Save as doesnt

[Kurt Ullman]

Using word for Mac 2004 on a MacBook Pro that is completely updated.
Today, for reasons I have not yet been able to figure out, when I try to
save, Word says it is contacting printer, I get the Beach Ball and it
stops responding until I force quit. Happens with save, with save as,
new saves or old files that were opened and then tried to save. Any
suggestions. Needless to say I find Word that can't be saved somewhat
less the useful.

Kurt
g

 

[Elliott Roper]

<kurtullman-3B9F53.13385114052007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx>

Using word for Mac 2004 on a MacBook Pro that is completely updated.
Today, for reasons I have not yet been able to figure out, when I try to
save, Word says it is contacting printer, I get the Beach Ball and it
stops responding until I force quit. Happens with save, with save as,
new saves or old files that were opened and then tried to save. Any
suggestions. Needless to say I find Word that can't be saved somewhat
less the useful.

There is an outside chance it is not lying to you.
Page Set Up. Change the printer selected to something different (Any
Printer sounds like a good choice). Try saving now.

Word seems to like the idea of knowing about your printer at save time.
It is probably trying to paginate your document perhaps to update the
table of contents or simply because it will soon be spring.

If your printer driver went wonky, possibly for some unrelated reason,
it might be enough to give Word a hissy.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

<kurtullman-3B9F53.13385114052007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx

,

Using word for Mac 2004 on a MacBook Pro that is completely updated.
Today, for reasons I have not yet been able to figure out, when I try to
save, Word says it is contacting printer, I get the Beach Ball and it
stops responding until I force quit. Happens with save, with save as,
new saves or old files that were opened and then tried to save.

Make sure your print driver is updated.

What happens if you choose a different print driver in the Print dialog,
click Preview, then try to save?

 

[Kurt Ullman]

In order for Word to do most anything it needs to have a printer available -
or at least an accessible driver. If you've recently installed any OS or
other updates I'd try running Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions first.
If that doesn't do it, make sure you have the latest driver for your printer
installed.

Do you have any printing problems with other software (TextEdit, Preview,
atc.)?

I haven't done any recent upgrades of anything, at least since it
was working on Saturday. I did back up my documents folder, iTunes and
address book to a CD yesterday. Could that have messed up contact with
the HD somehow? Although I did just check trying to save a Word file to
the USB memory stick and got the same problm. I can save as from T/E and
Newswatcher, which would argue against it being a general problem.


Printing from MT-Newswatcher, nothing at all happens, text-edit, I get
the Beach ball and have to force quit. I tried for grins to run printer
set up utility and all I got there was the Beachball.
I did run the repair permissions first and most of the stuff that was
fixed was iTunes related. Nothing that looked like a printer or saving
problem.

 

[Kurt Ullman]

<kurtullman-3B9F53.13385114052007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx


Make sure your print driver is updated.

What happens if you choose a different print driver in the Print dialog,
click Preview, then try to save?

The printer set-up utility also goes to the Beachball and I have
to force quit so I can't really do that, can I?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

<kurtullman-2EB62E.14142114052007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx

,

The printer set-up utility also goes to the Beachball and I have
to force quit so I can't really do that, can I?

Since you didn't mention that in your initial post, I guess I wouldn't
have known that.

Sounds like you found your problem, though, but it's likely not with
Word. You might try to repair disk permissions, then see if Printer
Setup Utility works.

You might also try trashing one or more of your

com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist
com.apple.print.PrintCenter.plist
com.apple.print.custompresets.plist
com.apple.print.PrinterProxy.plist
com.apple.print.favorites.plist

files in the ~:Libraryreferences folder (where ~ is your home
directory).

 

[CyberTaz]

In order for Word to do most anything it needs to have a printer available -
or at least an accessible driver. If you've recently installed any OS or
other updates I'd try running Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions first.
If that doesn't do it, make sure you have the latest driver for your printer
installed.

Do you have any printing problems with other software (TextEdit, Preview,
atc.)?

 

[Kurt Ullman]

<kurtullman-2EB62E.14142114052007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx


Since you didn't mention that in your initial post, I guess I wouldn't
have known that.

Did not know that until I tried it after first round of
information. As the NFL ref say "Upon further review..." I can think
that it might have been interpreted as being somewhat snotty. It was not
meant to be, I was trying to ask a legitimate question. If it did not,
then I am unecessarily paranoid... again (g).

Sounds like you found your problem, though, but it's likely not with
Word. You might try to repair disk permissions, then see if Printer
Setup Utility works.

Did not work so next I'll try..

You might also try trashing one or more of your

com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist
com.apple.print.PrintCenter.plist
com.apple.print.custompresets.plist
com.apple.print.PrinterProxy.plist
com.apple.print.favorites.plist

That seems to have worked, although I only saw Pref and Center and
proxy. Anyway, Word still goes to printer for a second and then actually
saves, so it appears that God is back in His heaven and all is right
with the world again.
Thanks to all who helped.

 

[John McGhie [MVP Word, Word Mac]]

Yeah, Word stores the printer kind, make, model and location in the document
file each time it changes.

That enables it to repaginate the document correctly on someone else's
computer when the file is next re-opened.

If the computer is slow to resolve the printer, Word will wait. Word will
first look for the printer that was "last used". If that printer is
switched off, or obviously on a different network, Word will simply say "Oh,
it's not there any more" and move on. However, if the printer appears as
though it "should be" there, but it is not responding, Word waits for it.
Unfortunately, the "timer" it uses to decide how long to wait is a pretty
old design that specifies a hugely inappropriate wait time on a modern
computer.

In your case, the printer it is looking for "used to be" attached to your
computer, so Word will wait for it. Chances are if you waited 15 minutes,
it would time out and agree to complete the save! It's a bug. If you fix
your printer, you won't get the wait so you won't see the bug If you
specify a generic printer before allowing the save to complete, you won't
get the time-out on that document next time. Sadly, you will need to either
re-instate the printer or set each document to the new default.

Cheers

--

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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]