Print Preview ok - Actual Print Drops Page Bottom

[htglaser]

I have a single page MS Word document which looks fine on the screen, looks
fine in Print Preview, but the hardcopy print drops the last 2-3 lines of
text from the document.

I have an HP6180 printer, and it does not drop page bottom lines in any
other application.

 

[htglaser]

As a side note, I just checked the printer driver, and Windows says it is up
to date.

 

[htglaser]

Document prints fine when transferred to Windows XP, under MS Word 2003 SP2.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Windows won't know if the driver is up to date as printer driver updates
don't usually get sent this way. You need to go to HP Support site and check
for the latest driver. Warning: HP has been VERY bad at updating drivers for
Vista.

 

[htglaser]

OK, I went to HP web site and updated the driver. It still won't print.

Here is another curiosity. I made a PDF of the file, and it also looks
fine, but prints with the same problem of lopping off the bottom few lines,
as the problem I am having printing directly from MS Word.

Then, I transferred the PDF to another laptop running Windows XP, and it
printed (to the same printer) with no problems.

 

[htglaser]

Hi Tim, here's another clue. I printed another older document which has text
all the way to the bottom of each page. It prints fine - no text lopping.

Older versions of MS Word had document templates (.dot files). Is it
possible this is my problem?

 

[miles314]

Hi Tim, here's another clue. I printed another older document which has text
all the way to the bottom of each page. It prints fine - no text lopping.

Older versions of MS Word had document templates (.dot files). Is it
possible this is my problem?

 

[miles314]

htglaser,

I'm not an expert on here, but I am having the same problem. With my HP
C6180, the occurances seem to happen to random documents. Could this be a
default template issue or is HP just really that bad at finding bugs in their
own drivers?

 

[htglaser]

Misery loves company. Is this a new problem for you?

 

[Terry Farrell]

It still points to the printer driver. The fact that Print Preview shows it
fine means that Word is seeing information from the printer driver that the
text is inside the printable area. The fact that the printer then doesn't
print the bottom of the page indicates that the printer driver is bad. The
Windows XP and Windows Vista drivers are different.

Terry

 

[Terry Farrell]

Ok. Find your normal.dot and rename it normal.bad. Open a new blank document
and copy/paste the contents of the bad document into the new document. Try
printing now.

Terry

 

[miles314]

Seems that it only started after installing this printer. Although, i
couldn't test it with the old printer because there were no drivers for Vista
for that dinosaur.

I wish there was a way for me to post a scan of what is occuring. I have two
or three scans that show my last line is actually cut in half, horizontally?!
Then, i can paste in an another line after it (midway down the page, might i
add) and then it prints fine. WTF?

I am almost convinced that its and HP problem, but they've already denied it
and sent me to Microsoft. I am looking for a decent HP support site that will
allow me to post images. Only then do I think that I can get to the bottom of
this.

-miles

 

[htglaser]

I found normal.dotm (instead of .dot), and it took a little doing.
Apparently, it buried in a hidden folder. So I renamed it normal.bad and
started up MS Word with a blank file. I then opened the orignal file from MS
Word, copied the contents into the blank file and printed it. Same problem
as before.

For grins, I opened an older file from the desktop and printed it just fine.
What is interesting is that the header says "Compatibility Mode". Then when
I copy the contents of that file into a blank new file, I get the same
problem - lopping off of text at the bottom of the page.

 

[htglaser]

As a side note, I went back to the HP Web Site to double-check the driver.
HP has a little utility for checking currency of drivers. I ran it twice -
both times it said I have an up-to-date driver.

 

[htglaser]

Should I log this issue with HP?

It still points to the printer driver. The fact that Print Preview shows it
fine means that Word is seeing information from the printer driver that the
text is inside the printable area. The fact that the printer then doesn't
print the bottom of the page indicates that the printer driver is bad. The
Windows XP and Windows Vista drivers are different.

Terry

 

[Terry Farrell]

One further test...

G to Word Options, Save (ALt+F, I, S) and under Save files in this format -
choose Word 97-2003 doc (*.doc). Now open one of the long page documents,
make a small edit change and Undo, then save the document in the .doc
format. Test print.

Then reverse the procedure in choosing Word Document (*.docx) format, make
the edit and Undo, save the document in .docx format and test print again.

What happens?

Terry