Hi all

i have just upgraded my solution to 8 and i am having a few teething probs
with the printing.

it seems that the 'print setup' and 'print' in the srcipts not only saves
the orientation and size of the page, which is fine (as expected), but it
also saves the printer which is being used. in six it just used the default
printer

is this normal behaviour and do i have to make a setup script for each
printer. and also what happens once it is used on a different machine that
does not have that printer installed

the joys of upgrading

Cheers for any input
Craig

In article <dm4955$jph$1 (AT) nwrdmz03 (DOT) dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>, "C"
<c (AT) oco (DOT) com.invalid> wrote:

The Print Setup command has ALWAYS been printer specific and worked
that way.

For example, when using a Mac with an Epson printer you set the Page
Setup [Restore] command by setting the Page Setup to A4 landscape. BUT
if you use the database on another computer with a different printer
(or in some case the same printer) the Page Setup command reverts to
that printers defaults - it's only on a Mac with the same Epson that
you'll get the A4 landscape page.

This means you HAVE to set or reset the stored Page Setup information
using the same computer type (Windows or Mac), the same operating
system (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows 200, etc.) and the same printer
software. Doing this is of course impossible on something like a
shareware solution that will be run on unkonw computer configurations,
so you're best to stick to the default setting of US Letter portrait.

Using the Page Setup [Restore] command a script can store the Page
Setup information for multiple printers, but only ONE setting for any
particular printer, ie. the same script / command can store A4
landscape for an HP2200 and A4 landscape for an Epson Photo 700. It
can't store A4 landscape and A4 portrait for the Epson within the same
script - for that you need two scripts with the Page Setup [Restore]
command storing the appropriate sizes.

To store multiple Page Setups, you ...

- create a script including a Page Setup [Restore] command

- close the script

- A: choose a printer in your operating system's Printer settings

- choose the Page Setup command from the file menu and change
the settings

- open the script, close the script and choose to replace the
Page Setup information

- go back to step A and choose another printer



Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

In article <251120050858341896%helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com>,
helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com says...

If I understood the OPs claim then Not quite.

The print setup command always remembered settings per printer, but the
they would always print to the OS's default printer, even if the
'original printer they were setup with' was available.

Ie if you had 2 printers and wanted one report script to print on
printer A, and one report script to print on printer B, you couldn't
accomplish it 'within filemaker'... you *had* to use a 3rd party tool,
or manually change the 'current printer'.

If the OP is claiming that its actually printing to the remembered
printer even when its not the default printer... wow... I haven't tested
that myself yet in 8, but if its true its a welcome addition!

"Helpful Harry" <helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com> wrote



hi harry

i am now working in eight and it seems this no longer works

it seems to save the exact printer and printer settings

which means even if a users has a different printer selected eg pdfprinter
it will still print to the printer in in the script (my lexmark)

i have tried saving multiple settings like in six but i just saves it as the
last printer

i have even set all of the print scripts to not restore settings

i think i have found away around this if i know all the printers in the
office

but when we send out a runtime to the clients it not going to be easy

my script

set variable curr_printer = get (printer name)
if curr_printer = "lexmark"
print (setup saved as lexmark)
elseif curr_printer = "pdf"
print(setup saved as pdf printer)
elseif curr_printer = "another printer"
print()
endif

but the i am not sure what will happen if they dont have any of those
printers installed

have filemaker published any thing on the changes in eight on the printing
front


Cheers

C

"42" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote


its seems like more of a bug to me, i can see how this might be helpful in
some situations

but for me it means i have to make a setup and print script for all of the
five printers in the office

then what happens when its sent this out in a runtime and the users dont
have the saved printer

8.0v2 anyone

Two remarks :
- please let us know what 'workaround' you found when you'll
definitively find it.
- I would not make a 'Print' script in a distributed solution - and not
even in house - as users are pretty much used to print themselves going
to 'File' menu then 'Print'. If there were some 'Print' buttons I would
only make them open the File/Print menu with the exception of the 'Print
Setup' which you should probably define each time - Portrait or
Landscape, nothing else, layouts being to be designed that way only -.
Remi-Noel

"Remi-Noel Menegaux" <rnmenegaux (AT) free (DOT) fr> wrote

i am afraid that not always posible when compiling complex reports from five
or six different layouts

which need to be printed in one job, i need the print with no dialog to make
it seem to the user as one print job

i will keep you informed if i find a work around but at the moment i am
getting some pretty random printer choices from filemaker

i am not sure if its a bug or somthing to do with the conversion

Excuse me to react again, but the way I would try to handle that would
be to create eventually a special "Ready_To_Print" file where you'd pour
all needed data in the right order and which would be simple to print.
(that because I don't think you'll ever overcome the FMP to printer
limitations)
Remi-Noel

"C" <c (AT) oco (DOT) com.invalid> wrote



ok

i have now gone through the scripts and deleted all occurances of print or
print setup and replaced them

the print steps are all on no dialog and the setups are on nodialog as well
with the saved preferences

i have tried (as in six) to open the setup steps and save the setup for one
printer(my lexmark) and then reopened them and saved them for the pdf
printer.

i then run the script which will print out five different one page layouts
four portrait and one landscape in the middle

how ever no matter what printer i select as the filemaker default or windows
default it still prints to the pdf printer (the last printer setup saved in
all my setup scripts)

so from this i conclude that it does save the printer as well as the page
setup

this is not good if users want to print to another printer or are working on
the terminal server machine from home and want to print to their desktop
printer

do filemaker document this as normal behaviour or is this a bug (i suspect
the latter as it would now be very hard for any one to distribute any
software with complex printing scripts(it would now require individual print
setups for every printer imaginable))

Bye for now (more testing ahead)
Craig

"C" <c (AT) oco (DOT) com.invalid> wrote



i have just found this on the knowledge base

http://filemaker.custhelp.com/cgi-bi...i=&p_topview=1




printing to the default printer was how i wanted it to work, now all my
print script will only print to one printer,

i have multi layout print scripts that print on each one. i cant expect my
users to click print for each one when some of them have 60 different
layouts. i want it to print without dialog to the default printer they have
selected in windows. how can i save the print setup for every printer
imaginable for the runtimes i send out


Craig