Bizarre Printing Omission

[Wickerman]

Okay, here's a real head-scratcher.  I have a multi-part report that is, in virtually every way, behaving as expected.  Expect for one Field, "LOCATION" which is the only field in a Sub-Summary part.  The Field has Entries Like Box 1 Box 2 etc. 

 

In terms of Sorting and accurately ordering the hierarchy of records beneath it, it's behaving just fine.

 

When I go to "Preview" Mode, it's looking good to go!

 

But when I actually *print* -- or save the report as a PDF file . . . the *Numeral* isn't printing!   To begin with, this just seems like it can't be -- how can I see characters in Preview that don't actually print?

 

It's *not* a margin issue, or a matter of space.  I played around with one Report that had a longer Location entry: "Oversize Box 1".  The "1" does not print or save to PDF.   I changed the "1" to an "A" and the "A" didn't appear.  I tried "Oversized 1 Box 1" -- the internal '1' printed, but not the terminal '1' ("Oversize 1 Box" was the result).    I treied putting a period after the final character (Oversize Box 1.) and still got back "Oversize Box" in the print versions.  Again, the entry always displays correctly in Preview Mode.  

 

This is just a simple 'Merge field' for a standard Text field.

 

For a little more color on the problem, it's not *me* who's having the problem, but my client.  I'm on a Mac and it works fine -- she's on a PC and is having this weird printing omission that I don't know how to *begin* to fix!

Further, this is a file we originally developed in FMP 10 or 11 but up-converted to 12 last summer. 

It's working fine in every other respect we can see.

 

Any suggestions what in the world might be going on?  Could it be some miniscule bit of corruption?  Should I make a new field, dump the data into it and re-set the merge field on the layout?

[bcooney]

How about a font issue? If you change the font, what happens? Specify the font on a PC.

[anthrob]

If you have not done this, check to see if the field object on the layout had not been configured to NOT print.

- In Layout mode, select the object.

- Click Inspector in the layout bar, then click Position.

- In the Sliding & Visibility area, for Object visibility, check and make sure "Hide when printing" is NOT selected.

[doughemi]

I've seen things like this which turned out to be printer driver problems. Does the client have the latest driver for her printer? Can she try a different printer? How about trying a different PDF printer driver like CutePDF (a free "printer" driver that takes the output from an app and generates PDF, but looks and installs like a printer as far as the OS knows)?  

[Wickerman]

Thanks for the suggestions -- I'll experiment a bit.

 

But to be really clear, the bizarre thing about this is that we're not even talking about a layout object tha combines a text label + data.  On the layout the object is simply a merge field, like so:  <<Location>>

 

The pdf/printer is successfully offering up *some* but not *all* of the field data!   Where the value for Location (which is a simple text field) is "Box 1" the print out is displaying "Box"  -- so whatever the problem is, it's treating characters *within* a text field differently.   Other similar merge fields on the layout that include numerals are behaving just fine!

[Wickerman]

Turns out if I change from Times to Helvetica, it works okay . . . 

[bcooney]

Hmm..didn't someone suggest that? lol

[Wickerman]

Genius!  :-)

 

But why would Times fail to print simple numerals on just this one of many similar merge fields on the layout?

[Lee Smith]

Perhaps the answer you are looking for is here. Font Management

[Wickerman]

Thanks Lee, for that invaluable reference!