BUG!! Word 2016 fails to print margins correctly / messes up layout (Possible OpenType .otf Font bug)

Anonymous
2015-11-26T19:37:16+00:00

Hallo everyone,

I am having severe problems with Word 2016, as it does not print the document layout correctly as it somehow messes up the margin when printing.

NOTE: This happens when printing to Adobe Acrobat DC and my physical printer!

My document layout:

• no markup,

• custom margins (set to 1,27cm top / bottom and left / right - my printer can easily handle these...)

• no header or footer

• paper size set to A4 in all settings

IMAGE 1

The following is picture shows page 1 of my document in "Print Layout"-view. This is how I want the document to look when printed.

IMAGE 2

Here is a picture of the Print-preview menu. You can see that the Print preview still shows the document exactly as I want it. No problems. No funny settings selected. No "Print Markup" selected.

IMAGE 3

Now this is what happens when I print the actual document:

The bottom margin changes and suddenly the whole layout is messed up!

Please advise whether this a bug, or some setting I seem to wrongfully configure.

This is really annoying as I sometimes spend hours to get the layout and spacing in a document right, but then when it comes to printing the document, everything is messed up.

Thank you.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-01-01T16:28:02+00:00

    The option to "Use printer metrics to lay out document" is a Layout Option (Compatibility Option) that is available in Word 2013 and 2016 only if you set the document compatibility to Word 2010, which you can do with this simple procedure:

    1. Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA Editor.
    2. Press Ctrl+G to get to the Immediate window.
    3. In that window, type

              ActiveDocument.SetCompatibilityMode 14

    and press Enter. 4. Close the VBA Editor to return to the document. 5. Go to File | Options | Advanced: Compatibility options and set "Lay out this document as if created in" to "Microsoft Word 2010." 6. You will now see additional layout options that include "Use printer metrics..." Check that box. 7. Click OK to exit.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-30T12:07:51+00:00

    I had this problem and found this worked:

    In Word 2016 - Go to File, Options, then Advanced.  In the printing section, uncheck the tickbox to scale content with A4 or letter sized paper.

    Hope this helps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-30T14:05:34+00:00

    This fixes the problem.  Drove me nuts!!

    Check "Use printer metrics to lay out document"

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  4. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-11-26T22:51:04+00:00

    What are the settings for the header and footer margins? At File | Options | Advanced | Print, what is the status of the check box for "Scale content for A4 or 8.5 x 11" paper sizes. I can't think how either of these would be relevant, however.

    Since the line breaks appear to be the same, in order to get more content on the page, the printer must be reducing the line spacing. If this appeared just in physical printing, I would advise checking the printer Property settings, but if it occurs in printing to PDF as well, then it is just a mystery. What is the default paper size setting in Acrobat? If you look at the Print dialog in Acrobat, what size does it say the document is?

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-01-24T15:39:47+00:00

    The option to "Use printer metrics to lay out document" is a Layout Option (Compatibility Option) that is available in Word 2013 and 2016 only if you set the document compatibility to Word 2010, which you can do with this simple procedure:

    1. Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA Editor.
    2. Press Ctrl+G to get to the Immediate window.
    3. In that window, type

              ActiveDocument.SetCompatibilityMode 14

    and press Enter. 4. Close the VBA Editor to return to the document. 5. Go to File | Options | Advanced: Compatibility options and set "Lay out this document as if created in" to "Microsoft Word 2010." 6. You will now see additional layout options that include "Use printer metrics..." Check that box. 7. Click OK to exit.

    Is there anyway to make this permanent for all Word documents - or all Office 2016 documents?

    We have a user on version 1708 (8431.2153 Click to Run) who has the issue of what she sees is not what printed and need a solution.

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