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Rob Partridge reports: <<A little more information... Printing was slow on
several separate systems, so I'm not sure it's a driver issue, but obviously
it could be several separate driver issues. I checked the print as it
spooled, and the problem is clear in the size of the spooled doc. With
gridlines it is 86Mb, without it is 1.37Mb. No wonder it is taking so long
to print. My client wants a word doc and pdf won't do.>>
No idea why Word is being such a bear about the gridlines. It seems very odd
that these are amounting to an additional 80+ Meg of file size. I've never
seen that before. Anyway, as the saying goes, "Word happens". One good
preliminary solution would be to minimize the number of gridlines you're
using in the table. There are lots of ways to do this. For example, use
blank rows to separate rows of data rather than using a gridline. Use cell
shading or font underlining rather than underlining the entire row of cells
to define the headings. In short, be a little creative with white space,
color, and font features.
If that won't work, perhaps you could kludge a solution to the problem?
Instead of relying on Word's gridlines, build the table so that you have
blank rows wherever you want to insert a gridline. Then insert a graphic of
a line (probably in EPS format). You'll need at least two such graphics: a
horizontal line that spans the width of the table, and a vertical line to
form the left and right borders. You'll have to format the cells to the
exact pixel dimensions of the graphic so that the lines line up. (Open the
table menu and select "Cell Height and Width" to numerically specify row and
column dimensions.)
These graphics might take up far less RAM than Word's gridlines, and if you
link to the graphic rather than embedding it, this will work even more
effectively. Unfortunately, you then have to ship the graphics with the Word
file and teach your client to use that solution. Not the best idea.
--Geoff Hart, ghart -at- [delete]videotron -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"It's one thing to see death coming at the hands of your own creation.
That's part of the human epic tradition, after all. Oedipus and his father.
Baron Frankenstein and his monster. William Henry Gates and Windows
'09."--David Brin, _Kiln People_
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