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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word Apps
I am using Microsoft Word 2004 11.2 with Tiger 10.4.5 on a 1GHz PowerBook attached to a second monitor, a Samsung SyncMaster 213T. It turns out that when you scroll in Word on the second monitor, you get this really annoying effect where fragments of the line at the bottom of the page begins multiplying itself when you start scrolling instead of moving to new text.

I finally figured out how to solve this problem after over a year of frustrating scrolling (page up and page down works, just not mouse wheel scrolling or the up/down arrow keys). The trick is that it only happens on the secondary display - and the solution is to switch resolutions of the secondary display to something different than it is and then back to the original.

I don't know how long this has worked, since I just did it, but it is working now. I will follow up to let you know how permanent of a fix this is. I got the idea for this fix from this discussion on the Word for Mac newsgroup.
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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word | 13 comments | Create New Account
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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: macwebmac on Mar 29, '06 07:04:23AM

I had this same problem in other apps too and on primary (and only) display on many diferant macs. it always gets solved by resizing document window. I just manualy resize window that got that dispaly problem. This way it is redrawn and error is gone.



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: monecky on Mar 29, '06 08:08:49AM

This happens on my primary display, too. (12" Powerbook). I've always blamed the lack of video RAM in the computer (64MB). Could this be causing the problem?



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: chabig on Mar 29, '06 08:18:54AM

No. It's a Word problem--are you surprised?



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Not only a Word problem
Authored by: bradleyd1971 on Mar 29, '06 08:49:32AM

It's not only a Word problem. I have had this problem in several apps (firefox, mail.app, Internet Explorer, Camino, Open Office) on my powerbook (primary display only) before I replaced it with a macbook pro.

Please don't let your personal disdain for MS products influence you when trying to determine what the cause of a problem is.



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Not only a Word problem
Authored by: swindmill on Mar 29, '06 10:07:26AM

My guess is that you had another problem, or perhaps two separate problems, because this is a well documented problem with MS Word

I have always just quit Word and reopened it to correct the problem



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Not only a Word problem
Authored by: bradleyd1971 on Mar 29, '06 03:22:31PM

Doubt it was any other problem.... This occured on my PB from day one, right out of the box. I could recreate this problem every time by having PhotoShop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver in layout mode open and then trying to scroll in any app that had large fields of text.

I could also reproduce it less reliably with other graphic intensive apps, but those 3 combined caused it in every app that I mentioned in my original post.



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Not only a Word problem?
Authored by: swindmill on Mar 30, '06 09:38:31AM

Well, it is a well-documented problem with MS Word. You are the only person I've heard form that has this problem with any other app. That would lead me to believe that the problem is indeed with Word, and not OS X.



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Not only a Word problem
Authored by: GlowingApple on Mar 29, '06 10:45:07AM

I've never had this problem with any application other than Word, though I've only noticed it on an external Dell monitor. I've never had the problem on my Apple Cinema Display.

---
Jayson --When Microsoft asks you, "Where do you want to go today?" tell them "Apple."



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: Warren Oates on Mar 29, '06 05:09:25PM

We had this problem with too. It started after I began using a different screen resolution on my account from the one on my wife's account. We use separate accounts (via Fast User Switching) so we can keep different apps open in various stages. I decided one day that I wanted a different resolution, and when the wife switched over to her account, Word got all messed up, so I set my resolution to the same as hers, and the problem went away We're using 10.4.5 on an old Sawtooth, so there's no Quartz, so I don't know if that would make a difference.



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: zane on Mar 29, '06 12:36:23PM

No, this isn't limit to secondary displays at all. I get this in Word all the time on my primary (only) display, for what seems like years now.

Simply dragging the window partially off screen then back on again fixes it for me. That, or minimizing & un-minimizing to/from the Dock does the same. Or just save, close and re-open.

Switching resolution every time this happens seems like a painful way to fix this.



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: shoobe01 on Mar 29, '06 01:40:12PM

I get this only in word, and only on a second screen. I am not gonna change resolution, case that's lame. And its a cinema display, so I don't think I can.

I also can't do anything else like resize the window, because mine manifests as a failure of the window in general. You cannot resize or move that Word window without a restart of the app.



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Other Word display problems
Authored by: parikka on Mar 31, '06 05:58:11AM

I have noticed this problem as well. It seems that Word screen operations are somewhat unfinished, because I have came across couple others as well:
- when moving from 12" PB's screen to larger external screen without quitting Word, the document window can be stretched, but the part higher than 768px is shown white (only known cure: restart Word)
- when using the Notebook layout and minimizing the window to dock, the tabs in right stay on-screen (similar problem with Messenger picture Drawer as well), no cure found yet

Mika



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Fix line fragmentation cause by scrolling in Word
Authored by: joey03 on Apr 04, '06 06:52:43PM

The fix I have found is to quit and relaunch Word. Works every time. The problem occurs when I switch from using my PB LCD display to the 20" Apple Cinema Display (with the lid closed, thus as the only display)



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