AppleWorks 6 doc won't print.

[Raven]

I have a 4 page text document that won't print to my laser printer. It does print to my inkjet.
When I press PRINT, the printer light flashes and quits.
The printer window says: "pictwpstops - got an error in disposing of document -8985"
I cut and pasted the text to another AW doc and same result.
I changed the font and same result.

Yet, I printed another AW doc without any problem.
Ideas?

24" iMac, 2.6GHz, OSX10.5.6

[krissel]

It could be either a font problem or the printer setup. Some things to try:

•Create a new user and try printing from that account.
•Use Font Book to resolve duplicate fonts.
•Use Font Book to turn off all fonts then reactivate Helvetica as your only font for the file and try to print. If it works you have     a corrupted font in your system or a conflict.
•Delete the jobs from your print queue.
•Create/Save as a pdf from the file and printing through AW or Preview.
•Save file as a TIFF or other graphic and print that.
•Remove printers from the Printer Utility list, restart, then add them back.

Here's how to reset the Printer Utility:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1975?viewlocale=en_US

[jchuzi]

You could also try Print Therapy 6.0.7, particularly for repairing printer permissions (Disk Utility doesn't touch them). PT has saved my bacon several times and there is a seven day free trial.

[Raven]

Thanks Krissel.
I changed the Arial font and it printed!

[Xairbusdriver]

Might want to repair whatever font you might have had set in that document previously. Font Book can do that for you, if you can remember/find that font! It could even be one that you don't have anymore or one that does not have appropriate files for OS X.

Might also be a good idea to start migrating toward a newer software package. AW has not been supported by Apple for 7 or 8 years. Next time you buy a Mac, it may be too late to convert! I finally had to stop using <VisiCalc>! [attachment=1672:Apple____History.gif]

[Raven]

Thanks xairbusdriver.
I have Pages but haven't bothered to use it much yet.
AW has always been quick and easy for simple text pages.

The font was Arial which comes with the OS. I never use it except this time.
I'll have to figure out if it is corrupted and if so, how to change it?

[Xairbusdriver]

Still suggest using Font Book.
Applications->Font Book->select Arial (there are multiple sub-families)
I Font Book menu, FIle->Validate Font

I still suspect that you have more than one set of "Arial" fonts and the one AW is/was using may have been corrupted. If you still have an old OS 9 system folder on that drive, you might want to simply archive the Fonts folder and see if the problem persists.

If all you want is a text editor, the OS comes with one, also. Frankly, I've never use Pages for word processing, only for page layout that includes mostly text. I don't have Word, which may be able to do what I do in Pages, but Pages is so much less expensive and the package includes two other powerful apps. But there are other capable word processors out there, some of them even free! The question is not when AW will cease to run on Apple hardware. it is only of matter of time when it will not run. Of course, plain text and even rtf files will still be useable, but any proprietary file types may easily be unsupported and lost. I know change is sometimes hard, I didn't leave Eudora until I was more or less forced to, but it part of what we euphemistically call "progress!"

[Raven]

Xairbusdriver,
I did what you suggested using Font Book...

Seems as if I have two Arials - one complete set are .ttf fonts. Whatever that means.
Should I dump one of them?
I have no OS9 Fonts folder.

[Paddy]

Use the "Resolve Duplicates" in the Edit menu to figure out if they're really dupes. In my "All Fonts" collection I have Arial, Arial Black, Arial Hebrew, Arial Narrow, Arial Rounded MT Bold and Arial Unicode MS. I don't have two plain "Arial" sets.

However, that's in FontBook. If I look in the Finder, I have the following in the Fonts folder:

Arial Black.ttf
Arial Bold Italic.ttf
Arial Bold.ttf
Arial Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow Bold Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow Bold.ttf
Arial Narrow Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow.ttf
Arial Rounded Bold.ttf
Arial Unicode.ttf
Arial.ttf
ArialHB.ttf
ArialHBBold.ttf

And when I asked FontBook to reveal the Arial (plain) in the Finder, I got this - IN a Microsoft folder inside the Fonts folder:

Arial Rounded Bold
Arial Narrow
Arial Black
Arial

(I think these are Postscript fonts - the type is listed as "Font Suitcase")

"Resolve Duplicates" doesn't always distinguish between font types it would seem - because if I look at Arial Bold Italic, for instance, which seems to have a duplicate, I find one is a .ttf font in the Library/Fonts folder and the other is part of the Arial Font Suitcase in the MS folder. I'm not going to remove either - they're not actually duplicates.

Anyway, Arial is not a system font, so if you were to remove it, the system would still work. However, it's a pretty basic font and some applications will not work when you remove their fonts (I suspect that since MS Office installed the Arial fonts, it would be best to leave them there!).

Bottom line - your Arial fonts probably aren't duplicates, but you can check this by "reveal in Finder" - it will show you the location and the font type.

System fonts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_typef...d_with_Mac_OS_X

.ttf fonts are TrueType fonts. There are a number of font types supported in OS X:

OpenType (both Mac and Windows formats) .otf
PostScript Type 1 (Mac only)
PostScript Multiple Master (Mac only) MM
TrueType (both Mac and Windows formats) .ttf
dFont (data fork TrueType) (Mac only)

Some applications support some font formats and not others. And example is Open Office - which supports .ttf, but not .otf.

Anyway, unless you have OBVIOUS duplicates, it's best to leave things as they are unless a font is actually corrupted, in which case you should endeavor to replace it from the original software install. Also, when resolving duplicates, don't take anything out of the system folder!

[Xairbusdriver]

".ttf" is a TrueType Font which is older type font, but that's the only kind of "Arial" I have. Mine seem to work fine, despite it being a MS font family using an Apple technology!

The one in OS 9 is probably not, of course. But the OS 9 font may be needed for use in OS 9/Classic. Font Book should be able to tell you if either font is corrupted. That's what the "Validate Font" item is for.

However, if you no longer need/use OS 9, I'd suggest deleting that whole folder or at least archiving it. That way. there can be no chance of anything even 'seeing' the OS 9 fonts, whether they are valid or not.

If that solves the problem, you're done. Otherwise, you may still have a corrupted font. Use Font Book one more time and validate al fonts. Be aware that this may take several minutes.

[Paddy]

Um...Jim...to quote Raven:

QUOTE

I have no OS9 Fonts folder.

New glasses time, perhaps?

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

New glasses time, perhaps?

What?! You mean I have to read all words in a sentence?! As slow as I read (not much faster than I type) it's really going to slow me down to use your method!