Documentation Sprint

To get the ball rolling, I have taken chapter 10 "Printing, Exporting,
E‑mailing". This will be the chapter's initial draft and may require
subsequent review.

Dave

Using the previous 5.2 edition of this chapter as a basis for revision,
I see that under "Printing Options" it reads: "The printer (from the
printers available). The Print to File printer is now always available
and will generate a PDF file that you save on your disk." This is a
possible option available on some systems, but on other systems there is
no option and the user will get a PRN file, normally based on the
his/her default printer settings. Since this guide is geared towards
inexperienced users who are unlikely to know what to do with a PRN file,
or have software necessary to process it, I propose to remove the "Print
to File" reference from this chapter. I would have proposed referring
the reader to a more detailed guide, such as the Writer Guide, but that
also has the same issue.

Any thoughts, or alternative proposals?

Dave

Howdy,

I see that when you follow through with a 'print to file' as the printer
choice;
the dialog to name the file has a drop down for selecting the type of file,
with

All formats
Portable Documents Format
Any type

as three choices.

I did not realize it was system optional for PDF to be there,
kind of thought that was built into the application code but
it makes sense that in this case Libo is using an external
generator (from the OS). Your sure that is the case?

Either way I think the GS should mention it,
Firstly, if for some reason the person's system didn't
recognize a local or network printer this
'Print to file' is still be displayed.

Second, and then maybe it is ok to mention a 'see
LibreOffice *6.0* Module Guide' that guide isn't published
yet and the way to make the statement accurate is
to get something about that into it.

Third, with or without the see also type reference, how about
change that to:

Which I've been trying to fashion for 10 minutes
but it keeps getting very wordy.

So maybe just a pass is the right way to go.

Hi Drew,

Thanks for checking this out. My responses are in-line with your message.

Howdy,

I see that when you follow through with a 'print to file' as the printer
choice;
the dialog to name the file has a drop down for selecting the type of file,
with

All formats
Portable Documents Format
Any type

as three choices.

Yes, that appears to be true for Linux systems, at least for all the
distros I have.

The condition arises when "Print to File" is used under windows. I have
tested on my Win 7 & 10 boxes Selecting printer preferences for this
option in the print dialog opens the normal preference settings are for
whatever is the system default printer. Clicking the final print button
brings up the standard Windows Save As dialog, with only 2 choices of
file type *.PRN or Any type(*.*). Obviously changing the file extension
is meaningless, because it is still a PRN file. This is still the case
when the Windows system has PDF printer driver software installed.

I did not realize it was system optional for PDF to be there,
kind of thought that was built into the application code but
it makes sense that in this case Libo is using an external
generator (from the OS). Your sure that is the case?

Linux & Windows printing systems are worlds apart. We would have to ask
the devs about this.

Either way I think the GS should mention it,
Firstly, if for some reason the person's system didn't
recognize a local or network printer this
'Print to file' is still be displayed.

Yes, it will be displayed, but what would an inexperienced Windows user
do with a PRN file? During the PRN file creation the real printer dialog
appears, just like a normal print job, but the user sees no result or
output. So we get the same old whine in the support forums (eg. LO can't
print, etc. etc.)

Second, and then maybe it is ok to mention a 'see
LibreOffice *6.0* Module Guide' that guide isn't published
yet and the way to make the statement accurate is
to get something about that into it.

Jean and others did a great job with the 5.4 Writer guide, but the print
section there is almost a verbatim copy of this section in GS5.2 and I
don't think it would be a good idea to refer to a non-existent guide.

Third, with or without the see also type reference, how about
change that to:

Which I've been trying to fashion for 10 minutes
but it keeps getting very wordy.

Same here. I spent over an hour recreating "War & Peace" on just this
one trivial point, but gave up and finished the rest of the chapter.

So maybe just a pass is the right way to go.

Unless we can find some Windows users to prove me wrong, this would be
my my favoured option.

I will be uploading the chapter to ODF Authors before tomorrows meeting,
so maybe the team can chew this over then.

Best Regards
Dave

Hi,

Using the previous 5.2 edition of this chapter as a basis for revision,
I see that under "Printing Options" it reads: "The printer (from the
printers available). The Print to File printer is now always available
and will generate a PDF file that you save on your disk." This is a
possible option available on some systems, but on other systems there is
no option and the user will get a PRN file, normally based on the
his/her default printer settings. Since this guide is geared towards
inexperienced users who are unlikely to know what to do with a PRN file,
or have software necessary to process it, I propose to remove the "Print
to File" reference from this chapter. I would have proposed referring
the reader to a more detailed guide, such as the Writer Guide, but that
also has the same issue.

Any thoughts, or alternative proposals?

Well, on macOS that is a possibility, to print to a file - it actually

opens a print dialog, but there you can select printing to a pdf file ...

It is actually not like exporting to a pdf file - a simple example: you can
print a document with comments printed on the page border (which is an
option for printing on a physical printer) which you cannot do when
exporting to a pdf file. Since there is a problem/bug exporting comments in
pdf files on macOS (I reported a bug in bugzilla), this is a useful option.

Lp, m.

Hi Martin,

Many thanks for the feedback. It looks (unsurprisingly) like macOS works
like Linux in this respect and offers the expected options, so either
this is, an issue exclusive to Windows, or something I have screwed up
locally on my Windows boxes.

I would really like to get this chapter finalised with accurate
information, so comments from any Windows users out there would be most
welcome.

Best Regards
Dave