Word files becoming warped when I send them to others

translator82

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I have a large project that involves numerous word files all involving semi-complex formatting (lots of tables of all shapes and sizes, tables within tables etc).

I have completed 3/4 of the work and it is perfect on my computer. When I send it to my client, however, she says when she opens the files they are warped. I have switched on an old computer and downloaded them onto that too and they are also coming out warped on that.

When I go into my "sent box" in my email though I can click on the files I sent and view them online. They are perfect when I do this so I don't know why they are warping between leaving my email account and getting to my client's.

Can anyone help?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I use Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013. I've asked my client what she uses but haven't had an answer yet.

On my old computer I seem to have two versions of Word. The one the computer automatically uses to open downloaded files is called "openoffice.org Writer" (OpenOffice.org 3.3.0) although it's not online as far as I can see. The other one is Microsoft Works Word Processor version 9.0. and I've tried opening the files with this too but I'm having the same formatting issues.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
No but I'll try it - do I need to download it on both computers? Ideally I don't want to have to remake all of the files. I want to use the one's I've spent days creating but send them in a format that is openable at the other end.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Just downloaded Open Office 4.1.1 and tried to open the files but they are all still warped. I just don't understand why this is happening.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Just downloaded Open Office 4.1.1 and tried to open the files but they are all still warped. I just don't understand why this is happening.

I don't know. :(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Any MS Word version from Office 2007 or newer is going to save Word files as 'docx' by default.

Most open source word processing apps have trouble parsing 'docx' files, some more than others. I've read that WPS Office does the best job of handling 'docx' files of all the open source word processing apps.

However ... your post said that your Word files have lots of large, complex tables. This implies that you are embedding Excel spreadsheets into your Word files. That means to render the file properly, the app has to be able to handle docx files and embedded xlsx files as well.

It might be possible that your document is using features in Office 2013 that are not supported in Office 2010 or older, which it will not tell you when you save the file. But when someone with an older version of Office tries to open the file, they should get a message about unsupported features. Check with your client to see if they are getting any messages when opening the file.

And finally, while it's possible, but unlikely, that the file attachment is getting corrupted when you email it, you could try saving the file into an archive (.zip) and sending that. When they get it, they will need to uncompress it -- and see if that works better.
 

My Computer

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