[Solved] Print from Calc, Not from Writer

[DanGMI]

Title pretty much says it--I can print with no problem from Calc and not at all from Writer. No error message, acts like all went well but nothing happens, nothing in the queue.
Windows XP, HP PSC 2210 all-in-one, OOo 2.0.4
Please use little words--very much a rookie in open source. Thanks.

[foxcole]

Title pretty much says it--

Actually, not quite. I had read it to mean you wanted to print from Calc, not from Writer.

I can print with no problem from Calc and not at all from Writer. No error message, acts like all went well but nothing happens, nothing in the queue.
Windows XP, HP PSC 2210 all-in-one, OOo 2.0.4

Thank you for providing your OS, printer, and OOo details! Few people seem to remember to do that.

... But you've omitted any detail about your process in printing from Writer. Are you using the Print button in the toolbar, or File> Print? What printer you see in the File> Print dialog? Is the "Print to file" box selected?
Click the Options button at the bottom of the Print dialog. Do checkmarks appear next to any items in the Content grouping?
Can you print from the Print Preview window?

[DanGMI]

Thanks Fox.

Nice idea with the print to file angle--that hadn't occurred to me at all--but no joy. Box is unchecked. As for the rest--whether I try to print from toolbar or menu, I get a quick flicker--too fast to really see but would be consistent with the cursor going to the hourglass for a split second--then nothing more happens. Printer never shows any sign of knowing anything is going on, nothing sitting in the queue, etc. The dialog box in print window says "hp psc 2200 series", which matches what it says in the same box for Calc. When I print from Calc--all works as it should.

Pretty odd, huh?

[foxcole]

Yes, that does sound odd.

Did you try either of these suggestions?

Click the Options button at the bottom of the Print dialog. Do checkmarks appear next to any items in the Content grouping?
Can you print from the Print Preview window?

[DanGMI]

Sorry, I missed that part. And there was a winner in there!

From Print Preview, using that toolbar's print button, worked fine. In fact, it showed me something I had not realized before--I was doing a multi-page doc and had two pages showing in the preview, then when I clicked the print button, they came out shrink-to-fit on one page! THAT caught me by surprise.

As for the Options:Contents, all are checked except "print black", nothing selected under Pages or Other, Notes = "none" and Fax = hp psc 2200 series.

Obviously this is a totally fine workaround that I can live with. If it gives you a clue as to the underlying issue, great--let me know. But, no matter what, you get the major save and remove a significant hassle from my new year. Thanks again.

[foxcole]

As for the Options:Contents, all are checked except "print black", nothing selected under Pages

Try selecting Left Pages and Right Pages.

[DanGMI]

You're really on a roll--that worked as well. Doesn't seem to be a sticky setting though--have to reselect it each time. I would have expected it to last throughout a session at least--am I missing someplace where I could make the default setting (or at least to last as long as that instance of Writer is open)?

Not a gripe--thrilled to be able to print--just curious.

Dan

[foxcole]

You're really on a roll--that worked as well. Doesn't seem to be a sticky setting though--have to reselect it each time. I would have expected it to last throughout a session at least--am I missing someplace where I could make the default setting (or at least to last as long as that instance of Writer is open)?

Those are ordinarily selected by default, and should stay selected. That seems like something in your user settings could be corrupted. I've heard of the Brochure option being always re-selected as default, no matter what the user tried. Not sure that issue was ever resolved, though.

I see you're using 2.0.4. My first recommendation is to upgrade to the current 2.3.1 if that's at all possible... though if the issue is in a user setting, that might not help, because user settings are preserved from installation to installation unless you deliberately remove them.

(You'd uninstall from Control Panel> Add or Remove programs, then manually delete the directory containing your user folder: in WinXP, it's at C:\Documents and Settings\your userID\Application Data, where you'd delete the folder OpenOffice.org2. That folder contains your user folder with your user settings. If you don't want to delete it just yet, move it to a different location before you reinstall.)

If you don't want to or can't upgrade, try renaming your user folder in the above path. Close OpenOffice and re-open it, which creates a fresh new copy of the user folder, with all default settings.

If that fixes it, you could start moving your dictionaries, etc. over into the new user profile. If that doesn't fix it, you might have a corrupted installation, in which case you'd need to re-download and reinstall. You can obtain 2.0.4 here:
http://filehippo.com/download_openoffice/?1700