Problem printing tables, text wrapping

(Sorry for this convoluted explanation of the problem I'm having, but this is the clearest I could explain it! If there's a way for me to upload this document somewhere for people to review, I can do that. Thanks!)

One of my co-workers is trying to print a document she created on Word 2010. The document contains several separate tables, some of which spread across the page horizontally and others that take up part of the page vertically. There are also a couple of text boxes on the page. Here's a diagram of what the page looks like (T= Table, B=text Box, Letters in BOLD are where the problems are)

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

TTTTTTTT    BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
TTTTTTTT    BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
TTTTTTTT    BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
TTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TTTTTTTT       TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

The text in Bold does not print. I believe what is happening is that, when I send the page to print, the text is somehow being moved about a line down within the table, hiding it from view. (If I make the fonts larger, I can see the very top of the text on the bottom of each cell, or if I make the text a superscript, it raises the fonts enough so it's visible when I print.) Please note that when I print the file to a PDF, I get the same result, so I'm fairly confident the problem is not with the printer.

I found a solution, but that caused a formatting problem. If I turn the text wrapping option to None, the text prints. The problem with this solution is that if I turn the text wrap off for the table on the far left, it will not let me place any of the tables or the text box to the right of it (it shifts them to the next page.) On the other hand, if I turn the text wrap off for the tables on the right hand side but leave text wrapping on for the table on the left, formatting is fine, and everything prints except for the text in the table on the left.

Any suggestions??? This is driving me bonkers!!

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Answer

Jay Freedman

I haven't tried a layout like this, but I'm not surprised to hear that it has problems. However, there is another way.

Set the table on the left to have no text wrapping. Insert a Continuous section break before the table on the left, and another one just above the last text box. With the cursor somewhere between those two section breaks, but not in any table or text box, click Page Layout > Columns > More Columns. Select 2 columns, uncheck "Equal column width", and set the width of column 1 slightly wider than the table.

Just below the table, insert a column break. In the right-hand column, set the tables to have no text wrapping; the column formatting will keep them in the proper horizontal position. You may use empty paragraph marks or one paragraph with a large Space Before to get them to the correct vertical position.

Now the only items that are not in-line are the text boxes. If there are further layout problems, you can even set their text wrapping to In-Line.

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