Printing Labels in Landscape

[CrackedVessel]

Hello! I have checked other similar threads and this problem is similar, but not the same. If there is a thread that addresses this and I missed it, my apologies.

I am attempting to print price tags/ labels to a label printer which feeds a continuous roll. The brand I'm using isn't listed so I created a new label type, no problems there. Everything appears to be fine. The orientation is correct. Under "Format>Page>Page>Orientation," I have selected "landscape."

On the print screen, I see a small preview of the label looking correct (see screen shot), then on the left side of the page is the label in the wrong orientation, printing in portrait. When I actually hit "print," the view on the left is what I get, spanning across two labels and cut off. I don't know how else to communicate the direction I'd like these to print in. In fact, I tried just reversing the label dimensions in the hope it would work but that didn't help. I haver tried choosing sheet instead of continuous though I don't know why that would make a difference; turns out it doesn't.

Print 2018-11-27 19-20-00.jpg (36.74 KiB) Viewed 3418 times

I don't know if this has any importance, but despite the fact I have selected the label printer as the default printer both for the system and for the document, the printer that shows when I hit "print" every time is my standard canon printer. I have to change the printer manually in the print screen every time.


Any thoughts?

[CrackedVessel]

OK, in the interest of time, I solved this issue by deleting the other printer, so the only printer possible to choose was the label printer. It printed in the right orientation, HOWEVER - there is a blank label between each printed one which is going to be very expensive. If anyone has any ideas about why this is happening, let me know, ok?

*****REVISED*****

THIS ONLY WORKED ONCE. One time, everything printed in the correct orientation. I changed nothing. It's back to printing wrong again.

[robleyd]

Check your document with View | NonPrinting Characters turned on and see if there is a hint.

[CrackedVessel]

Been there done that. Nothing out of the ordinary at all.

[robleyd]

If you have already tried something, it makes sense to let us know what you have tried so we don't waste your time* suggesting it.

* [And ours]

[CrackedVessel]

Sorry, didn't really think it was relevant. I took a break and drank a cup of coffee too in case that means anything LOL.

[John_Ha]

Please upload the file showing the problem so that it can be analysed. Use the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max); or use a file share site, Dropbox or Google Drive for a larger file.

[CrackedVessel]

Hello,

I attached two files. One is the original label merge which just shows the fields, the other is a file saved from it that shows all the price tags. For some reason, I was able to get a batch of tags to print correctly in the middle of all this, as previously mentioned. Then it was back to the portrait version again.

Since I last posted, here's what I've tried and the outcome:
- I went into the formatting menu and created a new format. I assigned that format, which was basically landscape, to the labels, but it did nothing. Still prints only in portrait.
- Created a file of all the tags, which is attached.
- Edited out all the blank in-between tags and printed - still printing only in portrait.
- Opened the file in MS Word and printed from there - still only getting portrait despite portrait not being selected anywhere.
- Printed to PDF from the print monitor. PDF versions were still portrait.
- EXPORTED the multi-page version to PDF. THIS WORKED - I finally got my landscape oriented labels.

SO - I have effectively found the workaround, in that I can create my labels, export them as PDF, and then print them. But I'm not a big fan of workarounds, because of course it means you're working around something that should be functioning correctly but is not.

Anyplace where landscape can be selected, it's selected. The only printer left in my system is one that only prints on label rolls, as I have deleted my other printers.

I was simultaneously trying to solve the issue of the blank in-between labels, and played around with the pitch for the label toward that goal. Nothing helped except of course manually editing out the blanks.

Thanks for your help!

[John_Ha]

What is the make and model of the printer? What does the printer manual say about how you should use it?

The problem almost certainly lies in a setting somewhere in the Printer Properties. Go through all the printer options, including Advanced, to make sure they are all correct.

If that does not fix it do a test - try setting the .odt document to Portrait, where the width is longer than the height.

Search the forum with labels landscape and labels roll - the latter finds OOW Won't Retain Dymo Printer Label Setting which has much useful information.

there is a blank label between each printed one which is going to be very expensive. If anyone has any ideas about why this is happening

Check Tools > Options > Writer > Print. Untick Print automatically inserted blank pages.

