Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 17466
Printing Envelopes apparently not working
Last modified: 2014-11-18 23:06:27 UTC
1. Have a brother HL1240 & HL1440 laser printer. 2. Created a new text document in RC1 and retested it in RC2. 3. With this document I then created an envelope using the INSERT ENVELOPE method as described in the Help - Contents. 4. The HL-1240 is a front loading envelope feed system with the feed centered. That was chosen and the addressee and addressor fields were filled in appropriately. 5. After completing the information required for the envelope I went to print to print it. 6. With envelope loaded in printer the envelope travels thru without any printed information. NOTHING. 7. Played around with it some more but have unsuccessful in getting this feature to work. Printing of documents work fine.
jw: reassigned to jw can you attach the document please?
set to WFM
I'm experiencing the same. I just upgraded one of our Accounts PCs ( running Windows 2000 sp4 ) from OOo-1.1.0 to OOo-1.1.1 and now our envelopes don't print ( we use a template I created just for the purpose ). If I copy the text into a new document ( defaults to A4 ), it prints fine. If I format the page to Envelope #10, landscape ( which is what our envelopes are, and which used to work ), the printer spits out an envelope with no text. Downgrading to OOo-1.1.0 gives us envelope printing functionality back. I'm attaching a demo document.
Created attachment 15626 [details] Envelope doesn't print
confirmed with build 680_m41, "printed" only an empty page. reopend, set target OOo2.0
reassigend to hi set status to new set prio from P2 to P3
HI->SSA: The bugdoc has the page format= Env.#10 (Width:24.13cm/Height:10.48cm). I enabled the page border where i could see that the print is rotated by 90°. When I change the page format to DL (Envelope format), the print is ok. Verified with Brother HL-5170DN.
*** Issue 29773 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 31273 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I wonder if vandan has left sender's address blank? When I try to insert/print an "Env.10" envelope the sender's address is printed (on HP4) where the stamp should be and text is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. If sender info was blank, it would appear to pass through printer without any printing. Envelopes work fine on same system in 1.1.0, but broken in 1.1.1 - I thought issue 25342 sounded like my problem so I waited for 1.1.2, but it's still broken.
I forgot to mention Win98 using MS-HP4 driver. Also "Format-Page" and "Page-Preview" info appears to be normal and both 1.1.0 and 1.1.2 present the same stuff.
Yes the sender details are blank, because we have that already printed on the envelope. I *DID* submit a document that people can use to test. See the top of the page. I'm also a little worried about the target milestone of this bug. It WORKED in 1.1.0. It's a regression. Do we really have to wait for the 2.0 release before this can be fixed?
I was about to do some testing with different printers when I noticed the "Printer" tab on Insert-Envelope dialog (the one where you click "New Doc.". In this tab, I clicked the last icon for "envelope orientation" and my problems went away. Although this same dialogue is present in 1.1.0, it was not necessary to change anything on that release.
->robparent: I'm trying to understand what exactly is the problem, as all my tests show, that printing envelopes *should* work. There was a change recently regarding paper formats that the printer does not support directly, i.e. those that do not show up in the driver's list of suported formats. Can you please use the latest OOo version and carefully check that you choose a page format that really exists on your printer ? Note: the list of paper formats offers non-native formats as well. Eg #10 is not supported on my printer but DL is. If you are sure that you selected a valid format but it still does not print you can try to change the orientation in Format->Page or you could also swap the width and the height but leave the page orientation as it is. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for the update. I can't test this week ( going home now ), but will try it out Monday morning. When you say 'latest version', are you referring to the 1.1.3 release, or the pre-2.0 snapshots? I only ask because the target was set to OOo2.0 ( see comments above ).
Yes, I'm referring to the 1.1.3 release. But you may of course check the 2.0 preview as well, but I think the Envelope and printing code should not differ. Between OOo 1.1 and 1.1.3 the printing code had to be changed to better deal with custom paper formats. May be this has caused differences in envelope handling for some printers but in general it should work. May be the settings have to be changed slightly, especially in the dialog where you specify how your printer pulls envelopes in. Again, I would not expect any problems when you create a new empty document and change its page format to one that is directly supported by your printer. The other possibility, i.e. Insert->Envelope works a little different but allows for more tweaking by using the mentioned dialog.
Any update ?
