Visio 2003 plotter printing issue

[Mark Mortensen]

I have Visio 2003 with SP1 installed, version 11.4301.6408.

I am unable to set custom plotter page sizes - I am printing to a HP
DesignJet 800PS. The steps are as follows:

Go to File/Page Setup. Under Printer Paper, hit the "setup..." button. On
the Print Setup dialog, hit the "Printer..." button at the bottom. In the
next dialog, select the appropriate printer, in my case HP DesignJet 800
(with 36" wide paper on a roll) and select "Properties..." The driver for
the HP 800 displays a configuration dialog box. In the Paper group, select
the Size dropdown and select the <<edit paper list>>. This allows you to
customize the paper size.

In the next dialog, modify Custom 1 to be 36"x36". When you hit OK, you see
the correct paper size (36"x36") entered in the paper size dropdown. Hit OK
again to return to the Print Setup dialog. Hit OK again to return to the
first Print Setup dialog. In this dialog box the paper size is indicated as
"Custom 1: 36x36". The margins and zoom factors are displayed here. Now hit
OK.

The Visio dialog box shows a paper size of "Custom 1: 8.5x11". ERROR! No
matter what Custom value you set, Visio fails to pick up the correct paper
size. Viso appears to only work with the pre-set sizes in the drop down
dialog box. The same behavior happens no matter the other setting in the
Print Setup dialog box (i.e. print zoom settings, portrait, landscape) or no
matter the settings under the page size tab. The other people in my office
have the same problem. It's very easy to reproduce.

Currently I have to paste my drawings into Adobe Illustrator to print them
properly. At least I can set custom paper sizes in Illustrator, but it would
be nice to have this fixed in Visio.

Please let me know if this is in the queue to fix.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Dick Hamilton [MSFT]]

Hi Mark,

Yes, we've verified that the problem that you are describing with custom
plotter sizes using this HP driver is a case included for fixing in a future
release. Sorry for the inconvenience of working around this issue now.

 

[Mark Mortensen]

Thanks for the feedback.

Do you know when this fix will be released? I'm not clear what you mean by
"next release" but would it be possible to get a hotfix for this before the
"next release?"

Thanks,

-Mark Mortensen

 

[Dave Brock]

Yup. I'm in the same boat with a HP500DJ. Been working on the diagram for 3
weeks. Good thought about using Illustrator though...eh I'm only an IS
weenie, what do I know =) . But I have read elsewhere with people having
this problem with a variety of different plotters of different sizes. (All HP
though that I know of...)
Need to know when a fix will be available. I'm with Mark on this one...a
hotfix is necessary here. We need a solution yesterday not two months down
the road.
Thanks

 

[NeilSimonsen]

There are Microsoft posted workarounds on this but they do not work on an HP
JetDirect 430 either. There is, however, a workaround. A year ago in my
previous company, a Cisco helpdesk person specializing in Visio quickly
walked me through a solution to the same issue I'm now experiencing.
Unfortunately I did not write it down & I do not remember it. There needs to
be a hotfix on this now. It has been an existing problem for at least a
year. We just purchased a plotter but we'll not renew our Visio licenses &
send our plotter back if this is not immediately addressed.

 

[KKAlll]

At http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;293183
I found a work around that worked for me.

Article ID 293183
RESOLUTION
To work around this problem, set the custom page size by using the Printers
icon in Control Panel. If you set the custom page size for your system as a
whole, Visio uses the correct paper size.
1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
2. Right-click the HP DesignJet icon, and then click Properties on the
shortcut menu.

NOTE: If you are using Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows NT, click
Printing Preferences, otherwise continue to the next step.
3. Click the Paper Size tab.
4. Click More Sizes.
5. Select one of the custom paper sizes next to Name.
6. Enter the custom paper size that you want.
7. Click OK to close each dialog box.