windows 2000 printing issue when using a script

[pbubend1]

Hi Everyone, desperately need some help on this one. Ok lil background, we currently are running Filemaker Pro 6 off a Mac OS X server. Until recently we were mostly Macs, but we are migrating to serveral users to Windows 2000.

Issue: Our FM consultant had to setup print scripts in order to enable printing to landscape and reducition other wise the print out would be cut off. This worked fine on the Macs for a long time, however on Windows 2000, after she setup the print scripts and everything works (landscape and 89% reducition or scaling) intially till the computer is restarted and than the scripts do not work properly it only sets for landscape and the scaling is lost. She has configure FM6 to identify which OS, for Windows OS its a -2, not sure this is right, but she said it should be fine. So I pose three questions:

1. Why does it seem to know to use landscape but not reduce, even though the script is used?

2. How can I make the settings (landscape and 89% reduction) permanent even after the computer is restarted?

3. Is it necessary to setup and perform a replace of the script for each windows 2000 sytesm?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, as I am at my wits end, and our FM consultant is out of answers.

thanks in advance

Paul

FileMaker Version: 6

Platform: Windows 2000

[BobWeaver]

Filemaker lets you save both a Mac and Windows page setup for every script. Make sure that the page setup has actually been saved in the script that does the printing.

Do a page setup on the windows machine: landscape, 89% etc. and then do a print. Then, open the script that has the page setup step in it. Close the script and you will get a dialog asking you to either keep or replace your original page setup. Select replace. This will actually keep your original Mac page setup for Macs, and will add the new page setup for windows.

[pbubend1]

Thanks for the reply Bobweaver, we have done that, however when the windows system is restarted it, and I access Filemaker and attempt to print a form using script it only does the landscape, and reduction is no longer in place. We have contacted filemaker support and they were no help at all.

Also do the scripts have to modified for every windows client? From what we have seen so far it does, but it doesn't have to be on the Macs.

thanks,

Paul

[BobWeaver]

You should only have to do it once. But, you have to do it while running on a windows machine. So, you will have to temporarily transfer the files to a windows machine, open the scripts and resave with the new page setup and then copy the files back to the OSX server.

Some other things to think about:

Is your server machine running Filemaker Server or just a regular copy of Filemaker Pro?

Are you certain that the users are always accessing the files via the hosts option?

Is there any possibility that some of the windows users have accidentally made a copy of the server files on their own machine, and are accessing the wrong copy?

[pbubend1]

Hi Bobweaver,

I was not aware files had to be copied to the local windows machine and backup to the OS X server. When I have worked with our FM consultant, she lauches the FM client 6.0v4 from a Windows 2000 machine, modifies the script and does a replace, and they work until the machine is restared and when I attempt to login to Filemaker, and we do use the host option, and we are running Filemaker Server v6.0, the scripts no longer work properly.

Are there local files or scripts on the Windows client? Are there supposed to be files that the Windows computer retrieves from the OS X filemaker server.

thanks for your help

Pual

[pbubend1]

Anyone have any other suggestions to fix my problem? Desperately in need of help, as we are trying to roll out Windows 2000, and this is the only thing holding us up. Your help is greatly appreciated

[BobWeaver]

Hi Paul,

Actually, I guess you can make the changes by accessing the files from the server on the client machine. It's just that I normally do all changes to files on the server machine with it isolated from the network so that no one can access the files while I'm working on them.

Anyway, to answer your questions:

There should be no local files on the client machine. All files are on the server and all scripts are in the server files. If you do find Filemaker files on the client machine, that could be part of the problem.

When a client computer is accessing the server's files, it automatically retrieves any necessary scripts from the server and runs them. Once a page setup is stored in a script on the server file, it is unaffected by what happens on a client machine. So, rebooting the client shouldn't have any effect. For some reason, the script is not saving a valid page setup for the Windows machine. When you do a manual page setup, it will become the default for the client machine unless overridden by a page setup stored in a script. Since there is apparently no valid Windows page setup stored, it will use the last manual page setup that you did. Once exit out of Filemaker and/or reboot the client, the page setup will default back to portrait.

I don't know why you are unable to save the new page setup in the script. I'm guessing that you may be missing some small but important step. Maybe you should make separate page setup scripts for each platform. The method is to script it like this:

If [Abs(Status(CurrentPlatform))=1]