Margins change between desktop and mobile

Anonymous
2015-10-01T18:01:52+00:00

I have taken a while to carefully sculpt an important document on desktop (my resume in fact). It took me a long time to squeeze it all onto 2 pages, adjusting the top and bottom margins, fonts, etc, to make it happen.

The strange thing is that when I look at the document on Office for Mobile (Android, Nexus 4 phone, Android 5.1.1), it overflows onto a third page and the margins look wrong, as if they are the default setting. When I save as a new document, the changes ae kept in the new document without me doing anything to insert them.

What I'm worrying about, apart from the fact that their is a format change between devices, is that if I open a document on mobile which made on desktop and then share it, I will be sending an unfaithful copy. Furthermore, it will definitely cause problems when people collaborate.

Having taken a couple of minutes to check before posting, I noticed that the new document saved on Android actually had a header inserted (I don't know why that would happen). When I remove the header, the document is now on 2 pages, but there has been a slight change (line 1 of page 2 has moved up to the bottom of page 1). I've checked - you can remove headers in Word for Android (painful but possible) but it has the same line-shift as I found on desktop.

Please, does anyone know how I can avoid Word for Android changing my document?

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-09T09:59:31+00:00

    Agreed

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-08T22:07:57+00:00

    I think that we have said all that we can say on this subject.

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  3. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-08T20:53:03+00:00

    Hi, Charles.

    ***

    If we were to send this document to another PC user, nothing would happen, but if you send it to Android then something will happen.

    ***

    Repeat:

    A Word document is not the way to transmit something you want to appear the same to the recipient as it does to the sender. Period. The anomaly you feel is there between Android and PC can also appear between PC and PC.

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-07T01:03:01+00:00

    All I have to add is that I disagree with your statement: "If we were to send this document to another PC user, nothing would happen."

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-10-06T15:34:17+00:00

    Hi, Charles.

    I remember that at one point you had opened the document on your phone and it changed the layout. I'm sure that this helped you to guide me clearly.

    Once you clearly asked me, without any other claims or statements, I did check what you asked and it did make a difference. Please don't forget, though, that the main thrust has been that there is a problem in Word for Android that MS and users should be aware of. You have been helpful in that you had clarity to see the issue of confusion and rephrased a question clearly - result, we have moved along.

    Doug has continually insisted that there was a header in my original document. I kept on talking about deleting it and he said it was there, even telling me I was seeing the special character when I wasn't. It was so frustrating to have to deal with this that, I admit, I no longer saw the wood for the trees - that's why it took a while to adjust the header distance.

    You might not wish to look at the images, but in those images is the proof of what I was saying, and anyone like an MVP with a deep interest in Word should look - there was no header in the original document and the header was inserted, with a footer, when the document was opened on Android and without a single edit. It's also helpful to note that, with the header distance set to zero as is now the case, thank you, and even though there is no visible effect on the print view of the document, Word for Android nevertheless adds elements to a document (non-displayed headers and footers).

    If we were to send this document to another PC user, nothing would happen, but if you send it to Android then something will happen. In this increasingly mobile-centric world, that is very important as people will be relying more and more on the collaborative features of Office. I don't want to work like that and will do everything possible to stay as old-fashioned as possible but it is inescapable that, if not corrected, this situation we have covered in the thread will affect people years to come and the MS answers site will be flooded with similar discussions.

    I am very grateful to everyone here, including Doug, but I believe that in that little question that you gave toward the end, you steered us all out of a bad cycle - that's why I wrote what I did.

    However, I do add my apologies to Doug for what was a very brusque post. It's never a good thing to do no matter how irritated one might feel in the morning.

    If anyone takes a look at the images, I'd be happy to continue here, but in any case I'll send a bug report to MS. At least I'll always remember to check my header distance!

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