Constant printing irregularities! GOING CRAZY!

[cmartin]

My reports are always fine in preview mode and then invariably have hiccups when printed. My boss just slammed some papers in my face and said she was sick of it. I have tried new drivers (HP Color LaserJet 4550N) but that does not seem to have solved the problem. I have switched all the layout fields to merge fields, also did not fix the problem. Things that are set to slide leave bigger than expected gaps in between lines and some lines just print half way. In a 50 page report, this may happen in only one or two records. I cannot identify anything unique about those in which it occurs. Seems to be completely random. I really need help. It appears that these issues have increased tenfold since upgrading to 5.5. We are on PCs.

Quick replies much appreciated, as reported needed for meeting soon.

Also, a page which prints incorrectly when it is 10 out of 50 will print correctly if it is printed individually, leading to the conclusion that there is some sort of cumulative effect.

Thanks in advance-

c

[ernst]

Hi c,

Looks like you need a workaround for now.

Possibility 1. If the reports are always about 50 pages long, make 50 separate scripts, or at least print in smaller chunks.

Possibility 2. Get some 'PrintToPdf' type of program and print to a .pdf file. If that gives a good result try printing from your pdf-viewer.

And give your boss some tranquilizer through her coffee....

Best regards,

Ernst.

[cmartin]

Ernst-

I think I will have to go with the pdf option, a bit of a pain. Accompanied by the tranquilizer. Perhaps one for myself, as well.

Thanks-

Courtney

[-Queue-]

Also ensure that your boss isn't changing printers after print setup has already run. This can cause odd issues as well.

As for the lines that print more than you expect, have you checked whether there are carriage returns in any of that record's fields where there shouldn't be?

[LaRetta]

Hi Courtney,

I had the same problem - there is a glitch with HP. I even downloaded a new driver and ... nada. CobaltSky identified this problem (post on Cafe', I believe).

Random lines in reports would print too low (or too high) or disappear. Printing the same page individually worked (sometimes). I couldn't predict it at all. I went on a carriage return witch-hunt to no avail.

The good news is that I think there's a fix for you! Change your Format > Align Text > Vertical. Mine was 'center' and it cut off the top of the fields. I changed to TOP and it worked great!! Never another problem!!

If it's TOP, change to CENTER. Change all fields in the body and try printing and let us know how it goes!

LaRetta

[mleiser]

Did anyone ever resolve this issue? I have the identical problem with all my printers that I try. Also, the align trick doesn't work. I'm going crazy with this. Can anyone help?

Mike

[Oldfogey]

Gone crazy!

I had a file (1 of about 10 in the DB) which started playing up when my customer moved premises and hardware. (Actually it had played up much earlier but I was too dopey to worry. For some odd reason, printouts of scripts and field definitions did not have the filename or page numbers on the footer.)

Fixed margins became unfixed, paragraphs spread out, etc. and the last straw -

a print of 2 copies would print only one copy. After the usual finger-pointing (HP, FMP, driver, XP, network, etc.) I just re-built the file almost from scratch. It has fixed all problems except for printing 2 copies over the network Fortunately my customer does not need that any more.

I believe the problem goes back to my copying and pasting from a Word document.

[mleiser]

For such a highly rated program, which I personally recommend to everyone, this printing problem is ridiculous. To have strange workarounds is not an answer. I can't rewrite applications after all I put into them. I set alignment, center to top, etc. - not resolved. If there's anyone out there that knows what to do, please let me know. It's quite embarrasing.

Mike

[johnmci]

Amen to that last sentiment!

I love working in FileMaker but I have struggled for YEARS dinking around with print layouts on various solutions I have. And, yes, it is embarrassing when I get that look from a client that says "you're so inept you can't get this to print correctly on my 3 printers?"

John

[kenneth2k1]

I had this thought one time (dangerous, I know )

My guess is that FileMaker was created/tested with PostScript drivers in mind mostly. Many printer drivers around for Windows come as both PS and PCL, but my experience is that Windows users will get the PCL drivers.

Does anyone know if it might help to change to PS or PCL?