This is an interesting one. Word documents in Microsoft Word 2007 appear fine on the screen but when you go to print the document it comes out as garbled text where each character on a line is printed over the top of the first character. These overlapping characters make for a totally unreadable document and is very frustrating to the end user. Here is an example of how the text looks when it is printed.

Not very user friendly is it? The text appears to be hieroglyphics. Sometimes the screen updates quickly to show the characters like this on the screen when it is printing.

Well the solution to this problem is simple if you know where to look.

1) Press the “Office” button in the top left.
2) Click “Word Options” at the bottom

3) Click the “Advanced” button on the left

4) Scroll down to the “Print” section

5) Untick “Print in Background”

6) Click “OK”

Now open your word document and you should be able to print without the garbled hieroglyphic text appearing and you can get on with your work day!

Authored by Ian

Ian Johnson is a Director of OJ Networks. He has been working in IT since 1995. Mentored by the best, Ian started as Technical Support Officer for an innovative dialup ISP in Brisbane “Hub Communications”. He progressed to become a Web Design and Programmer in ASP, ASP.NET and PHP during his time at “The Lab Development Group” with David Vandenberg amonst others. Ian has been working as a Consultant on the Sunshine Coast since 2001 and became a Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) Server Administrator in 2010 after which he formed OJ Networks. He has assisted numerous small businesses to reach their potential through IT Infrastructure Planning and Implementation and Web design, Development and Web Marketing. You can connect with Ian on Linked In.