Publisher 2003 Printing in the wrong place!

[Zoom7000]

We've had a problem for a while now that I posted about on the old icttechnician.com forum that I never really got any reply from.

 

Basically, when a user creates a document in Publisher, it remembers where the document was created and what the local printer is to the location where it was created. No matter where the user tries to open the document it will always print to the location where the document was created even if the printer is not available to the current user.

 

So, my question is, how can I force Publisher to print to the current local printer. It only seems to affect Publisher documents and not any other Office suite documents.

[mrforgetful]

Yeh it's a publisher thing alright.

 

Though here the users get a notice from publisher saying the printer that was available when the document was made is no longer available and it will default to whatever is now available. If you get me.

 

I don't really know how to fix your issue though.

 

What if the user reseaves the document from the computer they've opened it on, does that work?

[SYNACK]

This might alleviate your problem depending on your setup

 

http://www.gmayor.com/fax_from_word.htm

 

Its a bunch of macros that could possibly be distributed to the stations which print to a specific printer. If it could be made to run on start up it could simply set the active printer to the system default.

[Zoom7000]

What if the user reseaves the document from the computer they've opened it on, does that work?

 

If the users re-saves the document on the current workstation then it still prints to the printer local to the workstation the document was created on.

 

If the user copies the contents of the document into a newly created file, it will print to the correct printer in that room. But when they save the file and open it in another room, it will print to where it was created again. This is not a viable workaround though because some users create multiple page documents and it can be a nightmare to, in essence, recreate the document again.

 

This might alleviate your problem depending on your setup

 

http://www.gmayor.com/fax_from_word.htm

 

Its a bunch of macros that could possibly be distributed to the stations which print to a specific printer. If it could be made to run on start up it could simply set the active printer to the system default.

 

I'm not sure if that script will work, because we currently already run a script that sets the default printer based on the machine the user is logging in to.

[sahmeepee]

Yes indeed, Publisher does suck. If you search the Microsoft newsgroups:

 

http://tinyurl.com/3y5r4d

 

you will see that dozens of people have complained about it and the only response is to open the .pub file, change the printer and resave it. Woo, thanks!

 

Why the Microsoft Office team have to go against standard Microsoft practices when they make their software I will never know.

[elsiegee40]

I use Publisher at both home and school a lot as I also do my school's publicity. I've never had a problem with using File > Print and changing the printer to the correct one on a document I've created on one machine and am printing somewhere else.

 

Publisher always asks if you want to save the document when you close it after you've done this... that's personal choice.

 

Am I missing something? I can't see a problem. :?

[sahmeepee]

The problem is that you think before printing and as such you are not our target audience

[elsiegee40]

I'd have thought the warning message as you open the Publisher file would have been enough, however... thinking of our staff; they were no better than yours!

 

I wouldn't try to fix it though. If they can't print it enough times, they'll remember.

 

All our output routes by default to the mono laser - which wouldn't be much use for publisher jobs generally. It's taken the best part of 2 years, but the majority of staff have now learnt not to waste their Print Manager allocation, by forgetting to route output to the Colour printer when they need it! I guess they'd apply this to publisher if they used it.

 

Don't get me wrong - printing is the bane of my life as it is for most of us on these boards, but the staff who use publisher will work it out eventually.

[cookie_monster]

We've had this problem for ages Publisher 2000 used to pop up with a message telling you what was about to happen but when we moved to Publisher 2003 the error didn't appear it just started sending print jobs all over the place.

 

Thankfully this issue has been fixed in Publisher 2003 “SP3” and 2007 possibly because i spent ages on an MS forum explaining how ridiculous it was that they removed the warning to one of the developers.

 

or maybe they started having to use their own product and pulled out some hair :-)

[cookie_monster]

oh you can also get around it short term by going to File - Page Setup -> Clicking the Printer and Paper tab and then reselecting the current printer, even if it's the only one listed then click ok. This somehow forces Publisher to realise that you want to print to the local printer.

[cookie_monster]

@ Zoom7000

 

Did you give SP3 a try?