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Topic: Formatting for MS Word (Read 2488 times) previous topic - next topic

Formatting for MS Word

I am finally at the last stage of this scoring project I've been doing and am very excited about what NWC can do.

My only (and last) frustration - when I am setting up the score in NWC, I tried to change the margins to imitate a 5.5" X 8.5" inch sheet of paper, since I am exporting the *.wmf files into Word onto a landscape page with two columns (does this make sense?).

The margins did not work; even though I removed "Title Page Info" from my page setup, the top and bottom margins were much too large.

Is there any way to fool NWC into setting up your score in a 5.5 X 8.5 format? I've tried pasting into MS Word and resizing, but I'm getting uneven gutters and funny alignment.

Re: Formatting for MS Word

Reply #1 –
Try setting the paper size for your default printer to 5.5x8.5. (Control Panel | Printers | right-click Properties). The reason is that NWC takes its page size settings from the values given by the current default printer setup.

If your printer doesn't allow a "custom" paper size setting, install a printer that does (using the Add Printer applet), and set it as default (right click | Set As Default). I just checked, the generic "Epson FX-80" works fine for this. It doesn't matter that you don't have such a printer, or even which port you connect it to during setup, it's only installed to pass the allowable printing area to NWC (and other apps that use the printer properties for scaling).

That should give you metafiles scaled to the proper paper size. Note, however, that you'll probably have to muck about with staff point size and fonts sizes to make things work out properly.

Re: Formatting for MS Word

Reply #2 –
I don't bother with the export - NWC handles this fine.
Set to landscape, set left margin to what it is you need, set right margin to same as left +5.5 inches.  This takes care of the left-hand pages.  To print right-hand pages (yes, this means putting the sheet of paper through you printer twice, so it's better to wait between printings), set right margin to what it is you need, set left margin to same as right +5.5 inches.  Now, if you're doing two-sided printing (which I assume you are doing for a score), you will need to put the paper through your printer four times.  Initially, you may have some flubs, but once you figure out your printer's idiosyncrasies, it'll be worth it.
Also, for two-sided printing, make sure you use a heavier weight paper than usual.  I use a 28lb paper, or if 32lb is on sale, I use that.  Using 20lb. paper will cause a "ghost image" of your other pages (from the other side of the paper).