PUB2000: Text Flow Changes When Opening Publications Created in Earlier Versions

When you open a publication created in an earlier version of Microsoft Publisher, the text flow in the text frames changes and no longer aligns with the frame edges as it did in the earlier version of Publisher.

NOTE: Publisher 2000 cannot open Publisher 1.0 files.

Earlier versions of Publisher used a device dependent layout dependent upon the printer setup for the publication. The device depended layout was used for optimal printer kerning capabilities. If you changed to a printer with different capabilities and kerning size in earlier versions of Publisher, text in that publication would reflow based on the newer settings.

Publisher 2000 uses a device independent layout and does not reflow text based on the printer you choose. Instead, the text formating is based on standard kerning and line spacing from within Publisher 2000.

For this reason, when you open a publication ceated in an earlier version of Publisher, the text flow is changed to the new device independent page layout used by Publisher 2000.

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Redefine Text Styles

If you used text styles in your original publication, you can redefine the text styles to reflect the new text flow. To do this:

1. On the Format menu, click Text Style.
2. Under Choose a style, click the style you want to change.
3. Under Click to, click Change this style.
4. Under Click to change, click the settings you need to change. The settings you most likely need to change are:
   
   
   • Line spacing
   • Character spacing
   • Tabs
   1. Adjust line spacing only when it seems that more or less lines appear in a text frame than before. Only adjust line spacing in small increments.
   2. Character spacing is the most important of all the settings as it controls the spacing between individual characters. As with line spacing, adjust character spacing in small increments.
      
      NOTE: Only adjust the Tracking and the Kerning settings.
   3. When you adjust tabs, you need to delete some tabs and recreate them at new positions, while you do not need to adjust other tabs at all. In most cases, you do not need to adjust tabs, unless the publication contains tabbed columns of information.
      
      With this layout, it may be best to adjust the column positons manually, and then apply the changes to the text style for that style of layout in the publication.
5. After you make minor changes to these settings, click OK, click Close, and then view the publication to see how the changes you made affected the layout.

This method can also be accomplished by manually modifying a paragraph and then applying the changes to the text style.

For more information about modifying Text Styles, click Microsoft Publisher Help on the Help menu, type Changing Text Styles by example in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.

Create New Styles

As with the previous method, the best way to deal with the repositioning of the text in the publication is to create new styles with the necessary corrections as part of the styles.

These styles can be created using the "Create a new style by example" method, then applied to the problem text frames throughout the document, making it easier to reposition text with consistant settings.

For more information about creating new Text Styles, click Microsoft Publisher Help on the Help menu, type Create a new style by example in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.