LaWanda wrote:
> Is this the same problem I have when pasting into word processing? The
> columns are always 'messed up'.


If the document was created using fixed width (aka fixed pitch) fonts, then the
columns should line up when viewed using any fixed width font.  If the document
was created using proportional fonts, and if columns were aligned using spaces
rather than tabs; then the columns may only line up correctly when viewed using
the same fonts used by the writer when the columns were created.  But the reader
won't know what those fonts were and may not have them available to use even if
they did know.

The often overlooked fact is that different fonts use different widths for
different characters.  The width of a particular character or a blank space in
one font usually is not the same as the width in other fonts.  The result is
that the relative page layout changes when the font changes.  

The solution is to used fixed width fonts when you have no means of knowing or
controlling the reader's font selections.  With fixed width fonts, the relative
layout of the text does not change.  So, columns still line up no matter what
fixed width font the reader uses.

Steve Coker

==== SCROOTS Mailing List ====