margins offset with HP printers

[jcc]

In recently switching from Windows to Tiger I've found that my footers
which printed fine on four different HP printers (Officejet 7410,
deskjet 450, and several laserjets) now results in "footer section is
outside the printable area of the page" message on the same printers
that previously worked fine.

Even more annoying when I try to print double sided on my officejet
7410 and on my laserjet 1320, every other page (e.g., page 2, 4) is
offset .5 inches from the top--resulting in the page number in the
bottom center being cut off.

I've tried to change the paper type from US Letter to 8.5 x 11
borderless--but this overrides the settings in HP's print dialog
resulting in the printer thinking I've HP premium photo paper and only
printing in the best quality mode (instead of my preferrred draft
quality)

I've spent several hours with HP on the phone and they conclude it's a
Microsoft problem.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I used to work for HP. "It's a Microsoft problem" is Help Desk speak for
"We have no idea what's causing it!"

The reason I am pretty certain this is not a "Microsoft" problem (or not
"entirely" a Microsoft problem) is that once you hit the "Print" command,
Word hands the entire processing over to the Apple and HP software. The
entire print chain is bits of Apple software, using measurements supplied by
HP.

You may wish to consider this:

* There are hundreds of thousands of Word users out there.

* Many thousands are using Word on Tiger

* HP is one of the most popular brands of printer there are, especially on
a Mac.

* Only one of you is reporting this problem. Note: That does not mean you
are the only one with the problem, but it does mean it's rare.

* I'm using an HP printer and Word 2004 here. I don't get the problem. I
can tell you that there are Apple settings, HP settings, and Word settings
all involved. They each interact: you need to create a compatible set for
each printer.

I think you have a bad Normal template. Before doing anything else, re-name
the Normal template and see if that fixes it? If not:

OK, Let's get a bit systematic with this problem. First: Write down the
exact details of the fault you are seeing.:

1) Run the Remove Office utility from your CD (This is essential: we want
to replace some files that will not be replaced unless they are first
removed)

2) Remove all of your printers

3) Shut your computer down, turn it off, count slowly to ten and bring it
back up again. This is essential: we want to force OS X to run its clean-up
routines.

4) Re-install Office. Run the Installer, please, and don't customise
anything (We want to get it into a known good condition)

5) re-install only ONE printer, using the latest HP-supplied install file.

6) Open and quit each Office application (this is important, it causes them
to create their configuration files)

6) Re-apply the Updaters for Office 2004. (We want to update both the
software and the configuration files)

Now try: What has changed? Specific details of what changed, if anything.

Hope this helps

In recently switching from Windows to Tiger I've found that my footers
which printed fine on four different HP printers (Officejet 7410,
deskjet 450, and several laserjets) now results in "footer section is
outside the printable area of the page" message on the same printers
that previously worked fine.

Even more annoying when I try to print double sided on my officejet
7410 and on my laserjet 1320, every other page (e.g., page 2, 4) is
offset .5 inches from the top--resulting in the page number in the
bottom center being cut off.

I've tried to change the paper type from US Letter to 8.5 x 11
borderless--but this overrides the settings in HP's print dialog
resulting in the printer thinking I've HP premium photo paper and only
printing in the best quality mode (instead of my preferrred draft
quality)

I've spent several hours with HP on the phone and they conclude it's a
Microsoft problem.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[jcc]

After uninstalling and reinstalling everything the problem persists.
I spent another hour on the phone with HP and was told that if I
switch my footer to .6" inches my Laserjet 1320 and Officejet 7410 work
fine. HP stated that the duplexing feature needs .5" inches to work
properly.

Both printers also seem much happier if paper type is set to "plain"
instead of "automatic."

 

[Thom]

I am also really struggling with the footers and page borders, however,
having followed your advice it's still not working! It's as if there is
a 1cm/0.5" border around the page. Did you do anything else other than
set margins and 'plain' paper?