[comp.windows.ms] Excel 3.0, Win 3.0 and ATM 1.0 problem

antikainen@cc.helsinki.fi (04/23/91)

I have a 386-25 with 4 Mb of RAM etc. When using Win 3.0 with Excel 3.0 and
Adobe Type Manager 1.0 things get difficult. It seems that Excel won't print
when ATM is on. My printer is HP Deskjet 500 with scalable drivers.

Any solutions to this problem? Is the problem with DJ 500 drivers or something
else.

All advice appreciated

thanks!

Tuomo Antikainen
Univ. of Helsinki
Finland
email: antikainen@cc.helsinki.fi

jlr1801@aim1.tamu.edu (Jeff Rife) (04/24/91)

In article <1991Apr23.123441.6101@cc.helsinki.fi> antikainen@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>I have a 386-25 with 4 Mb of RAM etc. When using Win 3.0 with Excel 3.0 and
>Adobe Type Manager 1.0 things get difficult. It seems that Excel won't print
>when ATM is on. My printer is HP Deskjet 500 with scalable drivers.
>
>Any solutions to this problem? Is the problem with DJ 500 drivers or something
>else.
>
>thanks!
>

You didn't have this problem with Excel 2.1, did you? :->

Let's add this bug (feature?) of Excel 3.0 to the FAQ, ok?

In WIN.INI, in the [DESKJET,LPTn:] or [DJ500,LPTn:] section add the
following line immediately after the section header:

prtresfac=0

I don't know why it makes it work, but it works.

--
Jeff Rife   P.O. Box 3836   |   "Because he was human; because he had goodness;
College Station, TX 77844   |    because he was moral they called him insane.
(409) 823-2710              |    Delusions of grandeur; visons of splendor;
jlr1801@aim1.tamu.edu       |    A manic-depressive, he walks in the rain."

robert@am.dsir.govt.nz (Robert Davies) (04/24/91)

In article <1991Apr23.123441.6101@cc.helsinki.fi> antikainen@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>I have a 386-25 with 4 Mb of RAM etc. When using Win 3.0 with Excel 3.0 and
>Adobe Type Manager 1.0 things get difficult. It seems that Excel won't print
>when ATM is on. My printer is HP Deskjet 500 with scalable drivers.
>

I have the same problem with my original model Deskjet: objects and the
grid print but without any numbers or text. 

Robert Davies

mikel@dosbears.UUCP (Mike Lipsie) (04/24/91)

In article <1991Apr23.123441.6101@cc.helsinki.fi> antikainen@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>I have a 386-25 with 4 Mb of RAM etc. When using Win 3.0 with Excel 3.0 and
>Adobe Type Manager 1.0 things get difficult. It seems that Excel won't print
>when ATM is on. My printer is HP Deskjet 500 with scalable drivers.
>
>Any solutions to this problem? Is the problem with DJ 500 drivers or something
>else.

I had exactly this problem.  The nice folks at Adobe have obviously heard
it before because it took him about 2 seconds to say "Aha!"

Get into Excel.  Go to the printer setup.  Change the dots-per-inch to
75.  OK out to Excel again.  Go back in to printer setup and return it
to 300 dpi.  OK out again.  Done.

Excel has a setup problem.  This procedure causes it to set the right
value.

Good luck,
Mike

--
Mike Lipsie
mikel%dosbears.uucp@ingres.com

robertt@hp-vcd.HP.COM (Bob Taylor) (04/25/91)

This is a known bug in quite a few printer drivers.  Essentially what happens 
is that, in Excel 3.0, the drivers get defaulted to their lowest resolution.
This aggravates an Excel problem that causes text not to print on the DeskJet
at any resolution other than 300DPI(to give a hopefully brief explanation, 
Excel sends a clipping rectangle (the size of the text cell) with all of its
text.  Windows automatically scales all graphics and text calls to the correct
resolution, but it doesn't scale clipping rectangles.  This causes the text
to be placed outside of its clipping rectangle, so it doesn't print.  The
Excel folks say this is a Windows problem, the Windows folks say its an Excel
problem, so it doesn't get fixed).

Luckily, however, there is a fix:

In your win.ini, find the [DJ500,LPT1]
entry, where LPT1 is whatever port your printer is connected to. (note that
this fix also works with the ms-shipped deskjet driver, but the name is
[DESKJET,LPT1]).
Immediately after this entry (i.e., on the next line) add the following
(note that it !is! case sensitive)
prtresfac=0
This will cause the DJ500 driver to default to 300DPI and all should work fine.

hope this helps -

bob taylor
HP Vancouver