Try setting Format > Page > Page > Only Left instead of Left and right.

This is a bit of a random guess. settings.xml had a strange line in it - I have "corrected" it. Does this file work?

Price Tag Format ODT_jh-edited.odt

Test file

(12.37 KiB) Downloaded 77 times

[CrackedVessel]

Hello,

I have gone through ALL the printer options I can think of, both on my Mac and in Open Office, and as I said anyplace where "landscape" can be selected, it has been. Setting to portrait changes the way the text appears on the label, in that it no longer cuts off because it's formatted for the way it actually is printing. But it doesn't change the orientation.

I'm not convinced this has to do with printer properties, as labels originally created in Word print properly, as does anything else I send to this printer. It's only the ODT documents that print incorrectly, even when opened in Word. I notice that when I print from a Word price tag file, the print dialog screen opens with the actual, correct printer selected. (I can't alter the printer setup in Word because my files are read-only now that my subscription is cancelled). Since the ODT file opens with the wrong printer selected (despite the fact that the printer it is choosing has been deleted from the system entirely), it makes me think this has got something to do with how printer selection works or is set in OpenOffice. I have the label printer selected as the "default" printer, and it is now the ONLY printer, so I don't really see how this could be happening, but it comes up incorrectly selected every time. I've closed down the program and restarted my computer since deleting the other printer, and still it won't select the right (only) one.

The printer is a TSC 225, which is no longer manufactured but still works just fine. The manual says nothing about printing from any text document, as it's not meant for that; it's designed to work with Point of Sale inventory systems. However, I have been using it this way for about 3 years with no issues, and as I said, I continue to have no issues other than with ODT documents. I cancelled my Microsoft subscription as these tags are the only thing I use Word/Excel for. I did a test to make sure I could do the label merge and generate the labels in OpenOffice before cancelling, but I didn't go all the way through to printing. It just seemed like that part would be easy.

The first thing I did, as I mentioned in my initial post, was to search the forum for articles featuring the words "labels" and "landscape." Anything that was even slightly relevant was compared to my settings, and I didn't find anything I had not already done. That of course doesn't mean I didn't miss something, but I don't think I did.

[John_Ha]

Our posts crossed - see file uploaded in previous post. In any case, create your Price Tag Format ODT file from scratch again.

As an aside, I assume you are always using .odt files - see [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

[John_Ha]

the ODT file opens with the wrong printer selected (despite the fact that the printer it is choosing has been deleted from the system entirely)

The .odt file stores the last printer used to print the document so this is correct.

My suggestions are therefore:

1 Create a normal text document fred.odt where the page size is set to the label size. Get it to print correctly on the continuous roll, noting the printer settings dialogue.

2 Once fred.odt prints correctly, create a new label document label.odt from scratch with the same page size etc. Don't re-use anything, especially nothing which has ever been opened, edited or saved by MS Word. Does label.odt print correctly when you use the identical printer settings dialogue? If it does not print correctly, upload fred.odt and label.odt files.

3 As a catch-all, reset your User Profile - it sometimes fixes strange problems.

4 Google for the printer manual - eg see https://www.tscprinters.com/EN/Download ... 5%20Series. It mentions a diagnostic tool which can vary settings.

[CrackedVessel]

The .odt file stores the last printer used to print the document so this is correct.

But it is actually NOT storing the last printer used, because I am changing the printer to TSC 225, and then printing. When I go to print it again, it has the Canon printer again. This happens whether I close the document (and OpenOffice) or not. The last printer used for printing is TSC, yet the file ALWAYS opens with the Canon printer selected.

My suggestions are therefore:

1 Create a normal text document fred.odt where the page size is set to the label size. Get it to print correctly on the continuous roll, noting the printer settings dialogue.

2 Once fred.odt prints correctly, create a new label document label.odt from scratch with the same page size etc. Don't re-use anything, especially nothing which has ever been opened, edited or saved by MS Word. Does label.odt print correctly when you use the identical printer settings dialogue? If it does not print correctly, upload fred.odt and label.odt files.

Well, I couldn't get either to print correctly. I could get the correct text orientation by switching from landscape to portrait, but since this shows the wrong orientation on the actual document this doesn't hep me, as it's impossible to format. I figured if I reversed the dimensions - 1x2 instead of 2x1 - that might work, but as soon as I did the text orientation was wrong again. I have attached both.

