PUB98: Table Text may be Truncated when Printing a Merge (179078)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Publisher, if you merge a database into a table and select "Grow to Fit Text" on the Table menu, the table rows adjust to fit the data. When you print the table, the printout does not show the adjusted table. As a result, data from fields with more content are not printed completely.

CAUSE

When you view different records in Publisher, Publisher can resize the table as needed to accommodate any data size change. However, when you print the merged results, Publisher selects one table size and does not readjust the table for each record, as it does in preview mode. Publisher uses the current table size as the default for your print job.

For example, let's say you create a table with the following information:

Name	Company
John	Microsoft

If in the second record you add a person, "George," the last few letters in "George" may be truncated when the table is printed. When you preview the record in Publisher, the table will be resized to accommodate the length of the record and "George" is not truncated.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, use either of the following methods.

Method 1: Resize the Table to Accommodate the Largest Data Content

For information about resizing tables, columns or rows, click Show Index on the Status bar, type the following text in the Type A Keyword box

tables

and then double-click the "resizing tables, rows, columns" entry to go to the "Change the table size, columns, or rows" topic.

Method 2: Use a Series of Text Frames Instead of a Table

On the Arrange menu, click Layout Guides.
Under Margin Guides set the measurements you want. Under Grid Guides, set the number of columns and rows you want. Click OK.
Create text frames within the layout guides.
Insert merge fields into each text frame and click "Show Merge Results" to review the data.
Resize the text frames to accommodate the fields that contain larger amounts of text.