Access 2003 report appears differently on different machine?

[lionelm2007]

When I view a report in another machine, it looks slightly different. First of all, the logo in the report heading does not show up when you print, also in print preview, you can see the last letter is missing from several texts.

I have read other postings online and have done why they asked to check. I have checked that the printer settings are the same for both machines and the same fonts are installed (ie arial). Both machines are using access software not runtime. Both machines are running windows xp and office 2003 sp3.

I can not think of anything else. Has anyone else encountered the same problem?

Thank you for your help.

[NeoPa]

You've probably found this answer before, but just in case, the selected printer (including driver) is often different between machines. This effects Access reports quite directly, as the results are displayed using the settings of the printer. In other words, it's laid out for a specific printer on the current machine.

[lionelm2007]

You've probably found this answer before, but just in case, the selected printer (including driver) is often different between machines. This effects Access reports quite directly, as the results are displayed using the settings of the printer. In other words, it's laid out for a specific printer on the current machine.

So how could I develop a database application that is printer independent. I am pretty sure there are a lot of access developers who develops database applications for their client. Do they tell their clients that they should have the same printer and driver that they have.

Any suggestions?

[NeoPa]

That's true of course.

The variations between printer capabilities are not that vast. By designing your reports to fit within the capabilities of all printers (allow a small margin for lack of precision in the drivers), you should be able to make them pretty well portable. This is what I had to do for my reports.

[lionelm2007]

It makes sense. Sometimes I don't think how the machine and printer communicate to output the report. I just want the report to work. Thank you for your input.

Since you mentioned that, I was thinking, could it be that when you "size to fit" the label controls, they could shrink a bit on another computer with a different printer driver and you would see missing letters.

I just tried to change the font size on my machine and when I view it, it will not show the whole word because the label box can not accommodate the larger font size.

I would say it is better to leave some room in the label box to accommodate for different printer drivers and never "size to fit" a label control. I have not tried this on another machine yet but it should work, I hope.

Any other suggestions is greatly appreciated. Also, do you think Crystal Reports is more robust than internal Access reports.

Thanks again.

[NeoPa]

I've heard that many people like Crystal Reports but I can't comment from my own experience. Sorry.

As to your other questions, I'm afraid I don't know exactly what your situation is clearly enough to answer them helpfully. I suggest you try out your ideas and see the results. That's what I'd do in your position (maybe after checking in TheScripts first of course ;)).