Strange printer behavior

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I have recently converted an Access 97 application to Access 2003

I've installed this as a runtime on several users' systems for testing purposes. These are Windows 2000 machines

On two of these systems, there is a problem with reports formatted to print in landscape. The reports do one of two things, either they display on screen as landscape, but print portrait, or, they display as portrait and print portrait

In each case, in page set up the orientation is set to landscape. Changing the orientation to portrait, and then back to landscape seems to temporarily solve the problem, however not permanently

In each case, the systems are connected to a network printer

Are there any known issues with this problem? The Access 97 version has had no such problem, with the exact same report and printers

Some other users testing this 2003 runtime do not have the problem, so it's a bit of a mystery

Thanks for any assistance....
 
Hello,

Thanks for your post. If I understand correctly that Microsoft Access
report suddenly is not printed as expected. Based on my experience,
sometimes the problem can be caused if the printer drivers are not
compatible with each other and some of the settings are not transferable
between printer drivers. Please make sure the orientation property setting
of the in "printer¡­" and "page setup" is consistent. In the meantime,
please perform the following steps to disable Name AutoCorrect by following
these steps:

a. On the Tools menu, click Options.
b. In the Options dialog box, click the General tab.
c. Click to clear the Perform name AutoCorrect check box.
d. Click OK.
e. Quit and then restart Access.

Does it fix your problem? If not, please provide the detailed reproduce
steps on the sample database Northwind.mdb so that I can perform further
research on my side.

Regards,

Michael Shao
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
 
Mike:

Unfortunately based on the user's post, this won't work, because they are
using the run time version of Access and as you know there are no "Options"
menu items in the run time version.

Tom:

The problem you may be seeing is that if the user is previewing the report
prior to selecting a printer, and then changes printers, what Access has
always done, A97 or A2003, is to "adopt" the default paper and layout
settings for the selected printer when the printer is changed via the print
dialog. So if your network printer's default layout is portrait then when
the user selects that printer from a preview, it will always hose your
report.

The only work around to this is to remove the "Print" option from the
preview toolbars and menus that you may have created, and to set your report
to use the default printer. Then put a print button on your form and a
preview button on your form. Use a combo box to present the user's with
the various printers available (using the Application.Printers collection)
and when they change printers in the combo box, set the Application.printer
to that printer as the default. Then since there's no preview, the report
settings will not "adopt" the default layout of the printer selected, but
rather, the report's internal settings (i.e. landscape) will be retained
when the report is sent to that printer.

If you want another method to change the default printer and to present your
user with a printers combo, then take a look at our "On the Fly Printing
classes on our web.
 
Thanks for your reply. I did not completely understand some of your comments, e.g. "sometimes the problem can be caused if the printer drivers are not compatible with each other and some of the settings are not transferable
between printer drivers

This is a runtime installation of 2003, and the database it was created from did not have the Autocorrect options turned on. The settings for the page (landscape) match the settings for the printer. However, I was able (at least so far) to get the reports to print correctly by going into the properties for the printer, and changing the default page layout to landscape

I don't like this as a solution, since having to do this indicates there is something wrong somewhere. I will add that on the same machine, a runtime installation of Access 97 does not exhibit the printing problem. That is, using the same printer, the A97 app prints landscape properly, when it should, without having to force it to

The printer is an HP LJ4000, on a network print server, and we've tried PCL 5 and PCL 6 drivers, with no luck

Thanks for your assistance
 
Hi Tom,

Thanks for your feedback. I apologize for my confusion setting the
autocorrect option in the Access runtime version. Based on my test, when
trying to configure the print setting with report object in Access 2003,
the print setting called form "page setup¡­" command and "print¡­" command
is specific to the report objects, which is different from the print driver
setting of the printer in the "Printers and Faxes" folder

The behavior you described is strange. Can you please collect the following
information for me so that I can narrow down this issue?

1. "The settings for the page (landscape) match the settings for the
printer."
Can you please tell me how you check the orientation property of the page
or the printer under the Access runtime version?

2. "On two of these systems, there is a problem with reports formatted to
print in landscape. The reports do one of two things, either they display
on screen as landscape, but print portrait, or, they display as portrait
and print portrait.
"
When the problems mentioned above occurred, what is the print setting of
the printer driver? I mean you go to the "Printers and Faxes" folder and
then choose the property of the destination printer.

3. "Changing the orientation to portrait and then back to landscape seems
to temporarily solve the problem, however not permanently."
What do you mean by "not permanently"? Do you mean the same problem occur
again when you print the same report again?

4. "I was able (at least so far) to get the reports to print correctly by
going into the properties for the printer, and changing the default page
layout to landscape."
Do you mean that you go into "Printers and Faxes" and set the property of
the print but not clicking the "printer¡­" command?

