White text on black background does not print in PowerPoint 2002 (278538)

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a Microsoft Word document object into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation slide, and you then print the presentation, the text in the Word document does not print.

This behavior occurs whether you insert a new Word document and create the object in a PowerPoint slide, or whether you create the object from an existing Word file.

The text appears as expected when you view the slide.

CAUSE

This problem can occur if all of the following are true:

You are using slides with a very dark or black background in the PowerPoint presentation.

-and-
You are using a light-colored text, such as yellow, in the Word document.

-and-
You are printing to a black and white printer, or your color printer is set to monochrome.

When you print to a monochrome printer, the dark background is changed to white, and the light-colored text is also changed to white, so that the printer is attempting to print white text on a white background.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue you can change the entire Word object into a pure black object. To change an object into a black object, follow these step:

On the View menu, point to Color/Grayscale, and then click Grayscale.
Select the inserted Word object.
On the Grayscale View dialog box, click Setting.
On the shortcut menu, click to select the Black check box.
On the File menu, click Print Preview.

Note that all of the text is black.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, you can create the document that you want in Word, and then copy and paste the document into the PowerPoint slide. This procedure reverses the color of the text when it is printed, so the text prints black.

NOTE: You can attempt to print grayscale with a monochrome printer, but the text may be too light to view.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.