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
    2015-10-04T10:16:13+00:00

    Doug, you are totally right but...

    I have already stated, and I repeat: I had deleted the header before finalising the original document. I have approximately 28 years of using word processors (probably more - I just can't remember). The header did not exist in the document when it was saved on desktop - the header appeared when it was opened on Android.

    Where did I say that I had left a header in the document and set the margins to overlap the header?

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-04T11:59:14+00:00

    You did not answer the question:  When the document was viewed on the Android, was there text in the header, or, was it empty, but just taking up space?

    What were the top and bottom margin settings?  What was the distance of the header and footer from the edge of the page?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-04T13:23:09+00:00

    Doug, there was no question in your previous post with images.

    In answer to your question in the latest post:

    1. When the document was viewed on Android, there was nothing in the header.
    2. Top margin: Top 1cm; Bottom 0.75cm; Left 2cm; Right 2cm.
    3. Is there something that I'm missing here (maybe with these latest versions of Word things have changed) - if I have removed both the top and bottom margins, is there a residual dimension in the document layout that still affects the layout?

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  4. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-04T13:39:01+00:00

    Weighing in...

    1. You can never control how a Word document will appear on someone else's screen.

    What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my formatting?

    (Archive What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my formatting?)

    1. If you send as pdf, it will appear on their screen as it does on yours. It will print out the same on both.
    2. Your margins are set smaller than the default spacing for headers and footers. See previous posts.
    3. If you absolutely must send a Word document, use common fonts and wide margins. Lock all fields. It still will not be perfect but it will be better.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-10-04T15:11:43+00:00

    Charles, do you have a version of that link to which I would have access permission? I get a 403 Forbidden error.

    Edit:

    1. Charles, while waiting for your new link I have looked up your thought. I refer to, for example, this post on Microsoft Techcentre: Opening Word 2007 docs in Word 2013 and formatting is changed?? . Of course, depending the printer driver, installed fonts and other specifics, a document can look different from one machine to another - I can tell you from personal experience that this is a lot less the case now than 20 years ago. Of course this does not explain the addition of a significant formatting element (i.e. Header) from one machine to another. The formatting changes that many can experience, such as fonts and printer drivers, would explain the shift of the document by one line, and that I have not pointed out as my problem in this discussion.
    2. See previous posts, as you say.
    3. In the absence of headers and footers the margin is limited by the printer driver, not the non-existent header. Of course, if I am wrong, do tell.
    4. Thanks that is very enlightening.

    I would remind you that, when you discussed a similar matter on lawyerlist, Emma said "If I create a document using a custom template saved on my computer, and then send that document to a third party (on a non-networked computer - e.g., a client), will the styles be displayed correctly?" and you replied "Probably..."(link)

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