Also, such weird issues tend to be complex and take up extensive research
time. I'd like to set your expectations that it may take a while for us to
help you narrow down the problem and we may eventually redirect you to PSS
to continue working with a dedicated Support Professional. If this is
critical, I'd recommend contacting PSS and opening a Support incident
troubleshoot this further. If you need any help in this regard, please let
me know. Thanks for your understanding.


Regards,

Michael Shao
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
 
1. "Can you please tell me how you check the orientation property of the page
or the printer under the Access runtime version?
The orientation is checked (and also can be set) via a menu I created which includes Page Setup commands

2. "When the problems mentioned above occurred, what is the print setting of
the printer driver? I mean you go to the "Printers and Faxes" folder and
then choose the property of the destination printer.
The printer driver is set to portrait in this case, which is the default I believe, for most printers

3. "What do you mean by "not permanently"? Do you mean the same problem occur
again when you print the same report again?
By not permanently I mean eventually the report reverts to displaying and/or printing incorrectly. It may not be right away, but within a relatively short period of time

4. "Do you mean that you go into "Printers and Faxes" and set the property of
the print but not clicking the "printer¡­" command?
Yes, by going into the printer properties via "Printers and Faxes". However by setting this to be landscape instead of portrait, other reports that should be portrait print landscape

"Also, such weird issues tend to be complex and take up extensive research
time. I'd like to set your expectations that it may take a while for us to
help you narrow down the problem and we may eventually redirect you to PSS
to continue working with a dedicated Support Professional. If this is
critical, I'd recommend contacting PSS and opening a Support incident
troubleshoot this further.

I am reluctant to contact PSS, as I've already used up a support incident on another bug in Access 2003, without satisfactory resolution. I was hoping to migrate our office to Office 2003 soon, but with this kind of problem I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't just stick with Access 97...

Thanks for your help

Tom
 
Hallo NewsGroup

I have near same Problems postet in
microsoft.public.de.access (Sorry it is German)
Sbject: ACC02 Bericht Überraschung
and
Subject: AXP: Probleme mit Laserdrucker
but not found any solution.

Ulrich Jenzer
 
Hi Tom,

Thanks for your feedback. This weird problem tends to be complex and hard
to find the root cause.Currently, I am performing some further research. We
will update you as soon as possible. In the mean time, if you have any
other useful information, please feel free to let me know.

Regards,

Michael Shao
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
 
Michael

Thanks for your efforts on this, I will continue our testing of the 2003 runtime, but will hold off on actually deploying until we get a resolution to this problem

I'll look forward to hearing from you

Tom
 
Hello Tom,

My name is Orlanzo Ross and I work with the Microsoft Access support group
in Charlotte, NC.

As I understand, report printer settings are not being retained when the
database is moved to another machine. The peculiarities of the behavior
you describe are very unusual.

Some printer information is stored with the report. Their are occasions
when that information will be reset. Using a network printer has been
shown to be a primary cause. But, their are other factors to consider.

See the following articles for more information. Please note some of the
material is titled for Access 2000. The information will also apply to
Access 2003.

208912 ACC2000: Changing Printer Port Resets Printer Setup Information
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=208912

290293 Printer Properties Not Inherited by Objects That Use the Default
Printer
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=290293


I would also suspect the issue is not limited to an Access Runtime. Can
you temporarily install the full version of Microsoft Access 2003 on a
client machine? Are you able to observe the identical behavior as
experienced by the runtime? That would be a valid test for us to determine
whether the issue is runtime specific.

Beginning with Access 2002, the Printer Object Model was introduced. This
allows considerable flexibility when working with installed printers. You
may be able to define the appropriate configuration prior to opening the
report for presentation.

319317 How to Automate the Process of Selecting the Printer for a Report
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=319317

Their was a much more exhaustive example available at
http://www.microsoft.com/access. I will see if I can locate the actual
link and forward it to you.

Please feel free to post any questions or concerns!

Best regards,
Orlanzo Ross
Microsoft Online Product Support
 
Hello Tom,

Thank you for the clarification!!

Well, that is a very - very peculiar issue. This could be a predicament
with the print driver. But, I am not certain at present.

Can you provide me with additional information:

1. What is the make/model of the printer attached to the affected systems?
2. Is the same printer used on the systems unaffected by this issue?
3. Are clients connecting via a shared printer or are they printing
directly to a TCP/IP printer port?
4. Do all clients have the same version of the printer driver? Is it the
latest driver available from the manufacturer?
5. Some printer models are capable of using a PostScript or PCL driver. If
a machine is using the PCL version, try changing to the PostScript driver
or vice versa.


I would be interested in knowing if the issue has a direct relationship to
the Access Runtime. However, try to address my questions above before
installing the retail version of Microsoft Access on a client machine.


Kind regards,
Orlanzo Ross
Microsoft Online Support Services.
 
