This is a solution to a problem that was occuring infrequently for about 6 months in my office before someone asked me to find a solution.

The problem generally happens when a user prints a document. The problem is that the text bunches up on top of each other producing a completely illegible bunch of stacked characters. An example of the problem is below.

Microsoft Word Overlapping text

This obviously causes some issues when it comes to reading a document! Fortunately this is not a permanent change to the document and the solution is fairly straightforward (when you know how!).

The first thing you need to do is open word without a document open.

Once you have word open go to tools > options > print. In this tab uncheck “Background Printing”. and click ok.

Close word.

Open the offending document and the text should now look and print like normal!

The same problem can be solved in Word 2007 by checking the same option.

Office Button -> Word Options -> Advanced -> Print -> Print in Background

If you find this useful please feel free to leave a comment!

Ben