3 As a catch-all, reset your User Profile - it sometimes fixes strange problems.

Interesting! Didn't change anything but it's a good tip for future issues.

4 Google for the printer manual - eg see https://www.tscprinters.com/EN/Download ... 5%20Series. It mentions a diagnostic tool which can vary settings.

I have the manual, but there is no Mac version of this tool.

[John_Ha]

Well, I couldn't get either to print correctly.

If you cannot get the ordinary text document fred.odt to print properly then it looks like it is a problem between AOO and the printer, and it is 99% likely to be the printer end because AOO prints OK to other printers. The labels have nothing to do with it and are an over-complication.

So concentrate your efforts on getting the text document fred.odt to print properly.

Both fred and label printed OK to PrimoPDF, my PDF Virtual Printer suggesting the problem is at the printer end.

Try using another program on the Mac (something like NotePad or your email client where you can set the page size) to print to the printer.

A random thought. Could it be a metric / inches conversion problem where the printer prints 50mm ok, but not 2" which is 50.8mm? Set the page size to be 90% of the printer height and width capability.

[CrackedVessel]

I have to correct you - AOO does NOT print correctly to any other printer. A regular text document does, but the labels do NOT. They print to my Canon printer with the wrong orientation as well. I'm sorry if I left that out but I certainly never claimed they printed fine to other printers. And the label printer works fine with Word (as long as the document originated in Word and not in AOO), prints fine from PDF, and has worked in the past with Text Edit (though I haven't used it lately), so I'm not sure why the issue would be likely to be on the printer end.

I just did a small experiment. I re-added the Canon printer, and created a text document with the default text document settings for page size, etc. It printed fine to my Canon printer. Then, I took the same exact document and re-formatted it to a page size of 2" wide x 1" tall. It appears to adapt to the size change on the screen, but when I printed it, the orientation was reversed. So it seems to be something about the SIZE of the page that is creating the issue.

[John_Ha]

I took the same exact document and re-formatted it to a page size of 2" wide x 1" tall ... when I printed it, the orientation was reversed.

Was Format > Page > Page ..., set to Portrait? or to Landscape? What happens if you do the other?

What I am trying to establish is what is the "normal mode" for the printer. When you print from MS Word, in what orientation does the label with text come out. Is it 1 below, or 2, where I show two labels on the roll?

As a matter of interest what happened when you printed Price Tag Format ODT_jh-edited.odt where I hacked settings.xml which appeared to be corrupted?

I note the manual says:

VIII. The first label may not be formatted properly, but the 2nd and 3rd label should begin to track properly.

What happens if you print several labels?

[CrackedVessel]

Was Format > Page > Page ..., set to Portrait? or to Landscape? What happens if you do the other?

On the label printer, I had set it to Format>Page>Page>Landscape, as I said in my first post. This is how it has always worked in Word when I've printed similar labels.

When printing the first document after re-adding the Canon printer, I didn't reset anything, just typed and printed using the presets, and chose that printer of the two available. It printed in portrait, which is the normal preset for a text document.

I then changed the orientation (at Format>page>page>) to landscape. It printed correctly (as directed) to in landscape mode on the Canon printer.

If I reverse it in the label size, the text orientation changes but so does the visual representation of the label on the page, which means though the text is upright left to right, it is not formatted properly for the label size. Changing the label size once again reverses the orientation.

What I am trying to establish is what is the "normal mode" for the printer. When you print from MS Word, in what orientation does the label with text come out. Is it 1 below, or 2, where I show two labels on the roll?

Normal mode for the label printer is what is shown in option 1. When I have printed similar labels in word, the orientation has been set to landscape, which is how I had it set throughout this process except when testing alternatives. That is, 2" wide by 1" tall. I have tried these size settings using "portrait" as well, and this results in text that is properly oriented (standing upright left to right) but not formatted for the label, as it behaves as if the label is 1" wide.

As a matter of interest what happened when you printed Price Tag Format ODT_jh-edited.odt where I hacked settings.xml which appeared to be corrupted?

