Word is sticking words together

Is this a document created in an older version of Word? In that case, the following thread may apply (see the reply marked as Answer):

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/word-2010-randomly-deleting-spaces-between-words/34682f6f-7be2-4835-9c18-907b0abd5615

Thank you for your quick answer. 

Honestly, I can't remember if this specific document that I encounter problems with is created in an older version. I read the answers you suggested, but is too much technical information in a foreign language for me so I'm not quite sure what to do next. Should I enable/disable XPS Document Writer, as the last answer suggests?

But I have Office 2013. Maybe it is indeed a document created in an older version of Word, and if it's affected...

Thank you for your reply!

Rereading GrayKnowlton's reply in the thread that I linked to, there is no fix for documents that have already been affected, unfortunately.

However, note that if the problem is temporary in the sense that a document may exhibit the problem and it gets fixed if you close and reopen it, then the underlying cause is most likely the printer driver. In such cases, it has been reported that exiting Word, deleting temporary files (see http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm and work through the steps even if Word hasn't crashed recently) and restarting will fix the problem. As a long term solution, try updating the printer driver.

Unfortunately, the problem shows up even if I close and reopen the document. I tried to create a new document and paste the text from the old one, but I can't figure it out yet if it solved my problem because it's a large document. I will see it in time.

Anyways, thank you for your kindness,

Johanna

Are you allowed to share one of the problem documents? In that case, upload it to OneDrive or Dropbox, make the file public and post a link here.

I only have one document with this problem so far. I've shorten it and uploaded to Dropbox.

Here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mak3882g9dbi5s/Communication.docx?dl=0

:)

Johanna

I didn't see anything strange when opening the document on my system.

If you test with a different default printer, does that improve the situation?

Since this issue has not been resolved, I have now unmarked my first post as the Answer.

Ioana, since you say the problem is still not fixed, as the original poster you SHOULD remove the "Answer" flag. It was turned on by one of the MS "Engineers"/moderators.  They seem to have a goal in life of marking every question as answered.  Look at the bottom of the reply marked "answer", you should see a link saying "unmark answer" Just click on it.

I also opened your example file in Word 2010 and 2016 and did not see the problem you are having.  So obviously there is a difference in the way our machines are configured.

After trying a different printer as Stefan has suggestion, if that does not help, try starting Word in Safe Mode:

Don’t assume some part of the trouble shooting processes listed below doesn’t apply to you. Often there are things going on in the background that you just aren’t aware of. For example, when installing software it is all too easy to have an unwanted app installed if you don’t carefully read every screen.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Work-with-Office-safe-modes-dedf944a-5f4b-4afb-a453-528af4f7ac72