Printers: Page Size Changing Nightmares!!!!

[Richard DYce]

Rather strange one this from the UK.

We are experiencing real problems with printing documents on both
Kyocera and Canon printers. When you print a document from Word it
will print quite happily and then part way through the job decide to
change the page set up from A4 to US size for no reason. We haven't
stopped the job or touched anything. It does it with individual
documents as well. Sometimes it will print out the correct size and
then the next time the same document will print out in US size - it's
not always linked to turning the machine off and on either.

This problem seems to have started since we last upgraded the
operating system or it could even be linked to the Office upgrade.
We're running an office full of OS X 10.3.6 machines, and updated
Office 2004.

I've spoken to our printer maintenance people and they feel that
because both printers are playing up this is very unlikely to be to do
with the printer drivers. Now basically our maintenance doesn't cover
us doing system upgrades that then affect the printers, he's saying
that is not really their problem as we are causing our own problems.
If this is the case and we are causing our own problems KLM are going
to start charging extra to come out...

Does you have any ideas as to what we can do - could there be a fault
with our Office upgrade package?

Please help before people start smashing the printers!!

 

[Elliott Roper]

When you print a document from Word it
will print quite happily and then part way through the job decide to
change the page set up from A4 to US size for no reason.

<snip>

Almost certainly, it will be the document you are trying to print.
Try a save as PDF. If it spits out two documents you know who to blame!
Look carefully at the document in Word. Check that each section has the
same page set-up.

For those strange days when the exact same document flops page sizes,
there is nothing for it but to check page set-up before printing or
doing the table of contents. Word *should* respect the system default
paper size on new documents. Your templates *should* be properly set up
for each document type. If you keep working on a US letter document, it
*will* remain US Letter until you manually change it. However, I have
seen inexplicable changes between A4 and US Letter, and not just in
Word.

Please help before people start smashing the printers!!

There is nothing more satisfying than picking up a misbehaving printer
and hurling it through a closed window.

 

[Clive Huggan]

<snip>

Almost certainly, it will be the document you are trying to print.
Try a save as PDF. If it spits out two documents you know who to blame!
Look carefully at the document in Word. Check that each section has the
same page set-up.

For those strange days when the exact same document flops page sizes,
there is nothing for it but to check page set-up before printing or
doing the table of contents. Word *should* respect the system default
paper size on new documents. Your templates *should* be properly set up
for each document type. If you keep working on a US letter document, it
*will* remain US Letter until you manually change it. However, I have
seen inexplicable changes between A4 and US Letter, and not just in
Word.
There is nothing more satisfying than picking up a misbehaving printer
and hurling it through a closed window.

I agree with Elliott -- I find similar inconsistencies. But I'm not yet
ready to blame Word -- since the origins of these documents are quite old, I
think pilot error may be involved in my case! Anyway, I fix this by going
to Print Preview and quickly checking for inconsistent page sizes (easy to
spot them in this view), then selecting the whole document (Command-a) and
applying the same margin settings and page size.


Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

 

[Rob Daly [MSFT]]

I agree with what Elliot is saying. This sounds very much like an OS behaviour when confronted with a multiple-sectioned document.
The diagnostics will be the same - save as PDF and check the page sizes. View the documents in Normal and if there are sections, place the IP in each section and do File | Page Setup to get the paper size.

Another thing to check is default paper sizes. The OS default may have been set to letter. It is also possible that the Normal.dot default is set to letter. In word, Normal.dot paper size defaults take pecking order over the OS defalt. So, essentially, that means if you "Default..." in Word's Page Setup | Microsoft Word pane you will be setting that.

Something else to try is doing a select all, then opening the page setup dialog. Set the paper size to A4 and see if that fixes the problem. Page setup will affect the current section of your IP location or else your current selection.

Furthermore - check if there have been any Mac OS updates to the drivers for the printers in question. Apple may have broken the drivers in an update and there may be a fix available.

If all that fails, then this may be a Word issue.

Thanks and let me know how this goes,


Rob Daly
Macintosh Business Unit
Word Test

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[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

<snip>

Almost certainly, it will be the document you are trying to print.
Try a save as PDF. If it spits out two documents you know who to blame!
Look carefully at the document in Word. Check that each section has the
same page set-up.

For those strange days when the exact same document flops page sizes,
there is nothing for it but to check page set-up before printing or
doing the table of contents. Word *should* respect the system default
paper size on new documents. Your templates *should* be properly set up
for each document type. If you keep working on a US letter document, it
*will* remain US Letter until you manually change it. However, I have
seen inexplicable changes between A4 and US Letter, and not just in
Word.
There is nothing more satisfying than picking up a misbehaving printer
and hurling it through a closed window.