Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (Full Version)

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Muphomo -> Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/18/2013 8:22:26 AM)

New computer, Windows 8. TPS 3.5 appears compatible as promised. But software used for 20 years to produce this calendar project is no longer available nor workable with W8. Required new software, settled on TPS 3.5. Love working with it but ...

It's Original project, no templates - running 14" paper with birthdays (104), anniversaries (26) and "special days" like Easter, Christmas, etc. The old software had no problems handling that much content.

Still a few items to include but most copy is complete for 12 months - total of just over 38,000 KB - about 37MB/month - and cannot get it to run a preview copy. I set both printer and software relative to 14", etc. Click "Print" and nothing happens.

Customer service/Tech thought the "nothing happens" was spooling. They pointed me to KB Article 766, which refers to "Long Spooling Time When Printing," suggesting that the "Group the Items in the Project" directions might solve the problem. I have absolutely no idea what "group the items" means! In a Calendar is "January" one item? What is an "item"?

So, I was lost at Step 3 "Click the Edit Menu Option." Assuming that Spooling is the process of loading memory. At any rate, my immediate problem is that I can find no "Edit Menu Option" when I open the project - at least none that is recognizable to me as such.

Please help. I'm stuck and Calendar implies a deadline! I'm not familiar with a lot of the terminology, so simple instructions will be better! Thanks so much.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/18/2013 9:37:53 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Muphomo
... - about 37MB/month - and cannot get it to run a preview copy. I set both printer and software relative to 14", etc. Click "Print" and nothing happens.

Are you saying you have a a total of 12 months and your file size is 12 x 37 MB or approx. 444 MB? That is huge. Printer spooling could take up to an hour.

Or did you do each month as a separate file so no month exceeds 50 MB?

You didn't mention graphics. Is your calendar strictly the dates, no photos?

Please post back with replies and I can help you get your calendar printed.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/18/2013 12:54:49 PM)

Ellengard,

Thanks for your response. I don't know if I'm doing this right - first timer - but hopefully I'll reach you.

I have a total of twelve months in the project, it's a single project - several hours so far. (Not finding any real helpful information when I started with TPS 3.5,a brand new program to me, it was a case of "the blind leading the blind!" I just stumbled along. Yes, I originally began each month as a separate file, but felt that couldn't be right, so I deleted the 12 separate files and combined into one. Perhaps that was a mistake?)

So the Family Calendar 2014 Project is one file (12 months) with a total of just over 38,000KB at the present time. If I figured it correctly, that's approximately 37MB. But that's where I misled you. It is an average of just over 3MB per calendar! There, that sounds better. Sorry about the error.

Regarding graphics. Each birthday (106 of them) includes person's name/balloon for BD - age in the balloon if a family member up to 21, wedding rings and couple's names for anniversary (26). So not just date. I like photos, use several but things such as the balloons and rings are clip art, not photos.

I have "special days" Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., plus, e.g. St. Pat's, Columbus Day, etc., and lighthearted "special days" e.g. "National Chocolate Chip Day" etc. These will almost all be clip art not pics.

Thank you, Ellengard. Again, I appreciate your response. I am not on the "cutting edge" in my terminology so thanks for your patience.

Just looked back over this before posting and realized the repetition of information. Sorry.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/18/2013 2:45:47 PM)

Thanks for the clarification. Clipart graphics don't impact file size the way high res photos do, so your file size is fine, not too big.

It could be that the hundreds of individual items is a bit much for your printer to process, but no worries, there is a simple workaround.

Save as PDF at 300 dpi. Give it some minutes to complete this task. Then open the PDF with Adobe Reader and use the print options within.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/19/2013 7:46:29 AM)

Ellengard,

Before I attempt the PDF step I need to know a couple things.

I still have the main holidays to add, plus other specialty items to include. In the old software I was able to print a "working copy" to make sure everything looked satisfactory (actual print seems to be more informational than a print preview on screen, to me at least). And I'd like to do that one month at a time

At this point all 12 months are in one project. When they are in a PDF, will I be able to do that or "has that ship sailed?" I for sure don't want to reinvent the wheel on this project.

I do have a couple related questions for which I can't seem to find an answer.
- what does "doublesided" refer to? What is its purpose?
- What are they referring to with the terms calendar "top" and calendar "bottom"

For comparison purposes for you, after my last post I looked up the files on our 2013 calendar. The total space - individual calendar month grand total - was 416.7 MB, an average of 34.7MB per calendar.

Why I'm nowhere near that at this point on this year's I do not know. Perhaps I used more actual photos than I realized! With all the special holidays and some other graphics to go (I estimate about 30 must haves and another 20-30 "want to include" items) I'll come close to that 2013 total perhaps.

Anyway, that's the reason for my concern regarding being able to add/change if the project is in PDF form.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/19/2013 12:17:43 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Muphomo
At this point all 12 months are in one project. When they are in a PDF, will I be able to do that or "has that ship sailed?" I for sure don't want to reinvent the wheel on this project.