It printed exactly the same as the unedited version.

This problem is related to document size, for sure. Here is the experiment I just did:

- Created a new AOO document from scratch without setting anything - using the defaults for a text document. It printed correctly with proper orientation.
- Switched that to landscape on the Format>page>page setting. Dimensions listed on the page reversed, going from 8.5x11 to 11x8.5.
- Printed in landscape as expected.
- Went to Format>page>page, and incrementally reduced the size of the page by one inch (in other words, to 10x7.5, 9x6.5, etc.
- Hit "print" to see what the orientation showing on the dialogue page was (using the AOO dialogue page, not the Mac dialogue page). It consistently stayed in "landscape" orientation until -
- I reached 7x4.5 inches. Then - the orientation switched, showing the document as being 7" tall x 4.5" wide.

So... it looks like any page size below that size will not print in landscape mode (width larger than height). Not sure why this would be, but it is clearly what is happening.

[CrackedVessel]

Oh, I missed your question as to what happens if I print more than one label. I printed 50 labels last night before I realized what I was in for, and ALL of them were oriented incorrectly. In the manual, that refers to labels that are slightly off track slipping into the correct placement. The entire orientation is not going to change.

[John_Ha]

When I reduce the Page Size to 125mm x 75mm (5 x 3) the print view remains landscape.

However, the Paper Size is always chosen from those available in the printer properties dialogue. In this case, AOO? chooses 148mm x 100mm, or Japanese Postcard, as being the closest match.

Paper sizes supported by the HP 3055 PCL5 printer. The closest available size is chosen by AOO? the printer?

Be sure fully to understand the difference between Page Size and Paper Size. They are completely different, completely independent things.

Page Size is how big I want to page to be when I am editing it.

Paper Size is what size of paper I choose to print onto.

When I want to print a document, AOO and I need to decide how to map my Page Size onto the available Paper Sizes. So, while my Page Size may be A4 and my Paper Size may be A4, I can choose to put four pages on each sheet of A4 paper. Similarly, I can choose to print my A4 page onto A3 paper at twice full size.

[CrackedVessel]

However, the Paper Size is always chosen from those available in the printer properties dialogue. In this case, AOO? chooses 148mm x 100mm, or Japanese Postcard, as being the closest match.

The attachment paper sizes.gif is no longer available

Be sure fully to understand the difference between Page Size and Paper Size. They are completely different, completely independent things.

While I do fully understand the difference between page size and paper size, I have never seen either of the dialogue boxes you're displaying in your screen shots. I guess they are specific to your Hewlett Packard printer? Here are my print dialogue box, my printer setup, and print options (not specific to this label issue, just generically what they look like:

There's nothing that takes me any deeper into any settings than that.
These are coming from the pulldown menu under "File", as seen in this shot:

File Menu.jpg (36.07 KiB) Viewed 3219 times

None of these dialogues offer a place to select a paper size. There is only one place where I am offered the option of setting the paper size, and that is at Format>Page>Page, here:

When I change the paper size as specified in the dialogue above (even though it's the page dialogue), the view on the document also changes. The paper sizes offered do not correspond to what is available for either printer, so I have to specify dimensions; my custom options, which I set up previously when printing other labels from Word, are not there. They ARE there if I print from other programs, Word and Preview, for example, but not OO. Of course, when making labels, the page size is determined when you select your label size, but this is just a regular document I'm using here to illustrate.

I thought maybe there's something I didn't see under OpenOffice Preferences, so I looked there. Choosing "print" under either heading, I again see nowhere to select a paper size.

WHAT AM I MISSING???

[John_Ha]

I think we need someone with MacOS skills.

When I print this webpage from Firefox on to my HP 3055 I go File > Print > Properties > Paper / Quality ..., I get the same options as before.

HP 3055 paper options

This very strongly suggests the paper sizes are provided by the printer, not the program.

If I choose PrimoPDF, my Virtual PDF printer, I go File > Print > Properties > Paper / Quality > Advanced ..., and I get different paper size options.

PrimoPDF paper options

[CrackedVessel]

What can I say? I'm sending you exactly what I'm seeing. Maybe a Mac guru will jump in here.

