leue@galen.steinmetz (05/23/88)
Page formatting with word processor and drawing applications such as WriteNow and MacDraw has an annoying quirk for those of us who use a Mac at home with an ImageWriter, but who often must print their documents at work on a LaserWriter. The problem is that the LaserWriter margins are somewhat narrower than those available on the ImageWriter, since the page coverage of the LaserWriter is a little indented on all sides. If you're trying to squeeze the maximum into a page (a bad practice, I agree) and you do a "Page Setup" using the Imagewriter, you usually truncate information at the right margin when you print the document on the LaserWriter. The really annoying "gotcha" here is that it's simply not possible to "fool" your home Mac into using the narrower margins by installing the LaserWriter driver and using the Chooser to pick a non-existant printer. WriteNow, in fact, won't even run unless there is a real, honest-to- goodness printer corresponding to the output device you choose. Some programs, such as MS Word 3.0x, allow you to set the page size albitrarily. However, MacDraw has no explicit margin settings other than those determined by the physical page size, and so you're stuck. It would be really nice if Apple added left, right, top, and bottom margins to all their printer driver dialogs. Of course, it would be even nicer if there were a universal method of setting arbitrary page sizes, as it is now possible in FileMaker Plus. Hopefully, Claris has addressed this problem in the much-ballyhood but still gaseous MacDraw II. Disclaimer: These are personal opinions and misinformation, not those of the General Electric Company. -Bill Leue leue@ge-crd.arpa uunet!steinmetz!nmr!leue
levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) (05/25/88)
In article <10935@steinmetz.ge.com> leue@galen.UUCP (Bill Leue) writes:
(Page formatting with word processor and drawing applications such as
(WriteNow and MacDraw has an annoying quirk for those of us who use a
(Mac at home with an ImageWriter, but who often must print their documents
(at work on a LaserWriter.
(
(The problem is that the LaserWriter margins are somewhat narrower than
(those available on the ImageWriter, since the page coverage of the
(LaserWriter is a little indented on all sides. . . .
(
(Some programs, such as MS Word 3.0x, allow you to set the page size
(albitrarily. However, MacDraw has no explicit margin settings other than
(those determined by the physical page size, and so you're stuck. . .
You can make ImageWriter margins correspond to LaserWriter margins by
setting Tall Adjusted in the Page Setup dialog (*). _BY COINCIDENCE_,
this sets the margins, for normal 8.5 x 11 inch paper, to be the same
as for the LaserWriter. Everything I do on my IW equipped Macs which
I expect to print eventually on the LW has Tall Adjusted checked. I
have never had a problem. (At one time, I was solving this by using a
% reduction with the LW driver, mainly because my MacDraw diagrams
would have needed to much fixing. This might also help.)
/JBL
(*) Microsoft Word (and possibly other applications) do mysterious
things with the printer driver dialogs, so you will have to
experiment. In Word, you must set Tall Adjusted in the Print dialog
and actually start to print (you may cancel right away) for the
margins to change. Again, foo.
UUCP: {backbone}!bbn!levin USPS: BBN Communications Corporation
ARPA: levin@bbn.com 50 Moulton Street
POTS: (617) 873-3463 Cambridge, MA 02238dorourke@polyslo.UUCP (David O'Rourke) (05/25/88)
In article <10935@steinmetz.ge.com> leue@galen.UUCP (Bill Leue) writes: >The really annoying "gotcha" here is that it's simply not possible to >"fool" your home Mac into using the narrower margins by installing the >LaserWriter driver and using the Chooser to pick a non-existant printer. What version of chooser are you using? I have had no problems with selecting the LaserWriter, and I don't even own one. I am able to select a non-existant printer. I don't know about Write Now, but this process works with the following software packages that I use daily: FullWrite Profession, MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, Finder, Excel. I also happen to know that this process works for Word 3.0X, even though I don't use it anymore. But if you can't set the LaserWriter, then the Macintosh Bible {a real book no joke that's it's name} suggest setting "Tall Adjusted" in the page setup dialog of the ImageWriter. Hope this helps, but you should be able to select the LaserWriter even though you don't own one. -- David M. O'Rourke Disclaimer: I don't represent the school. All opinions are mine!
davide@cs.qmc.ac.uk (David Edmondson) (05/25/88)
To get the Laserwriter page setup on a solo mac you have to fib to the chooser and tell it that appletalk is connected. Selecting the laserwriter icon will then let you use the laserwriter page setup even though you can't choose a printer. I used to have to do this and I've just checked that it still works. Cheers, Dave. davide@uk.ac.qmc.cs or maybe davide%qmc.cs@nss.ucl.ac.uk
jts@demon.siemens-rtl (Jim Sasaki) (05/25/88)
In article <10935@steinmetz.ge.com> leue@galen.UUCP (Bill Leue) writes: > .... WriteNow, in fact, won't even run unless there is a real, honest-to- > goodness printer corresponding to the output device you choose. Maybe I misunderstand the problem here, but I use WriteNow at home, without a printer, and I've never had any problem. In fact, I just now shut down, disconnected my printer here at work, rebooted, and fired up WriteNow. I went back and forth choosing Imagewriter and Laserwriter and doing Page Setup, all without problems. I *was* able to get WriteNow to not run by (1) choosing Laserwriter, (2) removing the Laserwriter file from my System folder, and (3) running WriteNow. It complained "That operation can't be completed. Make sure a printer is installed and chosen." Is this the symptom you're getting? If so, make sure that your System folder has both Imagewriter and Laserwriter files. Jim Sasaki -------------------- Any opinions above are my own and not necessarily those of Siemens RTL, for whom I consult.