Printer settings not sticking
Martin
printers, all networked. I want Firefox to always use the Windows
default printer, and I want the orientation to be portrait unless I
specifically change it.
What happens in real like is that if I choose a different printer it
_may_ become the default for Firefox. I haven't found any pattern on
when this will happen. Sometimes it does, but usually it doesn't. I've
never had a case where after Firefox picks a new default printer I could
get back to my main printer without editing through about:config. As to
portrait/landscape, I printed one page in landscape recently, and now
every print job on every printer comes out in landscape unless I
manually change it. I can't find any setting in about:config for
orientation. The default in Windows for all the printers is portrait,
and it's only Firefox that prints landscape.
Any suggestions in how to get printing to always use the Windows default
printer settings or at least how to get Firefox to stop making random
changes would be appreciated.
Martin
Jay Garcia
--- Original Message ---
Also have three printers networked here and one is default of course and
all are portrait. If I choose one other than the default and change the
printer properties to landscape and print, Firefox will always use that
printer AND landscape until I exit/restart FF. What happens when you
exit/restart FF, does it return to the default printer and default settings?
--
Jay Garcia Netscape/Mozilla Champion
UFAQ - http://www.UFAQ.org
Ron K.
I have seen this problem asked about before and have a possable
workaround. You can add entries to your user.js which will be read into
prefs.js on every startup. I suggest two entries, one to declare a
specific printer and the other to force reset of the orientation for the
declared printer.
user_pref("print.print_printer", "hp deskjet 940c series");
user_pref("print.printer_hp_deskjet_940c_series.print_orientation", 0);
Insert the proper printer ID info from your prefs.js. The value in the
second is a zero. My pref is set to portrait, so this should be correct
to force the orientation back.
Feedback to the group will be appreciated.
--
Ron K.
Don't be a fonted, it's just type casting
Martin
Rebooting and/or restarting Firefox doesn't fix this. Whether choosing
an alternate printer for one print job will change the default printer
for Firefox seems to be random. Some days I can print to different
printers all day long and the FF default never changes. Some days one
of the alternate printers sticks and the only way I had found to get
back was to manually edit print.print_printer. The landscape problem is
recent -- it started after I printed one job in landscape several days
ago, and everything has been landscape since. I shut the computer down
every night and I don't leave FF running unless it's in use, so FF gets
restarted often.
Ron K's suggestion looks interesting. I'll see if it solves this.
Thanks for the response.
Martin
Martin
because I didn't have a user.js file. Thanks for the help.
A bit of a rant here:
I'm really surprised that FF doesn't follow conventions and use the
Windows default printer settings at this point. Back when Mozilla was
more of a geek's program, maybe, but not now, when it's got a
significant share of the market. There's also the kludge required to
print emails in TB without headers. Both issues have been posted about
many times, but get no fixes. Maybe I shouldn't complain -- I have
neither the programming skills nor the spare time to be part of the
solution -- but printing is a key function, and it's broken for a
significant number of people. If FF was really "last used" [and if that
fact was documented] I could live with the approach, but "last used"
isn't working here.
Here's what I see. The computer runs XP x64, and I run Autocad on it
all day 5 to 6 days a week. It gets turned off at night.
Day 1: I use about:config to set the default printer to "Brother
MFC-8840D". "Brother MFC-8840D" is the Windows default printer. There
is no orientation setting in any of the setup files that I can find.
All my programs print properly.
Day 2: In FF I print a page from a banking site to "Brother HL-5250DN",
which I select in the printing pop-up. Brother HL-5250DN" becomes the
default printer in FF, as I find out when I print a map from maps.google
later in the day (after closing and re-opening FF several times) and it
prints on "Brother HL-5250DN".
Day 3: "Brother HL-5250DN" is still the default. I start and close FF
several times through the day. At the end of the day I restart FF to
print the daily crosswords. They all print to "Brother HL-5250DN"
unless I manually change the printer for each crossword -- each one
comes up with "Brother HL-5250DN"; changing to "Brother MFC-8840D" on
one crossword does not bring up "Brother MFC-8840D" as the printer for
the next crossword. Shut down for the night.
Day 4: "Brother HL-5250DN" is still the default in FF, even though
"Brother MFC-8840D" was used last. In FF I print a map from
maps.google, and I opt for landscape because the site usually tiles the
maps. After that, landscape has become the default for FF, on all
printers. Shut down for the night.
Day 4: Landscape is still the universal default in FF. All other
programs print portrait as default. I have to reset the orientation for
each and every print job individually -- every time the printer pop-up
comes up it shows "landscape", even though the last used orientation was
portrait. Closing FF and restarting FF doesn't change this, not does
rebooting. I check all the preference files and can't find any lines
referencing printing orientation. I use about:config to set
print.print_printer to "Brother MFC-8840D". Now "Brother MFC-8840D",
but I'm still printing in landscape in FF. I found no solution for the
landscape problem until your suggestion above.
I'm a bit frustrated. Business grade software shouldn't act like this,
and I shouldn't have to kludge a solution.
Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your help.
Martin
Ron K.
Some ting I can say from recently reading a bug report is there is work
going on to switch to a different printing toolkit. Some elements will
be difficult and the switch will require digging into many of the core
files. My guess the patches will not land till Fx and Tb 3, which
shares the same printing code modules.
Martin
Good to know. Thanks.