Orlanzo

thanks for your reply. Here is the information you requested

1. These are printers on a network print server, and the two types of printers that have exhibited this problem have been an HP LaserJet 4000 and an HP LaserJet 800

2. Other users who are not experiencing this problem are using different printers, as far as I know. I will get more information on this tomorrow

3. Clients connect to all printers via a shared printer from a central WIN 2K Print Serve

4. We've switched back and forth between the latest PCL 5e and 6 drivers. I've never seen a differenc

5. I'll try the postscript driver if available, and let you know the results

One other interesting point, on the same system, running the exact same application as an Access 97 runtime installation, this issue does not occur

I hope we can solve this, as I'm ready to upgrade our office system to Office 2003, and install the Access 2003 runtime on all systems - I'm just waiting to resolve this. One or two people having printing problems is one thing, hundreds is another thing altogether

Thanks for your help

To
 
Tom,

Thank you much for your last response. Have you had an opportunity to test
the issue using the PostScript driver? I am aware of similar issues that
were resolved using PostScript based driver.

Access 97 and 2000 are VERY different in a number of aspects. Comparing
them may not be appropriate. Although, it is interesting.

I await your response,

Best regards,
Orlanzo Ross
Microsoft Online Product Support.
 
Orlanzo

It appears we may have found a fix for this, however it would be interesting to know more about what is happening

In the process of installing the postscript driver, we inadvertantly changed the driver to the generic PCL driver for the printer (driver included with Win2k). The drivers used when we were having the problem were PCL 5, or PCL 6, both I believe, from HP

At any rate, using the "vanilla" PCL driver has apparenly solved the issue for both users (they were using different printers, both are the Laserjet 4000)

This change was made yesterday, and as of today all appears to be well. The only down side to this, potentially, is that since this is a network printer on a print server, now all users of these printers are also using the Win2k standard PCL driver. I don't anticipate this being a problem so far, anyway

I'd be interested to hear why you think this might be working with one driver as opposed to another

Thanks for all your help

Tom
 
Hello Tom,

I am glad to hear things are working well for your users!!

Microsoft Access relies quite heavily upon information from the print
driver. For example, margins, supported fonts, as well as, other
information needed to layout the report are obtained from the printer
driver. Any problem with the driver or the interaction with Access and
the driver can manifest itself in strange ways. This is the situation
encounter by your users. The most effective way of troubleshooting such
issues is to change the driver.

In my tenure with Access, PostScript drivers seem to work best. Why? I
really don't know. I would assume it relates to the differences in the
architecture between PCL and PostScript drivers. It is not always the case
that PCL driver fail in some way. As you may have noticed, they work well
for some printers. But, its one of the first things I check for in issues
similar to yours.

Additionally, you can always try to reproduce the problem using the Generic
Text Only print driver. Set it as the default printer. If the issue
continues, the concern is most likely with the product. Otherwise, it
would be a driver issue. Having that information could be helpful. For
example, if it is with the driver, we can locate a newer version or try an
earlier iteration.

Their are no tools to help isolate whether the question is with Access or
the driver. In such cases, I would rely on the development team to take a
much deeper look into the issue. Their expertise is invaluable. They have
the capability and deep knowledge of the product to define the demarcation
of whether the issue is driver or product related. Depending on their
investigation, the issue can be resolved in a later update. Or, their
results can be supplied to the driver manufacturer to assist in correcting
the problem.

I hope I have rambled on to long. Please let me know if you have any
lingering questions or concerns!! We are always here to assist.

Best regards,
Orlanzo Ross
Microsoft Online Product Support Services.
 
Orlanzo

Thanks for your reply and assistance. Just to make sure I was clear, I did not end up using the postscript driver, I used the pcl driver that comes with Windows 2000

The ones that didn't work right were pcl 5 and pcl 6, which I believe were from HP

Thanks again

Tom
 
Having thought my problems solved, and that I could merrily move on and upgrade our systems to Access 2003, the printing issue has arisen again

This time on a system that was working fine for months printing to an HP Laserjet 2200, and then all of a sudden starts to experience the same problem, which I won't detail again, it's all in the thread

It really does appear there is a bug in Access 2003/XP relating to printers. It may have to do with converting from Access 97, or maybe not. But there's definately something going on. I would imagine there has to be others besides Gary and myself running into this

My enthusiasm for moving my company to Access 2003 keeps getting smacked around by this problem, it needs to be fixed...

Thanks
 
I've found that only some reports display this behaviour and on different printers (hopefully removing the drivers from suspicion). I am now resorting to recreating the problem reports from scratch as I don't have that many thank goodness.

The inconsistency is a real killer.
 
Gary

Does recreating the reports solve the problem? My experience has been that HP's PCL drivers seem to be prone to this problem. I'm currently experiencing this on an HP 2200, and in the past HP Laserjet 4000's

Have you tried the postscript drivers as suggested by Olanzo Ross in this thread

Please let me know if recreating the reports fixes the issue, as I'm in limbo now as far as rolling out the Access 2003 runtime I've developed

Tom
 
I've just imported reports and it doesn't work. :

I'm investigating further to find exactly where the problem is.
 
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