Sorry for the delay. I've tried with 1.1.3 and 1.9.56 and have produced the same results under both: The original document ( uploaded attachment from before ) won't print for us, no matter what options I select ... and I tried a lot. However creating a new document ( Insert ==> Envelope from 1.9.56 ) DID work perfectly ( saved as sxw file and tested under 1.1.3 also ). Settings were the same as previous document: - Envelope 10 - Landscape - Printer set to 'auto tray select' I am completely OK with using the new document and forgetting the fact that the old one doesn't work. I'm still a little curious as to *why* it doesn't work, and will assist in any way that I can if people want to pursue this bug further, but if there are more important issues ( which I imagine there are ), then I'm fine with this being marked as 'fixed'. Thanks for your time :)
Hi Vandan, I am the original author of this bug. I now have a Panasonic KX-P7110 network printer and I am running OpenOffice 1.1.3. I received an email tonight which I believe states the bug is slated to be considered fixed. I had my reservations so I rechecked this bug under 1.1.3 ONLY and have been UNABLE to print the envelope correctly. I've created completely new documents and have produced the same results found in 1.1 respectively. You appear to indicate it is fixed in 1.9.56 which is alpha by my calculations so I cannot verify it there. However, I CAN say that the issue of printing envelopes - in a manual center feed printer - center button selected and all other settings in the openoffice "Insert" - Envelope - format settings area (four tabs of controls), plus the printers settings to type #10 envelope - manual feed have produced the SAME negative results as previous versions of openoffice. I strongly suggest this bug not be closed and/or considered fixed and that some level of discussion be started on a new way to address the setup of envelopes in openoffice that takes the user through a step by step process in order to limit possible setting errors and to hopefully fixed the bug once and for all. I know this is probably not the most important issue in openoffice, but it would be nice to provide a feature which is standard in other office programs that works in its entirety. I hope you will pass this info around and possibly the idea of producing a better process for users to properly set up the envelopes to help them get their work done. I suspect doing something like this will help the programmers who support this code module that there is indeed an issue glaring them in the face that they have yet to fix. Sincerely, Rob Parent OpenOffice supporter
Robparent: I didn't mean to step on your toes by suggesting this bug be closed ... it's just that no-one else seemed to be complaining any more, so I assumed I was the only one having issues. You should pay special attention to the comments regarding the paper setting of your envelope. One thing I noticed when switching between OOo-1.9.56 and OOo-1.1.3 was that in OOo-1.1.3, the *new* envelope I created *initially* wouldn't print for me, and when I selected Format ==> Page and inspected, the 'Paper Format' property on the 'page' tab had been set to 'User' ( even though in OOo-1.9.56 it said 'Env. #10' ). When I changed it to 'Env. #10' under OOo-1.1.3, it printed fine. ( Perhaps this problem was caused by the export filter in OOo-1.9.56? Don't know. ) So it seems that it *is* pedantic about the 'Paper Format' setting. Perhaps you should check that your printer understands this format ... I suppose even if the printer can actually print this size ( which I assume it can ), there is still a chance that it doesn't explicitely *know* it can print this size ... maybe choosing a different paper format might fix your problem. I dunno. It's working well for me now. But as I've said, I'll do what I can to help trouble-shoot until everyone is happy. Keep in mind I'm not an OOo developer - just an end user.
Hi Rob, one last check to see if my assumptions where the problem is are correct. I suppose when you don't use Insert->Envelope at all but instead create an empty document, goto Format->Page, select #10 and put some text on the envelope it will just print. Right ? If this works it should also work when you do Insert->Envelope and select the right most button in the orientation settings, although this does not look like a centered envelope feeder. As a result you should get a page with #10 format (if you check the format after pressing the centered button it will be custom, right?) I think the envelope handling has to be changed in way that guarantees that valid (and supported) paper formats are sent to the printer instead of custom format. This together with orientation changes seems to confuse most printers.
I checked 1.1.3 just the way you said and it works fine. "Hi Rob, one last check to see if my assumptions where the problem is are correct. I suppose when you don't use Insert->Envelope at all but instead create an empty document, goto Format->Page, select #10 and put some text on the envelope it will just print. Right ? If this works it should also work when you do Insert->Envelope and select the right most button in the orientation settings, although this does not look like a centered envelope feeder. As a result you should get a page with #10 format (if you check the format after pressing the centered button it will be custom, right?) I think the envelope handling has to be changed in way that guarantees that valid (and supported) paper formats are sent to the printer instead of custom format. This together with orientation changes seems to confuse most printers." Your on top of the issue beautifully. Once I used the right most printer button in the "Insert - Envelope - Printer tab" it worked fine. I didn't even have to make any setting changes in the printers internal settings. Adjusted the indenting of the sender and addressee some to print further to the left but everything else was already set.
As we're close to beta now I cannot make bigger changes to the priner handling. We agreed to tackle this issue very early after OOo2.0 is done. As there are several issues with printing, especially dealing with custom paper formats, using the correct borders and printer access in general there has substantial rework to be done in this area. Thanks for your support and useful feedback - my access to different printer models is, well, limited...
WOW! Your kidding. This ISSUE deals with the proper formating and printing of envelopes in OO. This ISSUE has been on the books since 1.0. At that time it was pushed out to 1.1.x. Now it's being pushed out to 2.x. Printing is an important part of the OO package and users consider this feature (THE ENTIRE PRINT FEATURE) to be an important piece in convincing users (people, schools & businesses) that this is a true replacement for other known office packages. Stability and reliability is key here. I hope the development team will reconsider the importance of this feature being as robust and stable as possible.
*** Issue 38454 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 39908 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
114 is broken. In 110 (contrary to what I said before), the user *must* must select the first icon (under printer "tab") for envelope to print properly. In 113, the user *must* select the icon that matches the way envelope feeds into printer. With 114, none of the icons (we tried all 6) produces an acceptable result. The 5th icon comes closest. Although 5th icon suggests center feed, we feed the C10 envolope on left side of manual tray and sender/recipient both print about 1/2 inch to left of where they should). We tested with plain piece of paper and found that if the C10 envelope were actually 11 inches wide, then address infor would have printed properly with 5th icon and left side fed. I'm printing to HP4. I don't remember what happened with 111 and 112, but I have copies if testing of these versions is required.
ssa: reassign to hdu
reassigned to PL as discussed.
target
feature freeze passed, target now 3.0
target 3.x
Can we get this prioritized for 3.x? Envelope printing has not worked for 5 years.
*** Issue 116063 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Reset assignee on issues not touched by assignee in more than 2000 days.
This is still an issue in AOO 4.0.1. See bug 124737 updates for a possible work-around: Set the Text Direction under Format->Page to Right-to-Left Vertical and fix the margins.