Hi Christian,

Word uses information from the driver of the currently selected printer to help determine how to layout information on the page.
How effective or problematic this is can vary between Word versions (or even a single Word version with or without some of its
updates) and with different combination printers/printer driverfs.

You didn't mention the version of Word you were doing the testing in, but in Word 2003, or the precise steps, but for the PDF
creation, that too may be a 'printer driver specific' issue.

For example, if I create a simple table, select the table and use Format=Background=Shading and apply color to the table and then
use the same technique to apply a different color to individual cells the cells print as shown on screen when using the 'Cute' PDF
printer (http://cutepdf.com)

===============
wrote in message oups.com...
P.S.: In the beginning I assigned a background color to the whole table
(and then distinct colors to the cells). After I took away the table
background color, printing on my Epson is correct. But PDFs are still
wrong...
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/a...andtricks.mspx