The horizontal alignment of a picture in a Word 2002 document changes when the document is viewed in Word 97 (273986)

SYMPTOMS

When you open a Microsoft Word 2002 document in Word 97 or an earlier version of Word, the horizontal alignment of the picture in the earlier version of Word may differ from the alignment in Word 2002. This behavior can occur if all of the following conditions are true:

In Word 2002, you inserted a picture into the document.

-and-
In Word 2002, you set the Wrapping style of the picture to any selection other than In line with text (on the Format menu, click Picture, and then click the Layout tab).

-and-
In Word 2002, you select a Horizontal alignment of the picture (on the Format menu, click Picture, and then click the Layout tab).

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because of the way Word version 2000 and later handles horizontal alignment positioning with floating image objects (such as a picture).

For example, if you have an image at horizontal position "x", and then you set the horizontal alignment for the image to be right-aligned, Word 2002 adds an offset to "x" to align the object as you want it. Word 2002 calculates the value for the alignment so that "x" plus the offset equals the right-aligned position.

Image in Word 2002

                                                       --------
                                                      |        |
x ->|------------------Offset------------------------>|        |
                                                      |        |
                                                       --------

Because versions of Word prior to Word 2000 do not understand the new offset value, when you open a Word 2002 document in Word 97 or earlier, the original horizontal position value "x" is where the image appears.

Image in Word 97

     --------
    |        |
x ->|        |
    |        |
     --------

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, you can first position the picture to the approximate horizontal alignment you want by clicking and dragging the picture. Then you can set the picture's horizontal alignment, using the Format Picture dialog box.

To format the horizontal alignment of a picture:

Click to select the picture.
On the Format menu, click Picture.
On the Layout tab, click the Horizontal Alignment you want to use.

NOTE: After you perform the steps above, when you open the document in Word 97 or earlier, the horizontal alignment is close to, but does not match exactly, the settings as viewed in Word 2002.