[comp.sys.ibm.pc] WP 5.0 alignment in printing

BCHS1B@jane.uh.edu (10/27/89)

In article <191@mojo.UUCP>, finn@mojo.UUCP (Finn Markmanrud) writes:
> I am having the hardest time getting hard copies from WP 5.0 that look
> the way I want them. I think it has to do with alignment, but I can't 
> figure it out. The reveal codes tell me nothing, and the WP Corp. so
> called "Hot" line remains cold (busy). Maybe some of you "netters" can
> help me. The main problem is that the text looks nice and aligned on the
> screen, but the printout is completely mis-aligned. When I run the cursor
> to the beginning of each line, it shows different positions on the line
> (example: 2.46 and 3.23) even though they are straight under eachother on
> the screen. I tried to "cheat," and delete and add spaces, but it is not
> possible to hit the exact same value from line to line, since it jumps .08
> or something like that every keystroke.
> It seems as if the spaces and the actual letters take up different amounts
> of room on the line. Please tell me this is not true!


I can take a good guess as to your problem, although knowing your printer
setup would be helpful. It sounds as if you are using a proportional font
with your printer. As you guess, the letters and spaces each do take up
a different amount of space. If you use a fixed font like Courier then
you would find that everything lines up great. Of course proportional 
fonts look much better, so the problem is how to use them and line things
up. There are a couple of tricks. First, if you use the TAB to line up
things in a table for example, they will all start at the same point, since
TABS move the cursor over a fixed distance. This is the best way to 
line up a table. If you can not use Tabs, the thing to do is to use the
PREVIEW feature. It will show your text exactly as it prints out, including
unusual fonts characters etc. It will show the spacing that will print out.
You access this by going to Print mode (Shift-F7) and selecting V which is
the VIEW option, this will put you in graphics mode and the page will be
displayed. Look at your page in view mode, get a rough idea of what needs
lining up, and then correct it. The last approach is to pay close attention
to the cursor position values displayed at the bottem right of your screen.
This
will tell you the position of your cursor on the PRinted page and does
not correspond to the screen. it gives you a good idea as to where things
are. The problem is not in WP, but in proportional fonts.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions.

Mike Benedik
Benedik@UH.EDU (internet)  or  Benedik@UHOU (Bitnet)