Print dialog, Leopard & PC8

[Greg]

I started a thread on this issue following Leopard's release, but I notice that the issue still persists with the release of PC8, so thought it warranted a new thread.

It concerns the print dialog box which comes up on hitting "Apple-P". Since moving to Leopard (OS 10.5) I have been able to hit it more than once (or hold it a bit too long) and bring up multiple dialog boxes. The first one looks pre-Leopard (as it has no drawing preview, but instead a "Preview" button), while the others have a drawing preview display (though the display is incorrect). If you hit "Print" from the first dialog box, everything works fine. However, hitting "Print" from any of the other ones freezes up PC and requires a restart. Others were able to replicate similar behaviour.

I was told this was a printer driver issue, though I continue to have doubts, as I have updated most of my drivers, and the behaviour is identical regardless of printer selected. This is also the only application which does this.

Now it is more of a nuisance issue, as I can train myself to be less heavy-handed, and simply close the duplicate dialog boxes, but I have got to think that there is something behind the scenes going wrong (Leopard-related I suspect) which I would think ES would like to address.

Any others able to replicate this behaviour with PC8 and Leopard?

[Jeffrey Jakucyk]

Have you reported this to Engineered Software directly, i.e. by e-mailing support@engsw.com or submitting a troubleshooting report? If you haven't, you should, since that's the only way to ensure that they really do know about it.

I can replicate the problem too, in PC6, 7, and 8. It seems that the print (and page setup) command isn't being disabled when the dialogue is open. If you hit print, you can not only hit command-p to open more dialogues, but you can also go to the menubar and select print from there as well. In other programs they are grayed out when you have a print dialogue open. This most certainly isn't a driver issue.

[Damon]

The multiple dialogue box is now present for both cmd-P and cmd-shift-P. In V7 I only had it for cmd-shift-P.

At least with the new speed in PC8 one can back off the buttons more quickly.

[Greg]

I hadn't noticed that the problem exists for "Print" as well as "Page Setup".

In fact when you have a Page Setup dialog box open you can Print without closing it. The funny thing is that the larger (OS10.5) Print dialog box opens if you already have the Page Setup dialog open.

You're right Jeffrey, once any of these dialogs are open, choosing other menu commands (including the same one again) should have no effect.

Definitely something needs fixing.

[Napoleon]

Never noticed this in PC7.....BUT:
I have noticed that after plotting between 14 and 21 consecutive plots (we use detail manuals instead of detail sheets) the primitive print dialogue box will begin showing up. The only fix I have is to shut down PC and re-start because there are settings that need to be selected that are not available in this dialogue box.
Sorry I can't provide you with help. Just thought I'd once again add our problem even though it's a related string.
nb

[Damon]

I just tried again, and in PC 8 I can get multiple boxes for both 'drawing set up' and 'print'.

What's kind of neat is that the second and consecutive 'print' boxes are all wide, and have what looks to be a drawing preview rectangle present to the left of the usual buttons and menus. The second, wider, print box has no 'preview' button, where it usually sits beside the 'pdf' button.

Related to some print preview feature, perhaps?

[Greg]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "the primitive print dialogue box"?

(or maybe attach a graphic?)

[Napoleon]

Ok... I'll give this a try but I've not been successful adding attachments in the past...

The primitive dialogue does not have a pdf option nor does it allow modification in the third pull down from the top.

nb

[Napoleon]

I can't get the attachment thing to work.

[Matt]

maybe take the spaces out of the file name for the file you're trying to upload..

[Greg]

Also watch the size of the attachment, as it is limited.

[Napoleon]

Ok. I took the spaces out and it is only 24k so... here goes.

I just saw a link for "Allowed extensions and sizes". I have a .tiff file so I also changed the extension to .tif

[Napoleon]

SWEET!!! It worked!

Anywho, now you can see the printing problem that I spoke of waaaay up there.

[Greg]

Wow, that is primitive!

On my first hit of Command-P I am getting a dialogue box which looks like the Tiger version (with Preview button).

On my second hit I get a Leopard-looking one, with an actual preview (though it is always blank). See attachment.

[huc]