Re: quick request for help; changing printer's and formatting; angry boss

[Dave Chisma & Gail Hodgson <chisma -at- C031 -dot- AONE -dot- NET -dot- AU>]

Harrison Brace wrote:
>
> This is sort of silly, but...
>
> Just had a nasty encounter with my new boss. I had mentioned that the
> format of a document will not be the same from printer to printer. He sorta
> exploded and responded that I don't know what I'm talking about. Any good
> source to back this up? Apparently my entirely credibility is on the line.
>

Dave Chisma wrote:

Sounds like this might be a communication problem about what constitutes
a document's 'format'. As a writer I want to be in complete control over
every character and space on every page. If I send a job to a different
printer than the one I'd selected when I created the document, and it
looks different, I GO BALLISTIC!!!

I hate it when the words don't fit the page in the way I intended. But
that's a fact of life with printers. Printers have their own languages,
drivers, version of drivers, page settings, and so on. Each printer can
interpret files slightly differently. To me, that changes a document's
'format'. Perhaps your boss doesn't understand that different printers
handle jobs in slightly different ways, or maybe to him 'formatting'
doesn't have quite the same meaning.

For some type of paragraphs or tables, it makes little difference where
a page break occurs. But when a section or table ends at the bottom of a
column, different drivers can make a real mess (especially when the
following section starts at the top of a page and you end up with a
single line on the preceding page).

Anyway, here's what I've learned to do to minimise the problem.

I try to avoid letting text or tables hit the end of the page. If
something 'just fits' for one printer driver, no doubt you'll find
another printer driver that break the page slightly earlier. And that
will cause a paragraph or the last row of a table to spill over onto a
page it shouldn't.

Cheers, Dave Chisma
chisma -at- c031 -dot- aone -dot- net -dot- au

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