When you go to Format>Page>Page, are you NOT seeing the words "Paper Size" (not page size) the way I am?

[CrackedVessel]

Sorry, above should say "Paper Format" not Paper Size."

[John_Ha]

When you go to Format>Page>Page, are you NOT seeing the words "Paper SizeFormat" (not page size) the way I am?

Yes I am. But it is the "Page Size while editing" which is being referred to. It is a different thing from the Paper Size in the printer which is something completely different.

Of course, users usually choose their Page Size to be the same as the Paper Size in their printer. They are then the same size but they are different things. An A4 sheet of plywood is different from an A4 sheet of paper - same size but a different thing.

[John_Ha]

Maybe a Mac guru will jump in here.

The best way forward is for you to summarise in a sentence or two what we have analysed the problem to be, and to post a new post in the MacOSX forum. Point to this thread with:

The original post in the writer forum is called Printing Labels in Landscape at viewtopic.php?f=7&t=96047 but we have established it has nothing to do with labels.

You may be able to copy this link Printing Labels in Landscape

[CrackedVessel]

Thanks for all your help. As much as I hate leaving things unsolved, I need to move on, so I think I will just use the "workaround" and forget about trying to get it to work RIGHT.

[CrackedVessel]

Things have gone from bad to worse. OO does an unexpected quit every time I choose new>labels. I uninstalled and reinstalled a newer version. Same thing happens.

I give up. It seems as if I am being forced to use Microsoft for the rest of my life. I hate Microsoft but now I've decided I hate OpenOffice more.

[John_Ha]

1. Strange problems are sometimes fixed by resetting the profile - see Resetting the user profile. Do a power OFF/ON reboot.

2. Get printing a simple text document of the required size and orientation on the label printer working.

3. Get printing labels of the required size and orientation to work on your other printer.

At this stage you know AOO printing labels, and both printers work.

4. Now try printing labels on the label printer. Take single, small steps so you identify where it goes wrong compared with 2. and 3.

Or use your workaround of printing to a PDF file first.

[CrackedVessel]

1. Strange problems are sometimes fixed by resetting the profile - see Resetting the user profile. Do a power OFF/ON reboot.

I have rebooted multiple times. And as far as the user profile goes, I don't know if I am an anomaly or these instructions are obsolete with Mojave, but there is NO FILE in application support for OpenOffice, which is where these instructions say the profile should be. I'm unable to locate it anywhere else, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

2. Get printing a simple text document of the required size and orientation on the label printer working.

No problem creating a similar text document, but the only way to get my label info in there is to manually enter it, which I'm not going to do for 100 labels. I can't merge the info because, as I said, attempting to open New>Labels causes an immediate quit.

3. Get printing labels of the required size and orientation to work on your other printer.

At this stage you know AOO printing labels, and both printers work.

But OO doesn't even work CREATING labels, let alone printing them, at this point.

4. Now try printing labels on the label printer. Take single, small steps so you identify where it goes wrong compared with 2. and 3.

I know where it goes wrong. It quits completely when I select New>Labels. It's not a question of printing the labels anymore; now I can't even create them. If I can't take the first single, small step, how can I continue?

Or use your workaround of printing to a PDF file first.

Can't do the workaround, because that requires that I create the labels and export them as PDF. I can't create new labels.

There is only one solution I can think of. I can open the label file I previously created, just can't make new ones. So... if there is a way to change the data source for the labels I previously created, that would be the solution. Let me know if this is possible. Thanks for your help.

[John_Ha]

The purpose of my previous post was to give you a "simple steps" way to get things working:

1. Get printing text working on the label printer. >> you see the printer talks to AOO
2. Get printing labels working on the normal printer. >> you see AOO creates labels
3. Now take small steps to find out why printing labels doesn't work on the labels printer.

Find a way to reset the profile. The path will be shown in Tools (Preferences?) > Options > OpenOffice > Paths.

Start again. Read Chapter 11 - Using Mail Merge in the Writer Guide and follow the instructions exactly. You need three things:

- a spreadsheet file with the data
- a database file which acts as the interface. Do not forget to register the database file.
- a text document with fields to accept the data from the spreadsheet

If it fails tell us at exactly which step in the Writer Guide it fails.