Hi Will,

Keep in mind that Pagemaker and MS Office Publisher
are 'page layout' software and are more attuned to
page publishing, while Word is 'text reflow' word
processing software.

If I understand you correctly you can achieve the look
of screen text in Word through a couple of methods but
you may have a bit of bother getting the printout to
mirror the screen. That comes from Word using one
resolution of 'dot patterns' for screen use and then
respacing the same item to match the printer resolution
(i.e. you don't always get the same effect on screen
and on paper.

One method is to select a rectangle of text that you
want to 'screen' by holding down the alt key while dragging
the mouse pointer, then with that area selected use
Format=Font and select a lighter color variation of
the one you're using.

Another method is to draw an autoshape from the
Drawing toolbar over the area you wish to screen
then set the border to off (no line) or a light color.

Fill the shape (fill icon) using textures
for textures or a plain white/light color and
the Format=Autoshape transparency settings to
tweak it to achieve the effect you want.

If you're accessing the MS newsgroups through
news://msnews.microsoft.com using Outlook express
or another newsreader that allows graphics or attachments
you'll find a small graphic attached to show a quick
sample of the effect.

==========
"Will" wrote in message m...
Cyber Taz,

Thanks fo rthe note.

Regarding the printer and not the software... PageMaker does this and we
have used it for years on a wide varity of laser printers.

Oh well, guess Word doesn't do it and that was my question.

thanks again

Will