Word setting huge bottom margin

[KevinJustie]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have 5 identical Intel minis printing to a couple of HP printers (P2015, CP3505). Three of the 5 have no problems, while the other two insist on setting an 18" (yes, 18 inches, not pixels or millimeters) bottom margin: for any document, including a brand new blank one, I select the printer in Page Setup, then do Format>Document; the margins start out "normal" but when you OK the dialog box, it says one or more margins are outside of the printable area, and if you then do Fix, it changes the bottom margin to 18.37". But then when you OK the dialog box it, it says one of the margins is too large. So you end up manually changing the margin back to something reasonable, ignoring the "out of printable area" message -- and then a portion of the bottom of the page doesn't print; it doesn't go to the next page -- it's not printed anywhere. The problem occurs in all user accounts, all documents, but does not happen with any other program (including Excel), or with other printers -- it's just Word and these two printers, so it hardly seems that it's a driver issue. The same user can log into their account from another computer and print the same document to these printers with no problems.

I tried deleting and reinstalling printer drivers, both from the HP disk and downloading from their site, and deleted and reinstalled Office and all updates, but neither helped. Then did an archive/install of OS X, with all updates; problem still happened. Then did a complete wipe of the drive and installed everything from scratch. This fixed the problem, but when I went through the same process on the second problem computer, the problem was not fixed. The only difference in what I did with the two computers was that on the first one I tested Word every step of the way -- after every OS and Office install and update. Whether this somehow affected the final results, or I was just lucky the first time and something else is causing the problem, I don't know.

Has anyone experienced Word setting a ridiculously large margin like this, or have any solutions?

thanks
kevin

 

[John McGhie]

This problem is in the Preferences, and an Archive/Install keeps the
preferences.

Delete the preferences and the problem should go away.

Follow this procedure:

1) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension.

2) Find and drag the file Normal.dotm to your desktop. Unless you have
moved it, it should be in
/Users/ ~ /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

3) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)

User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist

User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 (the whole folder!)

4) Then Repair Permissions with Disk Utility.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have 5 identical Intel minis printing to a couple of HP printers (P2015,
CP3505). Three of the 5 have no problems, while the other two insist on
setting an 18" (yes, 18 inches, not pixels or millimeters) bottom margin: for
any document, including a brand new blank one, I select the printer in Page
Setup, then do Format>Document; the margins start out "normal" but when you OK
the dialog box, it says one or more margins are outside of the printable area,
and if you then do Fix, it changes the bottom margin to 18.37". But then when
you OK the dialog box it, it says one of the margins is too large. So you end
up manually changing the margin back to something reasonable, ignoring the
"out of printable area" message -- and then a portion of the bottom of the
page doesn't print; it doesn't go to the next page -- it's not printed
anywhere. The problem occurs in all user accounts, all documents, but does not
happen with any other program (including Excel), or with other printers --
it's just Word and these two printers, so it hardly seems that it's a driver
issue. The same user can log into their account from another computer and
print the same document to these printers with no problems.

I tried deleting and reinstalling printer drivers, both from the HP disk and
downloading from their site, and deleted and reinstalled Office and all
updates, but neither helped. Then did an archive/install of OS X, with all
updates; problem still happened. Then did a complete wipe of the drive and
installed everything from scratch. This fixed the problem, but when I went
through the same process on the second problem computer, the problem was not
fixed. The only difference in what I did with the two computers was that on
the first one I tested Word every step of the way -- after every OS and Office
install and update. Whether this somehow affected the final results, or I was
just lucky the first time and something else is causing the problem, I don't
know.

Has anyone experienced Word setting a ridiculously large margin like this, or
have any solutions?

thanks
kevin

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[KevinJustie]

I found and removed the files/folders in steps 2 and 3 (and repaired permissions), but could not find any "Normal" files (step 1; used Finder search) -- and the problem still happens. If that's because there are Normal files someplace and I just missed them, can you tell me where they would be? If there might not be any Normal files, then I guess we need to try something else.

