[Solved] Extra blank pages when printing notes

[KenW44]

I'm trying to print the notes pages from my presentation. For each page there are 3 extra blank pages printed (page numbers are shown on each sheet as I have selected that option).
This happens on both my printers attached to the desktop running XP and to the laptop running Vista via wireless connection. I have not been able to find any setting to control this.

[acknak]

Sorry, are there three extra completely blank pages printed, or are there three extra pages with nothing but a page number on them?

If it's the latter, is the page number the same, or is it different? If it's different, do those slides have any notes to print?

What do you have selected for printing under File > Print > Options > Contents?

Are you working with a presentation in Powerpoint format (.ppt), or in OOo's normal ODF (.odp) format?

FWIW, I don't see any extra pages here when I print the notes.

[KenW44]

I'm trying to print the notes pages one at a time. In the printer options screen I have selected Notes and page name. The Quality and Page options are set at default. In the Print pane I have selected Pages and one number is in the page number selection box. When I click on OK the required page prints correctly but it is followed by three sheets which have just the page name in the top left corner (e.g Slide 1 (Notes)). The printer progress box shows printing sheet 1/4. I want to print only the first of the four sheets each time.

[acknak]

Thanks, that's much more clear.

However, if I follow those steps, I still get only one page of output.

Are the three extra pages identical to the first? If so, that could be a problem with the #copies setting.

[KenW44]

The first page contains exactly what I want i.e.the slide at the top, the notes below it and the page name (e.g.Slide 1 (Notes)) at the top left. The following three pages (identical to each other) contain only the page name. The number of copies is set at 1.

[acknak]

Sorry, I can't think what might be causing this; nothing I've tried here triggers that kind of behavior.

Does the same thing happen if you try to print other slides?

Does this happen with any presentation, or only a specific one?

What happens if you print more than one slide at a time?

It might be helpful if you print (with the problem) using the "Print to file" option, then create a zip archive with that print-file in it and attach it here (how to).

[KenW44]

It happens with every slide in this presentation. If I try to print it all on the Deskjet I get an 'out of paper' error message. (This printer does not give such a message when I try to print other things when there is no paper in it!). Printing the 'Introduction of a New Product' presentation from the templates works correctly. Therefore there must be something peculiar with my 56 page presentation. The event for which I created it has happened and it is unlikely I shall have to use it again. I suggest that, for now, this item is closed. I shall continue to try to find the cause and post the solution if I find it in case it happens to someone else. Many thanks for your efforts so far.

[Hagar Delest]

As a workaround (for the future), you can also export as PDF and then print that PDF.

Are you sure you want to tag your thread as Solved? Can you upload here at least a sample file, keeping just one slide with dummy text if you can reproduce the issue with it of course?

[KenW44]

I have cut down the presentation to four slides. The problen still exists
I have uploaded the file to Media Fire; the URL is http://www.mediafire.com/?uiwj2znzltx

[acknak]

Ha! Well, maybe you'll be happy to know that I see the same problem here, when I open your file and print the first page.

I'll keep poking and see if I can find out what's happening.

[Hagar Delest]

Same for me under my W2k system. Can be reproduced with a virtual printer like PDFCreator also.

After multiple tries, here is the fix: File>Print, then Options, on the right, set the Page options to Fit to page instead of Default.

NB: that setting (Fit to page) is the default for me when I try with a new presentation.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[acknak]

Ok, I don't really understand what's happening, but if I open the sample and, in "Normal" slide view, do Format > Page > Page > Format, and change from "Slide" to "Screen", then it prints only the one page.

A related workaround, that I should have thought of before, is to use File > Print > Options > Page Options > Fit to page. I think that changing the page format, as above, simply causes Impress to switch this option on automatically, so they're both doing the same thing.

If you do either of those, you can see that everything on the printed page gets shifted over to the left, as if there is some invisible content on the slide off to the right. In a default printout, the invisible content goes off the page and extra pages get printed to hold the invisible stuff.

However, I can't find anything on the slide that's out of bounds to cause this.

If you know of anything that might be off the slide (possibly hidden or deleted), please say so. If not, then I think this sample should be filed along with a bug report.

[KenW44]

I tried the fixes (Format........screen and Print...........Fit to page) on the full presentation and they work OK. Many thanks for that.
The only thing I can remember out of bounds was on one page the notes were too long and overlapped at the bottom. I inserted some extra slides and split the notes between them. But now I can't remember which slide numbers this affected.