I have pasted an ASCII diagram to 2 docx files with the same properties (font, size ...). But what surprised me was that I got a different result. In b.docx, lines are aligned, while in a.docx, they are not. I observed that the whitespace's width is different. Can somebody help me to change some settings on a.docx, so that it can work like b.docx? I mean, all the lines of an ASCII diagram can be aligned auto when I paste it in.

Attached Files

	a.docx (18.8 KB, 13 views)
	b.docx (41.9 KB, 11 views)

I found a similar issue here but no answer yet.
- https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/...ite-space.html

I also tried with office 2003 and 2016, both have the same problem. Word Online has no such a issue.

Looks like it has something to do with the age of the file and the version of Word it was originally created with.

I was able to fix the problem as follows:

Click File > Options > Advanced

Scroll down to the Compatibility options for section

Next to Lay out this document as if created in, click on Custom and select Microsoft 2013-2021 from the drop-down menu

Click OK

Good point! Since I don't have a newer version of word, I have done the following experiment. I created a new doc with Word Online, and then pasted the ASCII diagram into the doc, unfortunately, it still presented with a wrong width.

It is not compatibility mode. I opened both and updated them to the latest document structure without changing the differences. It may be embedded fonts.
An examination of the XML of the two should show the differences. However, life is short and I am not that curious.

I agree that it is not the overall Compatibility Mode feature; when I upsaved a copy, the issue remained.

Embedding fonts would make the file size much larger, even if including only those that are used in the document.

Round-tripping the file to .doc, .xml, and .odt and back to .docx did not shake out the issue.

I went back take another look, because I'm a glutton, and this time, instead of changing Custom to Word 2013-2021, I unticked the only custom setting in the list -- Use Word 2010 table style rules -- then OK. No change.

So I went back in to Compatibility options for, changed Word 2013-2021 back to Custom, then ticked Use Word 2010 table style rules again, then OK. That also fixed the problem.

I think that the OP's Word is somehow messing with the settings, but how or why is behind my limited knowledge of XML.

The only difference I see in Reveal Formatting is the hint of a Times New Roman pre-existing in the one Normal style.

Attached Images

reveal_format.jpg (123.4 KB, 16 views)

On my machine, with the file showing variable sizes (a.docx) I went to File > Options and saw the Compatibility options show layout set to Word 2010. If I change this to Word 2013-2016, the spacing resolves to align the monospacing correctly.

I can then change it back to Word 2010 without the problem presenting itself again so I can only surmise that there was some hidden setting that is resolved by switching layout compatibility settings.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

You are right, it did solve the probem. Although I still don't understand why, you helped me a lot, thanks.
It would be appreciated if anyone could give a further explanation.

When I open the file in Word 2010, one of the activated layout options is "Balance SBCS and DBSC characters" - unticking it fixes the problem.

I did a little searching and found that this option is for Asian character sets, which use DBSC, or double-byte character sets (DBCS - Wikipedia).

I think you've got Word set up to handle Asian characters, or perhaps you're actually in Asia, and your version of Word is set up to handle this type of thing out-of-the-box. In fact, looking at the XML again, I can see that Simplified Chinese is listed in settings and styles files.

When you've been creating brand new files using Word Online and you're not having the problem, maybe the online program isn't setting Asian-language attributes in the file, or maybe pasting into the only program is excluding the attributes that are causing issues on the desktop version.

Excellent! I think this is the root cause. Thanks again.