Word printing issue

[RogerLesley]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Hi all, new to MAC, switched from PC to MAC in December 2009.
Trying to simulate MS Publisher using MAC Word 2008.
Can only seem to get background colours to be effective at Print Preview stage, if I add a background colour in the Word document view first and then switch into Print Preview the background colour has disappeared and the same if I try to Print.

Any ideas?

 

[John McGhie]

Check in Word>Preferences>Print>Options for this document only...

What is your setting for "background colours and images"?

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
Hi all, new to MAC, switched from PC to MAC in December 2009.
Trying to simulate MS Publisher using MAC Word 2008.
Can only seem to get background colours to be effective at Print Preview
stage, if I add a background colour in the Word document view first and then
switch into Print Preview the background colour has disappeared and the same
if I try to Print.

Any ideas?

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[RogerLesley]

Originally this option was un-ticked but I set it on (ticked it) however this made no difference.

 

[CyberTaz]

Make sure that Office, OS X, *and* your printer driver are fully updated.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RogerLesley]

Latest drivers have been loaded on and machine restarted but same issue still exists.

Out of interest the Printer is a Epson SX510W

Any further thoughts?

 

[CyberTaz]

Other than what John & I have suggested I'm afraid I have no idea. I am not
able to reproduce anything similar to what I understand the problem to be...
But perhaps I'm not totally clear in that understanding.

How about detailing more exactly what you've done, how you've gone about it,
etc. In particular, what do you mean by "simulate MS Publisher" as well as
"Word document view" ‹ Word offers several views of a document, each of
which has its own characteristics.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RogerLesley]

OK, as an example, if I open up Word, click on Format, then Background, select any colour, say green, then the displayed page is that colour, green. If I then select File then Print preview, the page shown in the preview pane is white and not green. If I print the page then again the printed output is white and not green.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Roger;

It isn't that I don't believe you it's just that I can't reproduce what
you're experiencing, and that makes it difficult to pinpoint the cause on
your system. Just to make sure, confirm that your installation of Office is
at 12.2.3 & that 10.6.2 is the update level of OS X. If you do need to
update either, repair disk permissions & see if that resolves the problem.

If you're already current or if the problem persists after updating, start
Word while holding the Shift key to see if the behavior continues. Using the
Shift key launches based on Word's defaults, so if the problem goes away it
suggests that you may have a corrupt Normal.dotm template, a damaged
preferences file or that some other software or setting is preventing your
preference settings from being updated.

As a second test, log out, then hold the Shift key while you log in. Launch
Word as usual & see if you still have the same result.

As one more diagnostic, log in using a different/new User Account & see if
the same problem occurs there.

Reply with your results for each of these 3 troubleshooting procedures. One
or more of them should point to a potential solution.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RogerLesley]

Hi again,

Word version is definitely 12.2.3 and OS X is 10.6.2.

I have tried all three options as you have suggested but the same problem still exists in all instances. The only way I can get around the problem is if I do the following:-

Open up Word.
Go straight into Print Preview.
Then Format, Background and add a colour.
Go to Print.
Within Print select Preview from this Pane.
This time the Print Preview shows the colour!

Another anomaly which may be related is when using the Fill Effect option within the Background Pane. If I use the one of the Gradient variations then the Preview on the Fill Effects Pane looks fine but if I then Preview that or Print it then only part of the variation is shown. It's almost as if it was trying to print to an A5 or A6 type paper.

I hope some of this helps?

 

[RogerLesley]

Hi again,

I seemed to have resolved the main issue now.
Went into Word then Preferences, unticked the 'Background colors and images in Print Layout View' and OK'd that.
Went back into same panel and re-ticked it and hey presto it worked.

However, this does not appear to have fixed the Fill Effect issue mentioned in my last reply, again any ideas?

 

[CyberTaz]

The only thing I can tell you with certainty is that the Background option
is designed for screen display only - primarily if Word is used to generate
web pages. In fact, prior to Office 2007/2008 there wasn't even an option to
include them for printing. I never use Word for web purposes, nor do I ever
ink a page to the extent that Backgrounds call for so my knowledge of them
is something I've not had reason to fully expand.

My impression is that because they actually are generated as *effects*
rather than as graphic objects they don't translate to print very
effectively. They're basically the same effects used for Fills of shapes
which automatically scale based on the dimensions of the shape. When used to
fill a sheet the proportions are thrown off because there is no physical
definition of a 'page' in Word as an element of the document. Results can
readily vary depending on the printer involved.

If you have a need to do something of this nature, the more common practice
is to insert a pre-designed graphic of the preferred dimensions or create a
filled shape. Position & anchor the 'background' in the document Header with
Behind Text text wrapping applied to it.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[RogerLesley]

Thanks for all your help, problem seems to be resolved.

Roger