Microsoft Publisher Printing Problems

March 9, 2005 7:16 AM

Microsoft Publisher has stopped recognizing my printer. What can I do?

I found this post somewhere else - just pretend it was written by me (except for all the exclamation points), because it's exactly my problem. I reinstalled the printer driver twice via the CD, and then went to the printer's website and downloaded their online version of the driver and installed that as well - no dice. The printer works fine except when in Publisher, which is where 99% of my documents are. Does anyone know what's wrong? What should I try next?

posted by iconomy to computers & internet (6 comments total)

stop using publisher?
posted by omidius at 7:23 AM on March 9, 2005

Gosh thank you for that very helpful answer, omidius.
posted by iconomy at 7:29 AM on March 9, 2005

Have you tried reinstalling Publisher? That’s usually my first thought when the problem is limited to one program.
posted by boomchicka at 7:40 AM on March 9, 2005

If reinstalling is unfeasable or doesn't work, in Publisher 2003 you can export to EPS or high-resolution TIFF. You can then import that into another program, even Word, and print from there.
posted by zsazsa at 8:41 AM on March 9, 2005

Thanks - I've reinstalled and still no luck. I have Publisher 2000 so I'm not sure if that would work, zsazsa, but I'm going to try it. I'm trying to print a really involved brochure that has to be done by the end of the day...gah. I'm ready to go out to the street and flag down a geek!
posted by iconomy at 8:54 AM on March 9, 2005

Not a permanent fix, but you might try:

(1) Print to file, and try dragging that file onto the printer.

(2) Print or convert to pdf and print from acrobat.

(3) Print to postscript -- this *can be* as simple as print-to-file with an Apple LaserWriter selected as printer, but not always. Then install ghostscript and ghostview -- both are free. From there, either print the .ps file from ghostview, or use ghostview to convert to pdf and print from acrobat.

(4) Dump to RTF and print from Word or similar.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:14 AM on March 9, 2005