Article ID: 184143 - Last Review: January 22, 2007 - Revision: 1.1

WD97: Some Characters Missing/Cut Off When Displayed on Screen

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SYMPTOMS

When you view your document in Word, some characters may either be missing or the top (bottom) of some characters may be cut off.

This problem may affect the following types of characters:

  • Underscores.
  • Underlines.
  • Characters with an ascender.
  • Characters with a descender.
  • International characters that contain an umlaut, acute accent, grave accent, circumflex, or tilde.
  • Objects that are inline with the text of your document. For example, a picture that is not inserted in a frame or text box.
NOTE: This problem does not affect printing; that is, underscores, underlines, and characters with an ascender, descender, or International characters print correctly even though they may not be displayed correctly.
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CAUSE

The problem may have one of the causes as described in the following cases:
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Case 1

The line spacing of your text may be set to an exact height. When you set the line spacing to Exactly and select a measurement that is equal to or less than the height of the font, underscore and underline characters may not be displayed and characters that have an ascender, descender, or an umlaut may be cutoff. For example, if you set line spacing to Exactly 9- point for a 10-point font, underscore and underline characters may be cutoff.

NOTE: This problem may occur differently with different fonts.
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Case 2

The printer driver may incorrectly substitute screen fonts at certain view percentages. You can changing the printer driver to notice an immediate difference, depending on the view you are using.
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Case 3

The zoom that the document is set to may cause characters to have the top or bottom portions of the screen font cut off. You can adjust the zoom from 75% to 100% in most cases to correct this visually.
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RESOLUTION

This problem is a display only problem. Use one or more of the following methods appropriate for your situation:
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Method 1: Change the Document Zoom Setting

When you change the zoom percentage, Word may allow you to view the full height of your text by using the following steps:

  1. On the View menu, click Zoom.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Under Zoom To, change to a larger setting. For example, change to 200 percent and then click OK.
      -or-
    • Under Percent, change the percentage to a larger setting. For example, change the Percentage to 120 percent.
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Method 2: Change the Document View

When you change the view of your document to either Outline or Master Document view, Word will show the full height of your text. To change the view of your document, click either Outline or Master Document on the View menu.

NOTE: This problem occurs in both Normal and Page Layout view. When you view your document in either Outline or Master Document view, paragraph formatting is ignored.
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Method 3: Change the Line Spacing

  1. With your text selected, click Paragraph on the Format menu.
  2. Do one or both of the following:
    • On the Indents And Spacing tab, change the Line Spacing setting to something other than Exactly. For example, change the Line Spacing setting to Single.
      -or-
    • Change the At setting to a setting slightly larger than the font point size you are using in your document. For example, if your font point size is 10-point, then change the At setting to 11-point.
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Method 4: Change the Font or Point Size

  1. With your text selected, click Font on the Format menu.
  2. On the Font tab, do one or both of the following:
    • Change the Font setting to a different font.
      -or-
    • Change the Size setting to a smaller size than what you have your line spacing set to. For example, if you have your line spacing set to Exactly 12-point, then change the font size to 11-point.
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MORE INFORMATION

Line spacing determines the amount of vertical space between lines of text. Word uses single line spacing by default. The line spacing you select will affect all lines of text in the selected paragraph or the paragraph that contains the insertion point. 
   This option     Results in
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Single          Line spacing for each line that accommodates the largest
                   font in that line, plus a small amount of extra space.
                   The amount of extra space varies depending on the font
                   used.

   1.5 Lines       Line spacing for each line that is one-and-one-half
                   times that of single line spacing. For example, if
                   10-point text is spaced at 1.5 lines, the line spacing
                   is approximately 15 points.

   Double          Line spacing for each line that is twice that of single
                   line spacing. For example, in double-spaced lines of
                   10-point text, the line spacing is approximately 20
                   points.

   At Least        Minimum line spacing that Word can adjust to accommodate
                   larger font sizes or graphics that would not otherwise
                   fit within the specified spacing.

   Exactly         Fixed line spacing that Word does not adjust. This
                   option makes all lines evenly spaced.

   Multiple        Line spacing that is increased or decreased by a
                   percentage that you specify. For example, setting line
                   spacing to a multiple of 1.2 will increase the space by
                   20 percent, while setting line spacing to a multiple of
                   0.8 will decrease the space by 20 percent. Setting the
                   line spacing at a multiple of 2 is equivalent to setting
                   the line spacing at Double. In the At box, type or
                   select the line spacing you want. The default is three
                   lines.

   At              The amount of line spacing you select. This option is
                   available only if you select At Least, Exactly, or
                   Multiple in the Line Spacing box.
NOTE: If a line contains a large text character, graphic, or formula, Word increases the spacing for that line. To make all lines evenly spaced, click Exactly in the Line spacing box, and then select the line spacing in the At box that is large enough to fit the largest character or graphic in the line. If characters or graphics still appear cut off, select a larger number in the At box.
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REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
192971  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192971/EN-US/ ) WD97: Definitions of Typography Terms in Word
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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
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Keywords: 
kblayout kbprb KB184143
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Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
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