thanks Margaret, that did the trick, appreciate your help!
An innocuous thing like that had me tied up in knots...
raghu

"Margaret Aldis" wrote:

Check what you have set under File Page Setup Layout - vertical
adjustment - sounds like you may have it set to "justified" instead of "top"

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org


"raghu" wrote in message
...
I have the 2002 version of office XP Standard. I've recently noticed a
problem with the print layout of Word. When I type a document in the print
layout or switch from Normal layout to print layout the formatting of the
document changes and large spaces appear betwen lines. The spaces
disappear
when switch back to the Normal layout. The printed document looks exactly
like the print layout with large spaces in it.

What can I do to fix this, I tried reinstalling office but that hasn't
worked