Word not printing collated when collate box is checked

[Stephanie]

Some users in my office are having an intermitent problem
with MS Word (and Access) not printing multi-page
documents collated, even when the "collate" box is checked
in their print options. In order to make the collate
option work, they must un-check the collate box in their
print options (it is checked by default) and then re-check
it before printing. These users print to a network
printer - an HP Laser Jet 4300. This bug just recently
appeared. The entire office is running MS Office 2000,
Service Pack 3 and we are up to date with all critical
Microsoft security patches.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Stephanie,

I'd try asking this in the word.printing.fonts newsgroup. My
guess is a problem with the printer drivers, but printing is
really NOT my area of expertise

Some users in my office are having an intermitent problem
with MS Word (and Access) not printing multi-page
documents collated, even when the "collate" box is checked
in their print options. In order to make the collate
option work, they must un-check the collate box in their
print options (it is checked by default) and then re-check
it before printing. These users print to a network
printer - an HP Laser Jet 4300. This bug just recently
appeared. The entire office is running MS Office 2000,
Service Pack 3 and we are up to date with all critical
Microsoft security patches.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Bob S]

Some users in my office are having an intermitent problem
with MS Word (and Access) not printing multi-page
documents collated, even when the "collate" box is checked
in their print options. In order to make the collate
option work, they must un-check the collate box in their
print options (it is checked by default) and then re-check
it before printing. These users print to a network
printer - an HP Laser Jet 4300. This bug just recently
appeared. The entire office is running MS Office 2000,
Service Pack 3 and we are up to date with all critical
Microsoft security patches.

There are rare reports that collating does not work. I was guessing
that deleting Word's data key and/or reloading the printer driver
might fix it, but I have no evidence.

Doug Robbins posted the following macro as a work-around. It prints
the copies as separate jobs.

Dim copies, i As Long
copies = InputBox("Enter the number of copies that you require.",
"Print Multiple Copies", 1)
If IsNumeric(copies) Then
For i = 1 To copies
ActiveDocument.PrintOut
Next i
ElseIf copies = "" Then
Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox "You must enter a number"
End If

The fact that the problem can be "fixed" by unchecking the box and
then checking it again is suggestive. Probably Word is keeping two
copies of the bit; one that it displays and a different one that does
the work. These are getting unsynchronized somehow. I seem to recall
a similar problem with the "equal column width" check box in Format |
Columns. I don't know whether there is a generic bug in Word, or just
two different programmers making the same mistakes.

BobS