I've created a database "we" use for attendee management at special events. It quite literally tracks everything relative to all attendees including hotel, travel arrangements, activity selections and groupings, breakout session rotations, etc. It also produces all the attendee correspondence and reporting necessary for all suppliers. In some cases, once I've customized the database for a particular event, I pass it off to someone else to do input, produce attendee confirmations, etc. There's also a project manager who gets an update from time to time for viewing purposes only.

I am using OSX with FMP v. 5.5.2. They are both on a PC using version 5.5.1. Strangely, I can print a letter from my database (either hard copy or PDF) and it's perfect. When I pass it off to one of the PC users, strange things (sometimes) happen. Even tho I'm using what should be transparent Mac to PC fonts - Arial & Times NR, it will inevitably throw something off. This isn't even what I take issue with (although I'd love a solution).

First, the PC user printed (via PDF) a 4 page letter and the 4th page was blank (and shouldn't have been). Secondly, there were horizontal lines (about 1" long) all the way down the 1st page -- the other 2 pages were fine. They show up fine in Preview mode and Print to any of our printers fine, they just can't PDF them.

Now we're a small group and we don't publish on the web (yet) since some of the information is highly confidential... but we'll get there. I'm just concerned about the transparency - or sometimes lack thereof - between the Mac and PC. And then of course, these issues.

Any suggestions?

MANY MANY MAN thanks in advance!

Linda:

Welcome to the Forums.

You'll always find slight variations between Windows & Mac when it comes to fonts - that's just the way it is, and you've got to live with it, unless you do separate layouts for Mac & Win, and script a detection of platform to direct the user automatically to the right layouts...

As for the line you're getting on the pdf - does that appear on the Mac side as well as the Win side? If not, perhaps you should look into the Win pdf printer; see if using a different pdf printer will work better. The way I look at it, if it previews & prints correctly, it should come out correctly in a pdf.

-Stanley

Thank you Stanley! I recommended the alternative PDF writer to the other users. Ironically, using Acrobat Distiller and printing @ 99% also fixed the problem. It's not my preferred solution but it works for this particular element.

You mentioned using separate layouts for Mac & Win. Here's my question: How do I assign a PC font to a layout created on a Mac or would I have develop that layout on the PC AND would that really do the trick? We pass the database back and forth. The PC user will adjust the layout to print perfectly there but once I open it on a Mac and send it back to the PC user (without even accessing that layout), it throws it off again. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Linda