Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have a Calc book containing about 6 spreadsheets. When I come to print any particular sheet, it won't print. I can go to "Print Preview" and see it just fine, but just won't print at all.

The only way I can get anything to print at all is to move the sheet I want to print to another new (empty) book and print it from there. That works.

It doesn't matter what I try to print to - HP network printers, PDF engines, whatever. nothing works.

I had this trouble on Star Office and thought moving to Open Office would cure it. Any ideas?

All my other applications, including Writer, print just fine, as do any PDF's I create or use.

I'm using Open Office 3.01 Build 9379 on XP SP3.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

What happens if you go File > Print > select Selected Sheets and then in Pages enter something like 2,5,7?

Thanks TheGurkha,

If I do that (I tried printing sheets 1, 2, 4), the multiple print worked fine. Well spotted.

It's just individual sheets that appear to cause the problem. If I send just one sheet to my printer, nothing happens and no error messages are returned.

To be able to print one sheet, I have to select the sheet I want, select move or copy, send it to a new book and then print it from there. If I then add another sheet to that same new book, that won't print, so the new book inherits the error when it sees multiple sheets!

I'm set up to print A4, scale to fit, by the way.

What if you do the same as the multiple print, but select the single sheet you want?

If I open the File/Print dialogue and select "Selected Sheets", then choose a Print Range of any single sheet, it won't print.

This is what I do.

Define print range.
Got to print, select Selected Sheets, put in the sheet no.

I am having exactly the same problem with the new Open Office 3.01 as LANZen. I have been using the old version for a couple of years and have had no problems printing multiple sheets from the same file - now - I cannot print more than the first sheet in a file - the others spool through but do not print. No error message appears.

I also have to move the sheet to a new file to print it. I tried printing the pages as suggested: "Define Print Range" (you can define one sheet - but in order to print six sheets - I have to define each sheet - as the first one gets erased the moment I define the second page - which is in itself a long - drawnout process. If I add sheets to the print range - this does not change anything except the Print Preview) Then "Go to print, select Selected Sheets, put in the sheet no." and nothing prints - unless I choose page 1 - if I choose 2 or 3 or any combination - nothing prints.

Since all of my spreadsheets are multiple pages - this presents some difficulty in getting work done in a timely manner. Any other suggestions - or is there a patch to fix this problem?

I decided to play around some more to FIX my printing problem.

I used the 'Page Preview" link - and then when I chose "Print" from here - I selected "All Sheets" rather than 'Selected Sheets' and then chose page No 2 - and it printed. I did the same with page No 3 - and it printed. I believe this successfully solves my problem and I hope LANZen gets the same results.

Thanks Guys - and particularly BJD for your help.

But are we seriously suggesting that we have to resort to such a convoluted workaround to just print a simple spreadsheet from a book of sheets?

Can we really say that OpenOffice is a real alternative to Microsoft Office and the emerging cloud applications if it can't do something as simple as print?

And remember, it affects PDF production as well.

I'm sorry , but for a commercially viable package, we have to have real 100% fixes to real 100% problems, not frigs. You can't take such things to clients and say "this is what you have to mess about with every time".

I'm not sure why, but I don't see the behavior you guys describe.

To print multiple sheets:
File > Print > select Selected Sheets and then in Pages enter something like 2,5,7.

To print single sheets:
File > Print > select Selected Sheets and then in Pages enter the single page number.

go to http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 18&start=0

LANZen wrote:Thanks TheGurkha,

If I do that (I tried printing sheets 1, 2, 4), the multiple print worked fine. Well spotted.

I am seeing a misunderstanding of terminology here, perhaps my own. The "1,2,4" should refer to the individual "pages" of some particular sheet, not the sheet numbers. My understanding is that to use "Selected" sheets, you would first select them [CTRL-left mouse], then go to the print dialogue. What I don't know is if the page selection will then refer to print the same pages in each selected sheet. Pages are defined for each sheet using the Page Break Preview option before doing any printing.

David.

Hi, Guys,

Sorry I've been away - I've been moving from Windows XP to Ubuntu following my XP system running out of space again!

Well, here's the thing. Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice 3.1. Hurray!

Now when I try to print any of my spreadsheets, say page 6 of 8, it works. Absolutely perfectly. As does any other page selected.

There is no issue whatsoever printing OpenOffice in Ubuntu Linux. So the problem is in the print spooler used for Windows. Forget the workarounds, the standing on one leg and face east suggestions - the problem is a problem for Windows. Don't live with it, change it!

PS: I can wholeheartedly recommend moving to Ubuntu - it does everything Windows can and better. Go for it. See my blog for details...

http://www.blog.lanzen.co.uk/?p=784

Glad you got it sorted, but it isn't a general issue with OOo on Windows - I've never had it fail.

By the way, the version of OOo on Ubuntu is one made out of the Go-oo source code, which is best considered an experimental branch, and the Ubuntu version doesn't have certain components instaled by default, like Base and the email mail merge. you might want to replace it with the official Sun Linux version.

[Tutorial] Installing OOo on Ubuntu, Debian and Co.

Hi, Gurkha,

I'm really grateful for your help here - as I'm sure everyone else is you've assisted, but I'm a little worried about your statement:

TheGurkha wrote:it isn't a general issue with OOo on Windows - I've never had it fail.

Given that the problem is reported elsewhere, that may sound to some a little arrogant, don't you think?

That it can't be a problem because you've never had it. That's like saying you can't have fallen over and broken your leg because I've never done that.

Bear in mind that if we're recommending Open Office for normal users, not just geeks, it is wholly unreasonable to expect people to use convoluted workarounds that you don't have to do with Excel to perform simple everyday tasks like printing. That doesn't further the cause of Open Source one bit and is actually a retrograde step.

And an update on Ubuntu. Ubuntu ships with the latest version of Open Office pre-installed but simply without Base in the menu, its there for you to add in Package Manager if you want that feature - you don't have to go looking elsewhere for it.

What's more, its supported by Canonical, so if anything, support is better than under Windows, or even Microsoft Office under Windows for that matter!

Its interesting that I could do EXACTLY the same in Ubuntu as I did with Windows and print fine (I was using the same saved sheet data). That would point to an issue that remains unresolved.

But once again, thanks for your help - you make a valuable contribution to this board.