MS Word Watemark- Preview fine- Print window wrong

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Level 1

20 points

MS Word Watemark- Preview fine- Print window wrong

Hi all,

While trying to print a Microsoft Word 2004 document the watermarked/ washout images do not print correctly. I never noticed on my old OS9 Word 98 machine, but can't verify since it's HD is long gone.

In the main document window, they look fine. In the "preview" window, they look fine. But when I click print and see the quick view preview, the colors are off. They go from full color to a blue-green. They print like this also.

I thought it was a printer driver (and it still might be), but trying a different (non color) printer showed the same thing. I am trying to print it on an HP LaserJet 4600.

Thanks for any thoughts.

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Dec 29, 2005 3:18 PM

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Answer 1

CyberTaz

Level 3

715 points

Jan 4, 2006 4:23 PM in response to Mike_H

Hi Mike -

This is currently a documented issue that MS has been made aware of... Hopefully Apple as well. Apparently there is a conflict between Office 2004 & OS X 10.4 (Tiger) when trying to use pngs, gifs, or pict files as Watermarks. The watermark looks fine in Print Preview, but is overly blue/green in Quick Preview & prints the same sour way. However, it does not happen with tiffs or jpegs.

I don't know when there will be a fix (Apple vs MS to see whose fault/responsibility it is), but here is a simple workaround:

1- Just insert the graphic as usual (not as a watermark)

2- Cmd+Click the Image & choose Save as Picture...

3- Select JPEG as the file format,

4- Insert the new JPEG as a Watermark.

HTH |:>)

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Answer 2

Mike_H Author

Level 1

20 points

Jan 5, 2006 2:21 PM in response to CyberTaz

Wahoo!

Thanks, Cybertaz! That did it!

On a related note, I was able to find a workaround also. If you change the "watermark" to "Automatic" under Format Picture, it changes the percentages from 85 and 15 to 50/50. This makes the picture full color.

Then change the transparency to achieve the look you want. I'll have to print it both ways to see if one prints better than the other.

Thanks again. Star for you. 🙂

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Answer 3

CyberTaz

Level 3

715 points

Jan 6, 2006 9:41 AM in response to Mike_H

Glad it was useful, Mike. I've tried your way, too, and I actually prefer it. Didn't put that one up because I have found a number of images whose transparency cannot be changed in Word.

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