Page Setup Issue in Printing

[tmac]

My database, with scripted print buttons, orients the page correctly before printing. I've been using a StyleWriter 2500 connected to my computer. Today I connected to the building's new networked HP LaserJet 2100 series and it promptly printed all layouts in portrait orientation, ignoring the print script completely. The odd thing is, when I switched back to my trusty StyleWriter, it did the same thing. Please don't tell me that I have to tweak every script, with regards to page orientation, each time I switch printers. Is this typical of a corrupted file? Data entry works perfectly. Help!

[BobWeaver]

The format of the page setup data is dependent on the printer driver. So, the page setup for one printer won't be recognized by the the driver for another type of printer. That means you have to save a separate page setup script for each printer that you intend to print to. Sorry.

[Skye Ridley]

Yikes! If this is the case, how can I possibly create a solution that prints stuff, if the solution might be used by a variety of people with a variety of printers?? I can't plan for every possible printer!

guess I'd better get myself over to the Solutions Forum! : )

[tmac]

My solution was to uncheck "perform without dialog" when my print script goes to Page SetUp 'Restore'. That way, the Page SetUp window opens and lets the user select appropriate orientation, before it prints. The up side is it works for any printer anywhere. The down side is your users need to be sitting there to make the portrait or landscape selection each time a new layout prints, causing you to lose some of the convenience of script 'automation.'

[john.daly]

;confused; Is this really true?? I have solutions which use landscape an portrait running on a variety of printers with the Page Setup suppressed. I've never come across the problem of it changing the orientation. If I run a script to print landscape that's what it does regardless of the printer.

[BobWeaver]

I'm going by what I read from Inside Macintosh a few years ago when I was developing an application which had to deal with the print driver routines. It's quite likely that things have changed since then.

Based on the information I have, the printer driver creates a print record which contains the page setup info. When the user is selecting the printing options such as portrait/landscape, page size, print quality, etc. that goes into the print record which is stored with the document (ie, database file). Although the application is responsible for saving the print record, it doesn't necesarily know what the data in it means. It's basically private to the driver. When an application such as Filemaker attempts to print, it calls up the saved print record and calls a print record validate routine which causes the current printer driver to check to see if it is a valid print record for that driver. If so, it uses it. If not, it creates a new print record with default settings. The driver in turn will tell the application the page dimensions and resolution that the user selected in the page setup so that it knows how to format the printed page. But the application can't actually set or change any of these without bringing up the page setup dialog.

Since you can have lots of different printers that all use the same driver, such as all the laserwriter printers, the page setup for one should work for the others in that family too. The problem arises when you print to a totally different type of printer with a different driver. I know that later versions of the Mac OS had apparently provided a cleaner interface to the printer drivers. Perhaps that sometimes allows the parameters that are common to all printers to be remembered when the driver is changed.

Filemaker is smart enough to save more than one page setup for a script. If you set up a print script on a Mac, and then transfer the database to Windows, and edit the script and select the use new page setup option when you are done, Filemaker will remember both the Mac and Windows setup, so you can then use it on either machine without having to redo the page setup. Maybe Filemaker can remember multiple setups for the different printer driver types on the same machine. Might be worth a try.

Sorry for babbling on here.

[john.daly]

What Bob says makes a lot of sense but I set up a simple file with two Print scripts - one for landscape and one for portrait. I then printed using both the scripts first to an HP Laserjet connected directly to my PC and then to an Epson inkjet via a LAN and then again on the HP Laserjet. All printed as they should!

By the way, what version of FIlemaker are you using?

[This message has been edited by john.daly (edited February 24, 2001).]

[tmac]

Our school district is using FP 4.03, originally purchased as 4.0 then updated via FileMaker's web site. I was hoping the updates would fix the print issue but have been told the only way to totally automate to our mix of Epsons, Apple's and HPs with more than 10 different models, all totaled, would be to update the print scripts from each computer. We even found that what printed perfectly from my HP 935c, where the script originated, would orient incorrectly on a HP 722c. The database we're using saves us hours but this print issue has really been frustrating.

[BobWeaver]

I'm often wrong.

BTW I upgraded from FM3 directly to FM5, skipping version 4. But, my understanding of version 4 is that it is essentially the same as version 3 with the web handling bells and whistles. If so, then it could explain printing problems. Version 5's printing has been (for me anyway) much less troublesome than the earlier ones.