Recently, I was talking to a colleague who was struggling with a Word document that looked different, depending on where it was opened. She wanted her client to be able to edit the documents later, but the same document that looked great on her computer looked awful on the client’s computer.
The main problem with sharing Word files is that Word gets a lot of information from the computer it is running on. Part of how Word makes the document look more or less like it will look when printed (aka What You See is What You Get or WYSIWYG) depends a lot on the printer that is selected and the fonts loaded on the computer.
However, you can do a few things to help make sure your Word file looks as you intended on another computer. If you know the files will be used elsewhere, find out what printer they use and then select that printer, even if it’s not attached to your computer. You can install a printer in Windows, even if you don’t physically have the machine. (Do a search in the Windows help for “printer drivers” for more information.)
The other thing you can do is stick to using the somewhat generic fonts that are available on all Windows systems. For example, every Windows computer has Times New Roman and Arial installed. Yes, they are boring, but they have been used in every version of Windows, so unless someone has done something really weird to their system, those fonts should be available.
Finally, avoid using hard page breaks in your document (i.e. pressing Ctrl+Enter) or adding a whole bunch of carriage returns to force text down to a new page. Instead, use some of the paragraph formatting commands such as “Keep with next” or “Keep lines together” to keep the text you want to stay together on the same page. Just highlight the text and choose Format|Paragraph, and in the Line and Page Break tab, you’ll find these commands. Another handy one for important breaks such as section or chapter headings is “Page break before.” This command is great when you want to make sure a heading starts on a new page.
These tips don’t necessarily guarantee your document will look the same on another computer, but they’re a good start. What you lose in creativity, you gain in compatibility.