Hey all. I'm running Word 2003 on XP Pro, and I have a real throat-slasher of a Microsoft Word problem on my hands that I have posted far and wide on many forums, to no avail.

I have a picture that I am trying to post as a background image to a Word document. To do this, I go Format - Background - Fill Effects - Picture - Select Picture, then I choose the picture. The picture shows up, and when I view the file in Print View at 100% Zoom, it is at the perfect scale to my liking. But when I print the document, the background image is shrunk to a fraction of its original size and tiled in the background, behind the document text.

I have posted this on several different forums already, and the only answer I have received so far was from Garfield-n-Odie, who suggested the following:

"In Word, try turning off background printing in Tools | Options | Print. In Windows, try turning off print spooling and advanced text services in Start | Control Panel | Printers | right-click on your printer Properties."

"Check the setting of the "Print body text before header/footer" option on the Compatibility tab of Tools | Options. If the box is checked, clear it and vice versa and see if that helps."

"If you can you print to a different printer, try that."

I've tried these all, on a couple of different computers. No dice. Any ideas? I'm really at the end of my rope. Thanks a million in advance.

Don't really have a direct answer to your problem, but it may not be totally Word related. Try checking your actual printer options and try different settings with it. Sometimes margins are not set the same as Word would like. You may have settings for gutter, etc. that may need to be changed.

Just a few of my suggestions.

Ron

hey there! thank you so much for your reply and your advice. i'm about to start messing around with the printer options right now to see if that does anything. the thing is, when i view the document in Print View at 100% it looks fine, but the further you zoom out, the more the background image will zoom in, and vice versa. it's kind of hard to explain, but it leads me to believe that this may be a Word problem specifically because this kind of screwiness is happening even before the printer enters into it. Moreover, I have tried to pdf this document and exactly the same thing happens. aaand i have tried this on two or three different computers and printers - all the same. i'm really surprised more people don't talk about this problem. the internet forums are pretty much mum on it and i have had next to no responses on my posts. i just got back from kinko's copies, and the technicians over there were completely lost on this one.

I've attached the file for you to see for youreslf. I've also included the source file for the background image. your computer may need you to re-link the image to the word document's background. to do this, go to Format - Background - Fill Effects - Picture - Select Picture, then select the dd doc background.jpg enclosed.

Haven't forgotten this. Just do not have my printer cable from storage yet to run it thru as you did.

Ron