printer preferences = thick paper, but old office doc's give error

[Mark Bbb]

I have searched in the options (advanced) of Excell but i can't find anything close to "fit to pressent printer-settings".
Nor i can see something related to this problem in printer propertys or printer settings, on machine.

[mojorolla]

I have searched in the options (advanced) of Excell but i can't find anything close to "fit to pressent printer-settings".
Nor i can see something related to this problem in printer propertys or printer settings, on machine.

You said a dirty word...."Excel". These are great for viewing as a spreadsheet but are a total pain in the ass when it comes to printing. With Excel, I generally use 2007 compatibility mode (or called something similar). There are also issue with printing the tabs, color versus mono pertaining the separate sheets. Try printing an Excel to a bypass tray on a Toshiba and it goes ape shit.. As to the settings in Excel, select print, then at the bottom you will see Page Setup. You can set paper size, dpi, and fit to page. Printing runs on a hierarchy...program, print driver, then machine settings. If the program says Letter, plain, the print driver will try to match.

[srvctec]

You can create Office documents with custom properties. For example, I use a Word document, that will only print from tray 4, when I conduct training classes. Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching newbie fall all over themselves the first time they encounter this (yes, I am a very sick man). Another simple mistake folks make is hitting OK when changing settings. OK will hold it for that job; Apply will hold it forever.

If the problem only happens with old Word documents and not with newly created documents I would say that when the document was first saved, Word was set to "Save printer settings with document." Look for Options, Preferences or Settings within the document under File - Print.

I had no idea this could even be done. Just tried it and that's pretty cool!

[KenB]

You said a dirty word...."Excel". These are great for viewing as a spreadsheet but are a total pain in the ass when it comes to printing. With Excel, I generally use 2007 compatibility mode (or called something similar). There are also issue with printing the tabs, color versus mono pertaining the separate sheets. Try printing an Excel to a bypass tray on a Toshiba and it goes ape shit.. As to the settings in Excel, select print, then at the bottom you will see Page Setup. You can set paper size, dpi, and fit to page. Printing runs on a hierarchy...program, print driver, then machine settings. If the program says Letter, plain, the print driver will try to match.

I agree.

Excel absolutely sucks when it comes to printing.

I’ve heard numerous times over the years that it was never actually designed to...I believe it!

[slimslob]

You said a dirty word...."Excel". These are great for viewing as a spreadsheet but are a total pain in the ass when it comes to printing. With Excel, I generally use 2007 compatibility mode (or called something similar). There are also issue with printing the tabs, color versus mono pertaining the separate sheets. Try printing an Excel to a bypass tray on a Toshiba and it goes ape shit.. As to the settings in Excel, select print, then at the bottom you will see Page Setup. You can set paper size, dpi, and fit to page. Printing runs on a hierarchy...program, print driver, then machine settings. If the program says Letter, plain, the print driver will try to match.

I agree.

Excel absolutely sucks when it comes to printing.

I’ve heard numerous times over the years that it was never actually designed to...I believe it!

It is not that bad, once you learn all the settings you have to make in order to tell it what you want to print and how you want it printed.

Select overall print area
Hide unwanted rows and columns within the print area
Print column letters and row numbers - YES/NO
Print grid lines - YES/NO
Adjust margins
Zoom in/out to get it to at least fit width
Header row(s) if it will be more than one page
Et cetera, et cetera and so forth

[KenB]

If the problem only happens with old Word documents and not with newly created documents I would say that when the document was first saved, Word was set to "Save printer settings with document." Look for Options, Preferences or Settings within the document under File - Print.

Back when copiers first became printers (maybe around 1998 or so) I had a weird problem with a hospital.

Their standard for word processing was WordPerfect (the Windows version; back then the DOS version was still quite popular).

They just bought a few new Canon machines, which replaced their old HP printers.

Their docs were saved with the default printer as the HP. The prints had long lines of text split over several lines.

The reason? The side margins on the HPs were much skinnier than the Canons were.

I ended up having them keep the HP drivers to use just for printing the WordPerfect docs, which worked.

Moral of the story is that the default printer at the time of document creation plays a very large part in how it is set up.

[slimslob]

Back when copiers first became printers (maybe around 1998 or so) I had a weird problem with a hospital.

Their standard for word processing was WordPerfect (the Windows version; back then the DOS version was still quite popular).

They just bought a few new Canon machines, which replaced their old HP printers.

Their docs were saved with the default printer as the HP. The prints had long lines of text split over several lines.

The reason? The side margins on the HPs were much skinnier than the Canons were.

I ended up having them keep the HP drivers to use just for printing the WordPerfect docs, which worked.

Moral of the story is that the default printer at the time of document creation plays a very large part in how it is set up.

Back then I worked mainly on Lanier Worldwide digital dictation systems. One of my hospitals used still used WordPerfect 5.1, which was I think last DOS version. Had to do with compatibility with the software they used to upload reports to their main frame computer.

[KenB]

Back then I worked mainly on Lanier Worldwide digital dictation systems. One of my hospitals used still used WordPerfect 5.1, which was I think last DOS version. Had to do with compatibility with the software they used to upload reports to their main frame computer.

Yep, 5.1 for DOS was the defacto standard back then...along with Lotus 123 for spreadsheets.

[KenB]

Around 2002 or 2003, we placed a bunch of Ricoh color MFPs at a fairly large bank.

All was well until they started printing Excel docs with color.

Any images or cells with a background color printed as a greyish blob with cross hatched lines.

It took a while to figure out, but they were created with an older printer as the default, and it only supported a max of 300 DPI; the Ricohs required a minimum of 600 DPI. Oops!

Each Excel doc needed to be opened and re-saved with the Ricoh driver as the default. After doing so, they printed happily on the Ricoh machines.

[marvin-vegan]

Around 2002 or 2003, we placed a bunch of Ricoh color MFPs at a fairly large bank.

All was well until they started printing Excel docs with color.

Any images or cells with a background color printed as a greyish blob with cross hatched lines.

It took a while to figure out, but they were created with an older printer as the default, and it only supported a max of 300 DPI; the Ricohs required a minimum of 600 DPI. Oops!

Each Excel doc needed to be opened and re-saved with the Ricoh driver as the default. After doing so, they printed happily on the Ricoh machines.

reminds me exactly this thread printer preferences not activated in old office doc's on a c3003

also problems with MS office package especially Word, Excell..