MacWD: How to Troubleshoot Printing Errors in Word on OS 9.x and Earlier (302523)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word 2001 for Macintosh
  • Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q302523

SUMMARY

This article explains how to troubleshoot printing issues in Word on OS 9.x and earlier versions. This article may help you troubleshoot problems, if you experience some of the following printing situations:
  • The print job goes into a continuous "processing job, starting job" loop, but the job is never printed.
  • When you click Print in the Print dialog box, Word quits.
  • The print job appears to be hung in the print monitor.
  • The data processing light blinks on the printer, but nothing is printed.
  • You receive one of the following error messages:
    The application 'Microsoft Word' has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 2 occurred. You should save your work in other open applications and restart the computer.

    -or-

    The application 'Microsoft Word' has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 11 occurred. You should save your work in other open applications and restart the computer.
You may encounter these printing issues even if you reinstalled the printer drivers from the software that came with the printer.

MORE INFORMATION

There are several reasons why a printer may not print as expected:
  • The original driver may be damaged and needs to be replaced.
  • The original driver is outdated and does not have the capability to support features of newer programs.
  • A font or graphic image may be corrupted.
  • The file may be too large for the printer to store in its buffer.
  • The document contains PostScript fonts and the printer does not support PostScript printing.

Upgrade the Printer Driver

The printer driver is an extension that loads when the computer is started. To gather information on what is being loaded, follow these steps. On the desktop, on the File menu, click Page Setup. The printer driver name appears in the upper-left corner. The printer driver version number appears in the upper-right corner. The name of the active printer appears on the Format for menu.

You can visit the printer manufacturer's Web site to see whether there is a newer printer driver for that model of printer that can be downloaded and installed. If you are using a Hewlett-Packard or an Apple printer, upgrade to at least Apple LaserWriter 8 version 8.6.x.

For more information about how to contact the manufacturers of the more commonly used printers, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

183356 Printer driver Web sites for commonly used printers that are used with Office for Macintosh

Verify That the Correct PPD Is Installed

A PostScript printer description (PPD) file contains specific information about your printer's capabilities. Without this information, the printer driver cannot use all of the printer's features.

To find out which PPD is configured, follow these steps:
  1. Click the Apple icon, and then click Chooser.
  2. Click the icon of the printer to which you are currently trying to print.
  3. Click the name of the printer that appears in the Select a PostScript Printer box, and then click Setup.

Correct Damaged Print Settings Files

  1. Open the Macintosh HD icon, and then open the System Folder.
  2. Open the Preferences folder.
  3. Open the Printing Prefs folder, and then drag the Parsed PPD folder and LaserWriter 8 Prefs to the Trash.
  4. Set up the printer again in the Chooser.

    The PPD file name and version number are listed in the dialog box that appears.

Troubleshooting the Print Spooler

Print spoolers take the printing instructions and write them to the hard disk. By doing this, you can continue working in your current program while the document is printing.

The print spooler is enabled only if you activate background printing when you set up the printer in the Chooser. If you suspect the printing issue is being caused by a damaged print spooler, turn off background printing in the Chooser.

Corrupted print spoolers or print spoolers that are low on memory can cause many printing issues. If the print spooler is damaged, it needs to be removed and reinstalled. Because printer manufacturers place print spoolers in different folders, contact the manufacturer of the printer for instructions on how to locate and repair a damaged spooler folder.

To assign more memory to the Print Spooler, follow these steps:
  1. Open the Macintosh HD folder and the System folder, and then open the Extensions folder.
  2. Locate the Print Monitor icon for your computer, and then hold down CONTROL while you click the Print Monitor icon. This file name is usually called Print Monitor, but may be called Epson Monitor 3, HP Print Monitor or something similar.
  3. Choose Get Info from the list of options, and then click Memory.
  4. Type a number that is twice the amount of memory listed in the Preferred box (for example, if the number listed is 160, type 320).
There may also be an extension called Desktop Print Monitor. If you have this extension, repeat these steps for Desktop Print Monitor.

Change Setup of Printer Memory

Even a printer that has 32 megabytes (MB) of built-in RAM can have problems during the print process. The printer uses its memory for different processes such as processing the Postscript code, handling downloadable fonts, and so on. Handling of printer memory is dependent on the settings in the selected printer driver.

To change the way the printer's memory is being handled, follow these steps:
  1. On the File menu in Word, click Page Setup.
  2. Click Postscript Options, and then click to select the Unlimited Downloadable Fonts check box.
  3. Click OK.
This allocates more memory to the handling of downloadable fonts and graphics.

NOTE: The print job may take longer than normal to print with this option enabled.

Select a Different Font or Reinstall Fonts

If you have a damaged font, it can cause a problem during the print process. A font may be damaged even if it prints fine from another program. Most programs do not request all of a font's information. Word does request all of a fonts information from the FOND resource in order to give you the layout as intended by the font manufacturer.

If this FOND resource is damaged then you may have a problem printing from an program that requests that information. Try a different font family in your document, if it prints then one of the fonts in that font family is damaged. Reinstall the entire font family.

Test Graphics Files

Some graphics contain Postscript information. Many PICT files can and do contain Postscript hinting. If the Postscript hinting function is either damaged or created incorrectly, you could have a problem only during the print process.

To test the graphic, try removing it from the document and printing the text. If the text prints fine, the graphic may either be damaged or the printer is running out of memory during the print process. This same information applies to EPS files (Encapsulated PostScript).

Check Word Printing Preferences

Word 98 and newer versions are device-independent. This means Word no longer looks to the printer driver for page layout information. That feature may in some cases cause a problem. To test to see if this is the cause of the printing problems, turn this feature off. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the Edit menu, click Preferences, and then click the Compatibility tab.
  2. Scroll down the list, and then click to select the Use printer metrics to lay out document check box.
  3. Click Default, and then click Yes.
  4. If the printing problem still exists, follow these steps:
    1. On the Edit menu, click Preferences, and then click the Print tab.
    2. Click to clear or click to select the Fractional width check box until the best printing results are achieved.
    3. Click OK.
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Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:6/8/2005
Keywords:kbinfo kbprint KB302523
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