As I mentioned in my original post, I had done an archive and install, and when that didn't work I then did a complete erase and install -- so there can't be any old accounts or prefs files hanging around.

But, unlike on the first computer (where the problem was fixed by an erase and install), and on this second computer before the erase and install, it now *only* happens in one local account -- other local accounts, as well as network accounts no longer have the problem. So I tried deleting all MS preferences and identity-related info in this local account -- in lib/prefs, lib/app support, and documents/MS user data -- and the problem is still there. But, I'm also not getting the first-run dialog box asking for personal information, leading me to think there's some other identity-related info I've missed. If that's the case, and you think deleting it would help, can you tell me where that would be? Or, any other options to try? As a last-ditch resort, I can always delete this OS X user account and just start a new one, but I'd like to have a better solution than that for the next time this happens.

thanks

kevin

 

[John McGhie]

Deleting the OS X user account and creating a new one will be a hell of a
lot quicker than anything else you could try.

The issue is not the "program files" because they work OK in another user
ID.

The issue is in the "Preference Files" ‹ But I do not know which one.
Obviously, it's one of the preferences in the User Library.

Yes, there is a hidden PID file you cannot see unless you login as root: if
that remains, then you won't be prompted for your licence key.

Try knocking out the "com.microsoft.Word.plist" in the top level of User
Preferences (and all its family and friends...) and see if that cures it.
Back them up first, some of those files may disable an application of they
are not there.

Cheers

I found and removed the files/folders in steps 2 and 3 (and repaired
permissions), but could not find any "Normal" files (step 1; used Finder
search) -- and the problem still happens. If that's because there are Normal
files someplace and I just missed them, can you tell me where they would be?
If there might not be any Normal files, then I guess we need to try something
else.

As I mentioned in my original post, I had done an archive and install, and
when that didn't work I then did a complete erase and install -- so there
can't be any old accounts or prefs files hanging around.

But, unlike on the first computer (where the problem was fixed by an erase and
install), and on this second computer before the erase and install, it now
*only* happens in one local account -- other local accounts, as well as
network accounts no longer have the problem. So I tried deleting all MS
preferences and identity-related info in this local account -- in lib/prefs,
lib/app support, and documents/MS user data -- and the problem is still there.
But, I'm also not getting the first-run dialog box asking for personal
information, leading me to think there's some other identity-related info I've
missed. If that's the case, and you think deleting it would help, can you tell
me where that would be? Or, any other options to try? As a last-ditch resort,
I can always delete this OS X user account and just start a new one, but I'd
like to have a better solution than that for the next time this happens.

thanks

kevin

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[KevinJustie]

Getting rid of the PID and plist files didn't help, so I just created a new account. But just FYI, I did identify exactly what was causing the problem: set a (any) default printer in the Pring & Fax preferences. If it's left at "Last printer used" in a brand new account, and you only select the printer in the Print dialog box, or in Word's Page Setup, everything works OK. But as soon as you select a default printer in the OS X preferences, the margin problem starts, with all printers, and will never go away, even you change the prefs back to "Last printer used."' At least in the testing I did, the only solution was to abandon the account and start a new one.

 

[John McGhie]

Thanks Kevin:

Useful information: I have sent this on to the Word Developers (actually,
to the Software Development Engineer in Test, who will write it up as a bug
if he can get it to repro in the test lab...)

Cheers

Getting rid of the PID and plist files didn't help, so I just created a new
account. But just FYI, I did identify exactly what was causing the problem:
set a (any) default printer in the Pring & Fax preferences. If it's left at
"Last printer used" in a brand new account, and you only select the printer in
the Print dialog box, or in Word's Page Setup, everything works OK. But as
soon as you select a default printer in the OS X preferences, the margin
problem starts, with all printers, and will never go away, even you change the
prefs back to "Last printer used."' At least in the testing I did, the only
solution was to abandon the account and start a new one.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]