I have tried  all of these suggestions already. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked.

The Sales Order templates I have created were working perfectly fine for almost 2 years until the yesterday.  I selected a Sales Order Template which has a B/O column (from the drop down menu in the Sales Order window) and pressed the print preview or print button. The following happened:

- the template columns where completely different then the ones I had selected to print when I customized the form. (It looked like the Quickbooks standard stock Sales Order form columns with my headers).

Then, I went into Templates under lists to correct my custom Sales Order form. In the Layout designer, it looked like the form I was using to date but when I pressed the Print Preview button after saving it it changed back into that stock form. The Basic Customization preview pane and Layout designer window then would switch back and forth between these two form while never allowing me the Print Preview or Print my customized form.

I realized that the customized column number order in the Additional Customization window did not reflect what was printing. I then corrected everything in the Additional Customization and Layout Designer windows and pressed OK. Since then, when I Print or Print Preview the following happens:

- All the columns I customized both Print and Preview fine (including in the preview pane of the Basic Customize window) except the Backordered column (although it is selected). This also happens when you Print or Print Preview a Sales Order by selecting a Selecting a Sales Order template from the drop down menu in the Sales Order form when there are indeed Backordered items. 

- The columns shift around in width. This is especially true for the Description column that for some reason can no longer be made narrower than the stock width(?).

I thought perhaps the template file was damaged or corrupted so I created a new one from scratch and to my dismay the same happens.

I also restored old backups from way back when my templates worked fine and again this problem occurs.

I noticed that if I open and Print or Print Preview a Sales Order which was already saved with this template before I had this problem , the Backordered column will appear however the column widths are still out of wack. However, if I choose a different template, save, then choose that same template that had a Backordered column and Print or Print Preview, the Backordered column will now disappear!

 I tried calling Quickbooks for support and instead was sent a list of common template customization problems that was no help whatsoever!

I just noticed today,  when I made an invoice for a backordered item that the Sales Order does not appear in the Related Transactions pane under Transaction Tab to the right of the invoice. However, it appears in a Transactions History Report when I press on the little Related Transactions icon button. Not sure if this is related.