Filemaker 5.0v3, Windoze 2000

I have a layout with fields in a potal, plus other fields out in the open, plus

other fields on a light gray background. The lightest gray.

Portal, some fields, and the gray background all printed black. Text was

utterly not visible.

I changed the fill pattern for the fields to transparent (don't know why that

was necessary, as the fill color was set to white, 255/255/255). Fixed the

fields. Same for the fill pattern for the portal itself, set to transparent, fixed

the black portal. However, the gray backgrounds are still black.

Now for the weird thing - this happens ONLY on pages 2 through n. Page 1

is absolutely fine. Also, page 1 has a nice, fine gray line between portal rows,

whereas pages 2-n have a harsh black line.

The problem may stem from printing portals -- don't do it. Print from the related file (using sub-summary parts as necessary -- just don't forget to sort), and that should fix the problem ... along with any others that will crop up when printing portals.

HTH,

Dan

Note, though, that the portal and the fields within it printed properly.

The gray background was outside of any portal. Would the portal really

affect this?

Also, as to printing from related files ... I don't see how I can do this and

achieve the format I want. I can fax the desired output to you if it helps, but basically it runs like this:

_____________________________________________________________________

|

| title

| ----------

| various families:: fields (address, phone, etc.)

| ----------

| portal with 4 rows {

| various children:: fields

| // obviously repeated 4 times, once per child, to show all children

| // of this family on one sheet of paper

| }

| ----------

| various families:: fields (cost totals, payments made, etc.)

| // gray backgrounds were here

| ----------

| various other fields from the current file and other files

|_____________________________________________________________________

One more thing.

On another layout, placed a gif image (letterhead-type logo).

It prints fine on page 1, but just like in the situation I describe above, this gif prints all black on pages 2 through n. If I go to the second record, or even if I don't, and ask for a printout of pages 2 to 2, the gif prints fine.

FM 5.0v3, Win2K.

Can you try printing from another computer, and try printing to another printer. Let us know the results.

I see now that I mistyped. The problem I described with GIFs having black backgrounds was on a Win 98 machine.

When I tried the pages on a different computer, this time Win 2K (for real), no problems. All pages printed properly. So is this really an OS issue?

It could be a compatability issue between the OS and the printer.

Or it could be an OS issue.

Or it could be gremlins.

On the Win98 machine, try printing to a different printer and see what happens. I think it might be a driver problem.

I've seen this problem before. I think it is actually a bug in some printer drivers. They seem to get confused by non-transparent backgrounds and try to print them as black no matter what colour they really are. I've seen it while printing from applications other than Filemaker too.

You can try doing a "select all" in layout mode and then change to no-fill. Sometimes this will get rid of an opaque object that you didn't realize was there. But, the discrepancy between the first and subsequent pages is likely a printer driver problem or a corrupted layout. You can try making a new layout and see if it prints any better.

For consistent and predictable printing, I recommend using a postscript printer. Costs a little more, but saves lots of headaches.