Funkiness in print dialog box

[kennethp]

When I go to print a document, I hit command-P, and up jumps the print dialog
box. I select the printer I want to use, and go from the "Copies & Pages"
pulldown menu to the "FreeHand MX" pulldown menu. Most of the time there is a
pulldown menu that reads "Normal" or "Quality PS Level 2" and an "Advanced"
button that lets me do separations, linescreen, page size, etc. However, on a
few occasions (sometimes not even consistent with the same document from print
attempt to print attempt), the "Normal" pulldown menu is not there, and
clicking on the "Advanced" button only gives me a "Print Preview" box with no
options to select. Any ideas on why this is

Thanks
Ke

Mac OS10.3.
G5 1.8 dual, 1 gb RA
FHM

[Simon Watson]

No idea on your specific problem but we have found that by selecting "Page
Setup" from the "File" menu and specifying the correct printer and paper there,
click "OK" and then selecting "Print" resolves some issues with missing Print
Dialogue Box features. You may want to see if that helps

Kind regard

Simo

[Judy Arndt]

I have seen this after using the Mac OS X 'Save as PDF' feature and then
trying to print to a PS printer. If I log out and log in again the problem
clears.

When producing PDF files from FH I recommend using Export > PDF if that is
adequate for the job, or using Acrobat Pro/Distiller to distill Postscript
files.

Judy Arndt

kennethp wrote:

> When I go to print a document, I hit command-P, and up jumps the print dialog
> box. I select the printer I want to use, and go from the "Copies & Pages"
> pulldown menu to the "FreeHand MX" pulldown menu. Most of the time there is a
> pulldown menu that reads "Normal" or "Quality PS Level 2" and an "Advanced"
> button that lets me do separations, linescreen, page size, etc. However, on a
> few occasions (sometimes not even consistent with the same document from print
> attempt to print attempt), the "Normal" pulldown menu is not there, and
> clicking on the "Advanced" button only gives me a "Print Preview" box with no
> options to select. Any ideas on why this is
>
> Thanks
> Ke
>
> Mac OS10.3.
> G5 1.8 dual, 1 gb RA
> FHM
>

[Oakeydokey]

Have you got a non-PostScript printer connected as well as a PostScript one ?

&

[mcbridet67]

We are having the exact same problem and haven't been able to pin down the
cause. Seemingly at random, the advanced print options will disapear when we
try to print. In order to get them back, the user will need to quit FreeHand
and relaunch the app. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.
Rebooting always seems to clear the problem. At first I thought the problem
might be with the print driver, but I have been unable to replicate the problem
with any other application. It only occurs with FreeHand. We are running OS
10.2.8 and FreeHand 11.0.1 on 450MHz G4's. Another printing anomaly is that
some of our FreeHand documents that used to print out fine will suddenly become
unprintable. They look like they are going through the print queue, but then
they just dissapear, no print output and no error. This happens regaurdless of
which Mac we try to print the doc on. The only way we can get these problem
doc to print out again is to open a new doc and copy and paste into it from the
old doc.

[WendiatPresto]

kennethp and mcbridet67, did you ever find a consistent answer to the problem
of the Freehand print menu all of a sudden showing a Preview screen? I wonder
if the program called "Preview" in OSX is taking over somehow. I can't seem to
find a consistent way to get around it. We print to PDFs using "Adobe PDF".

[Catounet]

Hi there,

There was a known issue with FreeHand 10 and 10.01 on OSX:

'PostScript printing options fail to appear after switching printers':
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/freehand/ts/documents/print_center.htm[/url]

This occurs if you have more than one printer set up and that you switch from
one to the other from FreeHand print dialog box. the solution is to switch
printer from the Print Centre instead.
Hope that helps,
Cat