Misbehaving Leader Dots

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 31, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Karyn wrote about problems she was having with leader dots not behaving properly in Word. It seems the dots would appear just fine in Print Preview, but then run beyond where they should when actually printing.

If you've checked to make sure that the tab stops are set properly (they are in the right quantity, of the right type, and in the right position) and that the alignment of the paragraphs is set as it should be (to Left or Justified), then there are a couple of other things you can check. First thing to do is to make sure you reset the printer to factory specifications. You may have to dig out your printer manual, but sometimes the firmware within a printer can get confused and resetting is necessary.

If the problem still isn't solved, then the next thing to check is the printer drivers or the drivers for your video card. You should download the latest drivers from the manufacturer's Web site. Download drivers both for the printer and the video card and replace your old drivers with the new ones.

If you have done this, and the problem still exists, a less-likely cause is that the drivers are too new. Strangely, it can sometime be the latest drivers that introduce a problem that previously wasn't evident. In such cases, particularly if the introduced fault is severe, it can sometime make sense to go back to using an earlier driver version.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (849) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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