exactly." I did state that the settings were identical on both computers. That included all paragraph, font, and printer settings.

I understand what you are pointing out and I know that it can be a valid concern for my situation. I know that I can probably replicate the document by setting the spacing exactly but that will require a lot of editing time. I have found that a setting of 14.4 pt will do the trick for a paragraph or a page but changing the style for the main body did not work out.

Because I have been editing this manuscript on both computers for the past few years I am going to continue to try to find out why one of the computers has changed. That may not be possible but I will still try.

On future documents I may be able to avoid this problem by setting the spacing to "Exactly" as you have pointed out. Thank you for that.

Actually, you did state in another message in this thread that you had tried setting the Line Spacing to "Exactly."

September 27:

Peterson and Stefan Blom

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was a way for the weekend.

Yes, the default printer is the same on both machines.

The line spacing is fixed.

Thank you for taking the time to help though.

However, there are many factors involved and basically Word doesn't provide full control over the appearance of a page.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional