Printing problems Upgrading from Fm 3 to 5.5

[Dermot]

Hi Folks,

We have a client who bought FMp 5.5 2 years ago and has used it on his main database ever since with no problems - He still had another small database on about 5 PC's (Win 98) which he served via an NT server. Lately he upgraded this database to version 5.5 too as his old NT server packed in - Now all his databases are running off a 2000 server.

The problem is that on the version 3 database he had a OKI microline 3320 9 pin dot matrix printer which worked fine - However, ever since he converted the files to FMp 5.5 the dot matrix printes everything 3 or 4 times the size it used to print under FMp 3.

They have tried various drivers to no avail - The original driver which worked fine on FMp 3 was the "IBM Proprinter III" - - This really prints very badly now under FMp 5.5 !

It seems as though FMP 5.5 just doesn't like the dot matrix printer and/or the drivers we have tried ! (all the client PC's are Win 98 with a 2000 server)

Anyone got any idea's - Every other package prints fine to it.....Except FMP 5.5

Any help would be very much appreciated folks !

Thanks in advance for your help

Dermot

[Lee Smith]

You need to update the Print Setup for this script.

To do this, you first need to perform the print manually just the way it needs to be. After you print, then open ScriptMaker, select the Script to be changed, hit Edit, and then click Okay. A dialog box will come up asking if you want to keep or replace the Print Setup, check Replace.

If there is more than one script with Printing involved, you will need to repeat this for each one. If you have any problems, let us know.

HTH

Lee

[Dermot]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for you very prompt reply !

I actually tried printing manually without going near the script and its exactly the same - i.e. everything prints 3 or 4 times larger than it should - Point 8 font looks like point 24 or 30 !!

It's crazy, I just don't get it ... It worked a treat before they installed 5.5 !

[Lee Smith]

Hi Dermot,

As you can see, I'm a Mac person, but it sounds like a Font problem.

What I would do is to go into layout mode, selected the fields on the layout, and change them to the Fonts named on the current machine. My guess is that the fonts will look weird, or will not show in the window.

Let us know what happens.

Lee

[Dermot]

Hi Lee,

I'll have to do that tomorrow - I'm not at their site at the moment !

Can't help thinking that another driver might cure the problem but I just don't know which one to try and I can't try them all !

I'll let you know the outcome of it all.........Nightmare !

Dermot

[stanley]

Dermot:

I get this issue sometimes with PCs printing to dot matrix printers in FMP 5 or 6. What I end up having to do is just tweak the layouts until they look good on the printer - no matter what they look like in preview mode (which just doesn't jibe with the actual output.) The printers used by my clients are Epson 880s, but I suspect this is an issue across the board with 9-pin printers, as it has been raised on these forums a number of times in the past.

-Stanley

[Dermot]

Stanley,

thanks for the input but the font points are already set to point 8 - Can't see that working for me to be quite honest but I may have to give it a try - Sounds horrible though as it would take a hell of a long time by trial and error as I have a few large printouts to deal with !

I'm going to keep trying other drivers in the meantime - If I get a good one I'll let you all know !

Dermot

[stanley]

Dermot:

Yes, it's a nightmare. The stuff I deal with prints onto pre-printed triplicate forms, so everything has to align perfectly with what's already on the form - I have to waste acres of paper each time a new print layout is created.

Good luck.

-Stanley

[Dermot]

Hi Folks,

I went back to the client with the problems today - I actually spent quite a bit of time and used Stanleys suggestion of decreasing the font size which worked fine (after a lot of trial & error) However the bloody thing won't print the footer ::

Can't understand it for the life of me - Prints the header & body fine but will NOT print the footer (I even created a new layout - won't print the footer there either !

Anyway - One bit of good news is that they want to buy a new dot matrix anyway - Can anyone suggest a good Fast dot matrix which will work 100% with Win 98 client PC's and Fileaker 5.5 ??

A definate answer here would be great !

Thanks folks

Dermot

[stanley]

Oh, the horror!

Does the footer appear in Preview mode? Is the paper size correct?

We use the Epson 880 series in a couple of installations. It has much the same issues - and I can't answer regarding if it will print a footer, because I don't use a footer in the layouts for the thing. Otherwise, it's a decent enough machine, and we use Win 98 and FMP 5.5 on the dot matrix boxes. If you want more specific info, let me know.

-Stanley

[Dermot]

Hi Stanley & all !

It did show the footer in preview mode but still didn't print it out !

But the good news is that I finally got it sorted out - I had to make the footer about 5 times bigger than the total of the header & body size !

Looks mad in layout mode but it works 100% after another bit of fiddling about with the exact size - The crazy thing is that I was just about to go and tell them to buy a new dot matrix (different model) when I dragged the footer way down - Never thought it would work but it did !

Anyway folks - Thanks for your help and I'll speak to you again no doubt !

Cheers

Dermot

[stanley]

Another excellent example of the bizarre layout behavior of impact printers when combined with FMP 5 and Windows.

-Stanley