Printing interrupts

[Sir W]

I'm facing a strange issue which occurs with both Word X and Word 2004.
When I print a specific document, Word prints the first page, then
stops, then prints the other 9 pages: this is a problem as I need to
print on two-sides and with this issue I get the first page with just
the first face printed and the second one blank.

I also tried to export the file in PDF but the result is two different
PDF files, one with just one page and another one with the remaining 9
pages.

The first page is nothing special, there is just a 20 MB TIF picture in
it, but this shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Any advise?

 

[Elliott Roper]

I'm facing a strange issue which occurs with both Word X and Word 2004.
When I print a specific document, Word prints the first page, then
stops, then prints the other 9 pages: this is a problem as I need to
print on two-sides and with this issue I get the first page with just
the first face printed and the second one blank.

I also tried to export the file in PDF but the result is two different
PDF files, one with just one page and another one with the remaining 9
pages.

The first page is nothing special, there is just a 20 MB TIF picture in
it, but this shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Any advise?

Famous bug/undocumented feature!

You have a section break which changes the margins or orientation.

A workaround, if you can't eliminate the section break for some reason,
is to join the 2 pdfs together with one of the utiities you will find
on versiontracker.com

 

[Sir W]

Famous bug/undocumented feature!

You have a section break which changes the margins or orientation.

A workaround, if you can't eliminate the section break for some reason,
is to join the 2 pdfs together with one of the utiities you will find
on versiontracker.com

Elliott, you're absolutely right! You mean it's a bug in both versions
and they still don't fix it? I can't believe it: thanks Bill, you did
it again!

Andrea

 

[Elliott Roper]

Elliott, you're absolutely right! You mean it's a bug in both versions
and they still don't fix it? I can't believe it: thanks Bill, you did
it again!

Someone will be along in a minute to tell us that is Apple's problem.
They might be right, but it is cold comfort.

If some little amateur hacker can do a pdf glue-together toy in about
five minutes, then you'd think....

nah! that's too much to ask.

Did they not realise it completely buggers double-sided printing?

Some things are *so* clever, yet there does not seem to be anybody to
catch these lack of usability messes. It's like whoever holds the purse
strings does not understand the product. Or the market. Or both.

 

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

Hhiii... Here I am

Yes, it is an Apple problem. Word is sending the commands as advertised by
the Apple specification. The problem is when Word sends a "new page
layout".

The Apple Print Subsystem is "supposed" to reset the printer's page
dimensions but not end the print job. It's ending the print job as well.

There appears no way to stop it. Apple is not in a hurry to fix it, because
there are very few applications that can send more than one set of page
dimensions in a print job.

Making Microsoft look bad is not necessarily seen as an "urgent" problem at
Cupertino There has been lots of discussion as to whether Microsoft
even "can" fix this one. To do so would involve adding a work-around that
would send non-standard commands in the print job. If they did that, then
Apple suddenly fixed the original problem, the whole thing would be broken
again ...

Cheers

Someone will be along in a minute to tell us that is Apple's problem.
They might be right, but it is cold comfort.

If some little amateur hacker can do a pdf glue-together toy in about
five minutes, then you'd think....

nah! that's too much to ask.

Did they not realise it completely buggers double-sided printing?

Some things are *so* clever, yet there does not seem to be anybody to
catch these lack of usability messes. It's like whoever holds the purse
strings does not understand the product. Or the market. Or both.

--

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

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hhiii... Here I am

Yes, it is an Apple problem. Word is sending the commands as advertised by
the Apple specification. The problem is when Word sends a "new page
layout".

The Apple Print Subsystem is "supposed" to reset the printer's page
dimensions but not end the print job. It's ending the print job as well.

There appears no way to stop it. Apple is not in a hurry to fix it, because
there are very few applications that can send more than one set of page
dimensions in a print job.

A quick test shows OmniGraffle can change orientation if not paper
size, yet still produce a single PDF. Other stuff like Freehand and
InDesign appear to have taken their own road to producing PDFs. I think
I agree with you that *that* is a "Bad Thing" , and that Office is
playing nicer than they in that respect.

Making Microsoft look bad is not necessarily seen as an "urgent" problem at
Cupertino There has been lots of discussion as to whether Microsoft
even "can" fix this one. To do so would involve adding a work-around that
would send non-standard commands in the print job. If they did that, then
Apple suddenly fixed the original problem, the whole thing would be broken
again ...

feh! So when has that stopped anybody? I detect a hissy fit situation.
<snip>

My original point was:<snip>

Besides, if you take the joined by PDFLab single file and print it to
PDF again, or print it double-sided, is it one job or two? See? It
can't be entirely Apple's fault can it?

Even if we accept that it is a bug in the Apple printing framework,
then, given that Word knows in advance that the job will be split in
two, why can't Word clean up automatically afterward by running its own
PDFLab (freeware) equivalent?

And while they are at it, how about sending eps to the print system
instead of the low-res preview when printing to PDF? Everyone else can
do it. This bug has lived through two major releases already.

Nobody really cares why it is broken. We just want it fixed.