Word document unreadable except in Reading Layout. 1

[G0AOZ]

Word 2003 user recently got email'd a Word document which opened fine in Reading Layout, but is mostly unreadable if saved directly to the hard drive and then opened.

What gives here?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[TonyJollans]

I think a little more detail would help. What does 'mostly unreadable' mean? Do you see little squares or blank space or foreign characters or what?

After opening the attachment in reading layout what happens when you close reading layout? Is the document readable then?


Enjoy,
Tony

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[G0AOZ]

User has received one document consisting of eight A4 sized pages. Initially opened it in Reading Layout, all pages ok. Closed Reading Layout. Saved document to local hard drive, then opened with Word 2003 and found first two pages virtually blank save for a few very short lines (probably hyphens) and three bullet point marks. The text on the remaining six pages had been condensed right down into a very small font style now only covering two pages! None of the eight pages appear to show any hyphens or bullet point markers when viewed in Reading Layout.

Incidentally, I've been told that this same eight page document also displays in a very similar way under Word 2007 on another machine.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[TonyJollans]

How do you know it's eight A4 pages? Have you ever seen it that way (that isn't what reading layout shows)?

When you close reading layout, the document should then be displayed in normal view or print view - how does it look then? (before being saved).

If the same effect happens on another machine (with another copy of the document?) it sounds like that's the way the document has been created - or somehow corrupted (perhaps in the mail).

Enjoy,
Tony

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We want to help you; help us to do it by reading this: Before you ask a question.

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[G0AOZ]

Ok, more info...

As I said, it's come attached to an e-mail, so user opens the e-mail (in Outlook 2003) and double-clicks on the Word attachment. User is presented with a box headed Opening Mail Attachment, which states, "You should only open attachments from a trustworthy source" etc. Two buttons lower down, Open and Save.

Clicking on Open runs a virus scan and opens the document in Reading Layout, two pages at a time, side by side. I initially thought it said Page 1 of 8, Page 2 of 8, etc., but it actually says Screen 1 of 8, Screen 2 of 8, etc. The document's contents appears to flow (logically) from screen 1 to screen 8.

If this is now closed, and the attachment clicked on again but this time the Save button is pressed, the document can be saved to the hard drive. But upon subsequently opening this saved document, the first two pages are virtually blank other than for a few hyphens and those bullet point marks, and some of the latter information in the document previously visible is now scrunched up in a very small typeface on the remaining page.

If I go to Tools, Options, General, and untick Allow starting in Reading Layout, and then open the attachment, it produces the same blank pages as if I had opened the previously saved document from the hard drive.

Does that make it any clearer?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[G0AOZ]

And yet more info...

User can do a cut 'n' paste from Reading Layout. However, pasting it into a new Word document just produces more lines, hyphens, etc. No readable text.

But if it's pasted into, say, Wordpad, it's fine. All nicely readable.

Bizarre or what...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[tf1]

Would you confirm that the Outlook option to use Word as its email editor is set?

What happens if you don't open the document at all: just right-click the attachment and choose Save. Does it save with a doc extension? If it is then opened from within Word, is it still the same jumble?


Regards: tf1

 

[fumei]

Yes, I would like to know the answers to those questions.

faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[G0AOZ]

In Outlook 2003 I looked under Tools, Options, Mail Format, and see that "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages is ticked. The box immediately below it re "Rich text e-mail...", is not ticked though. Is that where you wanted me to check?

Not opening the document, right-clicking on the attachment, and then selecting Save, automatically brings up the filename with a .doc extension. Saving it, then subsequently opening it with Word 2003 produces the same results, i.e. hyphens and a few bullet markers as previously.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[tf1]

That answers my questions thanks - but it leaves me even more baffled by the problem

Are you using Page Layout View in Word or are you using Normal View?

One more test please. Open Word and go to Tools, Option and deselect the option to open in Reading Layout (under the General tab, I believe). Close Word and then open Outlook and double-click one of the attachments. Does it now open in a standard Word window (not Reading Layout) and is it all messed up?

Regards: tf1

 

[G0AOZ]

Tf1, your last message has helped me make progress!

Both myself and the user mostly have Normal view selected, and I occasionally use Print Layout. Being the inquistive person that I am, I thought I'd also try Web Layout just to see what it would do. Boing!! It displays the pages as they should be.

I'm more of a basic nuts and bolts hardware and operating system type person, rather than an applications guru, so I'm not yet understanding why Word's Web Layout appears to solve this issue. I would be very interested to hear an explanation if you or anyone has one please...

Many thanks again tf1 - you set me on the right track! Star for you.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[TonyJollans]

It sounds to me like you have a web page (or at least a document formatted as a web page). Why Word continues to pretend it can handle web pages, I do not know, but when displaying them in anything other than web page view (and often even when using web page view) they can look decidedly wierd. You probably have divs (or maybe frames) which are not positioned properly and are just shown one after the other. Reading Layout ignores a lot of what it considers irrelevant in order to display the content 'readably'.

Enjoy,
Tony

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We want to help you; help us to do it by reading this: Before you ask a question.

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[tf1]

I agree with Tony. It sounds as though this has been sent as an HTML page. If the user created this in Word using Web Layout, then it is saved as a (poorly coded) HTM document. This is then sent to you as an attachment which doesn't look good in Normal or Page Layout Views. The question that remains is why the sender is creating this as a web page without using an HTM extension - which would not have caused all this confusion.


Regards: tf1

 

[G0AOZ]

Thanks for the info guys. I've no idea why the sender of this document would have created it in this manner. There appear to be several others who've received a copy of this attachment and have been similarly baffled as to how to read it etc. Appreciate your input. Thanks.

ROGER - G0AOZ.