Auto text sizing for print ... making me crazy!

[Cowtoon]

PPT 2003
I have a slide with lots of text (not used for video presentation - honest).

When I do a print preview ... all is good. When I print it spills onto a
second page - and it doubles the font size on the printout. What's with
that?????

I've told PPT to "not" autofit for this particular file. I had to reduce
the font to the point where it looked (on the screen) like it only filled
half the slide space. Only then would it print ... and fill the page when
it printed.

It was a total guessing game until it printed the way I wanted - playing
around with the font size ... working blind. The print preview was not true
and slide view was also untrue.

Is there a work around for this?

 

[Cowtoon]

You said it correctly ... PPT never spills text onto a second page (well ...
not until now) but man-oh-man ... it was doing it to me but good on Monday
night.

There are no graphics on the page. Someone (else) had pasted the text from
the notes section, onto a slide (maybe that will trigger something) and it
was this text that did the spilling.

The barfer is an HP Colour Laserjet (4600 dtn) with a postscript driver.
The misbehaving page was printed alone several times and with the rest of
the file and behaved the same, no matter what!!!!

Thanks if you can help (and of course, thanks for trying, even if you
can't).
Diana

 

[Cowtoon]

See my notes intertwined into yours. Thanks for your suggestions.

Do you know exactly how the paste was done? Ie, from what view and so on?
Also, what happens if you select the text, copy it to Notepad, delete it from
PPT then copy from Notepad and paste back into PPT?

No I don't know how it was done ... but knowing the person (and know that
she doesn't pretend to know how powerpoint works) ...I would guess that she
simply did a copy/paste. Having said that, it's how I would have done it
.... on the first go-around.

Most of the HP printers have an alternate PCL driver; does this one?
It'd be worth trying that also. There might be something flawed about the PS
that PPT/Windows sends out in some circumstances, or there could be a subtle
bug in HP's PostScript (not genuine Adobe but a clone in most of their
printers). Switching to PCL would sidestep that problem.

I know about the pcl drivers, but in this environment, I don't think I can
convince them to install a pcl driver (although I'll keep trying). I've
been asking for them, because I can't get the transparent gradients to print
.... they print as "solid shapes" on the HP 4600 (and I'm thinking the pcl5c
should do the trick - unless PowerPoint really cannot print the dithered
colours. They look fine for video display, but not for print). The company
will not allow separate drivers on individual systems and it's most
frustrating. We just migrated to Office 2003 from '97 and I've been soooo
looking forward to being able to use the transparent gradients for various
effects but can't do it without those drivers.

You can usually have both drivers installed on one computer and pick the one
you want.

Yes ... have done that (no brainer for me ... but my note above explains why
this isn't an option "yet"... however, I will continue to work on them
little by little ----- maybe someday!).

Another trick, if you have Adobe Acrobat, is to print to a PDF file then print
from that to the real printer, if all's well.

That's ok if the content isn't constantly changing. Only two of us (me
included) have Acrobat for this purpose. It's not a bad last-ditch
alternative to keep in mind.

 

[Cowtoon]

I've put ///before my responses.

from PPT then copy from Notepad and paste back into PPT?
No I don't know how it was done ... but knowing the person (and know that
she doesn't pretend to know how powerpoint works) ...I would guess that she
simply did a copy/paste. Having said that, it's how I would have done it

..... on the first go-around.

So would anyone. It's the logical way to do it.
///Agreed.

I know about the pcl drivers, but in this environment, I don't think I can
convince them to install a pcl driver (although I'll keep trying). I've
been asking for them, because I can't get the transparent gradients to print
.... they print as "solid shapes" on the HP 4600

And on any other PS driver; the effect simply isn't supported in PS and MS
hasn't cobbled up a workaround for it. So that one's not HP's fault.
///The printers all seem to be installed from the server and access the
server on print.
Choosing "local" is greyed out ... the option is removed.
Locked down pretty tight here.

(and I'm thinking the pcl5c
should do the trick - unless PowerPoint really cannot print the dithered
colours. They look fine for video display, but not for print). The company
will not allow separate drivers on individual systems and it's most
frustrating. We just migrated to Office 2003 from '97 and I've been soooo
looking forward to being able to use the transparent gradients for various
effects but can't do it without those drivers.

This raises another question; is the driver installed on the local PC and
connected to
a network printer or is it installed on the network server?
PPT doesn't much like it when it doesn't have at least ONE locally installed
printer driver.

In any case, maybe you can persuade the IT folk to install the driver
temporarily, even if only on a test PC.
///I'm working on it.

PowerPoint and PS have a long-term hate-hateevenmore relationship,
unfortunately.
It's always best to have another alternative.
///Well ... there certainly seems to be a conflict between Acrobat and MS
office.
Perhaps you've seen the postings or experienced the problem where the
Acrobat toolbar
disappears from Word and Excel (and perhaps other components) on a regular
basis.
I continually have to reinstall Acrobat regularly to overcome this problem,
even with
the latest version of Acrobat (7). I've read that this particular problem
lies with
Adobe, but don't know if that's true.

Hm. I wonder .... do you also have Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI)
installed? Might want to have a play with that. Print to it then from it
to your printer.
///I do have it ... just checked. I did a test in powerpoint, where I
filled a box with too colours and

made one of the colours transparent and printed to it (MODI), but both
colours display on the screen

when the MODI window opens (only one should show) and both printed ...
boooooooo
one you want.
Yes ... have done that (no brainer for me ... but my note above explains why

this isn't an option "yet"... however, I will continue to work on them

little by little ----- maybe someday!).That's ok if the content isn't constantly changing. Only two of us (me
included) have Acrobat for this

purpose. It's not a bad last-ditch alternative to keep in mind.

 

[Cowtoon]

Well Steve ... you made me laugh. Must bring in the hammer (might not be
big enough though).
And yes ... it's all worth a try. Thanks for your input ... always
appreciated.
Diana

And on any other PS driver; the effect simply isn't supported in PS and MS
hasn't cobbled up a workaround for it. So that one's not HP's fault.
///The printers all seem to be installed from the server and access the
server on print.
Choosing "local" is greyed out ... the option is removed.
Locked down pretty tight here.

Tell maintenance you need a bigger hammer.
Whack IT on the toes with it.
Or at least be prepared for PPT to go seriously wacko if the network goes
down
or you become disconnected from it. As long as it can print now, I don't
think
local vs network has any direct bearing on the current problem, though.

///I'm working on it.

Hammer. BIG hammer. Remember that. Aim for the little toe.
Wont' cripple 'em but it really hurts bad. ;-)

It's always best to have another alternative.
///Well ... there certainly seems to be a conflict between Acrobat and MS
office.
Perhaps you've seen the postings or experienced the problem where the
Acrobat toolbar
disappears from Word and Excel (and perhaps other components) on a regular
basis.

Haven't seen that one, oddly enough. In fact, just the opposite. Most
people
can't get the Adobe PDFMaker toolbar to go away.

I continually have to reinstall Acrobat regularly to overcome this problem,
even with
the latest version of Acrobat (7). I've read that this particular problem
lies with
Adobe, but don't know if that's true.

Hm. I wonder .... do you also have Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI)
installed? Might want to have a play with that. Print to it then from it
to your printer.
///I do have it ... just checked. I did a test in powerpoint, where I
filled a box with too colours and

made one of the colours transparent and printed to it (MODI), but both
colours display on the screen

when the MODI window opens (only one should show) and both printed ...
boooooooo

Sigh. Oh well. It was worth a try.