Word 7 is running my words together - IBM 4029/4039

["Peter Ring, PRC" <prc -at- PIP -dot- DKNET -dot- DK>]

I have today received the following:

>  From:  TECHWR-L[SMTP:TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU]
>  Sent:  Monday, August 05, 1996 8:58 AM

>  I'm having a little problem with Word 7 --  a few instances words
>  running together on the printout.  I have a space between them in
>  the file, but they get run together.  I haven't had much time to
>  play around with it, deadlines and all, you know...  What I can
>  tell you is, though, that most (not all) of the problems are with
>  normal face words next to bold words.  In addition, there's even
>  one place where the letters "pr" in "program" overlay one another.

>  My print options are Background Printing and include Drawing Objects.
>  My view options are All non-printing characters.
>  My spelling option is Automatic spelling off.
>  My printer driver is for the IBM 4029.

I haven't seen your specific problem, but based on the following
experiences with a similar printer, I guess, that the problem could
be in your printer.

I have an IBM 4039 10R, and as some of you know from my homepage, I
am doing some programming, too. My programme writes directly to the
LPT1: port (or wherever the user want it to print) without using any
driver. It start sending an initialisation string (font, size,
etc.), then the text, and at last an FF (ASCII 12 = Format Feed) to
get the paper out of the printer.

When printing to my IBM 4039 10R, I discovered that the printer
printed the last 1-3 character(s) of the initialisation string on top
of page 1, and the last 3-10 characters of the text on a new page. I
solved the problem by placing a 1 second delay after sending the
initialisation string and 10 extra spaces at the end of the text. The
number of characters coming out wrongly are not always the same
every time, even with the same initialisation string and text.

This indicates, that at least IBM 4039 10R has an internal timing
problem, which can maybe explain your experiences, too. As printers
of the same series to some extend share electronics and internal
code, it is not unlikely that other printers of the same line have
similar problems.

I have other - maybe related - problems, too, with the same printer
when printing graphics from Word 7. The PCL mode driver has big
problems with resized bitmaps, and the PS driver has problems with
vectorised graphics after bitmaps. According to Lexmark, Denmark, who
was able to reproduce the problems, it is because my printer is a 2
(two !!) years old PostScript-1 model, for which IBM/Lexmark don't
want to make new drivers for Win95. Lexmark Denmark has been very
helpful, but was not able to come through internationally.

I am consequently thinking a lot about replacing my IBM Lexmark
printer with a printer of another brand with a more professional
policy on solving their customer's problems instead of just selling
printers.

Conclution:
Try another printer and see if the problem persist. If not, replace
the printer!

Greetings from Denmark

Peter Ring
PRC (Peter Ring Consultants)
- specialist in user friendly manuals and quality measurements on
  manuals.
prc -at- pip -dot- dknet -dot- dk
http://www.pip.dknet.dk/~pip323/index.htm
- homepage on user friendly instruction manuals with tips for
  instruction manual writers.

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