You are not replacing the PrintShop file. The PDF is a new file, just for printing. The point is that you said your PrintShop file won't print, which is why the workaround is to print the PDF. Make changes to your PrintShop file; make a new PDF to print.
quote:


- what does "doublesided" refer to? What is its purpose?
- What are they referring to with the terms calendar "top" and calendar "bottom"

Have you seen the glossy picture calendars sold in stores? The pictures are based on a theme: pets, sports, movie stars, pop icons, etc. That's what the PrintShop 12 month default calendar project was designed to do - give you a big wall calendar with picture on top, calendar on botton. You lift the bottom page up and you get the next month's picture and calendar because it is doublesided.

Yours is not that kind of calendar. You will print yours single-sided.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/19/2013 7:00:58 PM)

"Thank you for your help. I'll make the rest of the changes, make a new PDF and hopefully print off a beautiful 2014 calendar for my extended family."

That's what I was planning to write .. but the rest of this post is necessitated by the following:

This afternoon, I decided to print the January 2015 Calendar project as a test print, since there is very little memory involved. Transferred some of the information from Jan 2014 to the Jan 15 project, printed. It looked fine. Explanation. I include Jan of next year (2015) so I have a "breather" if I'm late getting it to them!)

HOWEVER: After printing the test copy, I closed the Jan 2015 file and a message popped up:

"You have unsaved project(s) open. Would you like to save these projects?" (Didn't know what project it was referring to, so agreed 'cause I didn't want to lose anything already done.)

When I clicked "yes" to that question, the following message greeted me:
(With a big "X") - I dread the red X's
"There was an error generating the XML Document.Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown."

I had absolutely no idea what that was all about and I really don't know exactly what I did then but everything seemed fine and in place, nothing changed or disappeared! Whew.

After supper, I opened my Family Calendar 2014 project to continue work and saw:
"The project file C:\Users\Lawrence\Documents\Family Calendar 2014 - PSproj. -
cannot be opened. The reference to the file will be removed from the 'Recent
Project' List."

"Will be removed???!!" Sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Given two possible responses: "X" or "OK". Since I didn't want to "OK" removing it but not knowing what else to do, I clicked "X"
Result: my Family Calendar '14 project just disappeared from the list of projects! Gone!
Opened the 2015 Project (Jan only) - same thing happened.

Now both were GONE - I was terrified. Hours of work .. where?

Finally, not knowing what else to do, I checked Documents file, where I had been surprised to find them some time back (guess I assumed they were "In Print Shop" somewhere) Well, they were in Documents file. Clicked on them to see what would happen and they popped up good as new in the Print Shop project list, ready to continue. I'm not "quaking in my boots" but close :-) And I sure am confused, plus afraid to move forward. When you are afraid of losing hours of work, it can be very frightening.

After a few successful projects I'll probably look back and laugh, but not at the moment.

I had planned to send you the thank you above and go about getting ready to produce a PDF of the calendar, so I hate to be a pain in the neck, but - do you have an explanation or advice?



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/19/2013 7:29:43 PM)

Make a backup copy of your project right now.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/19/2013 11:27:27 PM)

quote:

There was an error generating the XML Document.Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException

Sorry, I am not a computer tech expert. My expertise is with desktop publishing.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/20/2013 5:50:23 AM)

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought I was being careful not to mix projects. At the moment I have three projects. A minor one (thank you card I started with) and the calendar projects. These projects are all separate! And they do have unique names.

The major project is titled, "2014 Family Calendar". The second calendar project, just January 2015, is titled, "Family Calendar 2015". It is only a "bare bones" January 2015 so family members will have a place to record appointments, events, etc., until they receive that new year's calendar. So, in essence, it will ultimately end up being a part of the 2014 Family Calendar, but it is separate in the preparation.

So they are not mixed together, I have to open them separately. Perhaps there is something else I should have done, but there are no instructions in any video tutorials or guide that I have found that would tell me that.

What steps do I take to make a backup copy "right now"? I have copies of each in Document Files. That's where I (thankfully) found and restored them to TPS Projects list, to my great relief.

Would Tech Support be the place to ask for a solution? I hate being so illiterate but do appreciate your patience.

Thanks



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/20/2013 5:45:20 PM)

OK, you've done everything right - nothing was lost. Let's just chalk it up to a glitch. If that error message occurs again and again, then you should contact tech support.
quote:

What steps do I take to make a backup copy "right now"?

You've never copied a file and put it on a memory stick before?



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/20/2013 5:54:49 PM)

quote:

...I decided to print the January 2015 Calendar project as a test print... It looked fine.

This success presents you with the option of printing a selected page range instead of the entire calendar.

Instead of trying to print the entire project at once (which seems to be too much for your printer to handle), print page range 1-4. When that's done, do 5-8. Lastly, print 9-12. I think your printer will manage with these smaller chunks. If this works, you can skip the PDF work-around.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/20/2013 8:13:00 PM)

Sorry...yes, I've copied files to a flash drive ( .. thumb drive .. memory drive etc) often. I have several. Thanks. I guess I was trying to make the process too difficult!

That sounds good. I'll make a note to try using selected page ranges when I have the content complete.

I'm also going to look up my printer's memory capacity. It's an HP Officejet Pro 8600 which does a great job. And it handled last year's calendar of 35MB/month, a-month-at-a-time, without any problems. So I'm not sure why it's giving me problems with such a small amount at this point. Oh well.

At least it seems to be working well now and hasn't "scared" me again. For that I'm grateful. I do like working with TPS 3.5. It is easier to get a good result, without as much work as I had with the old software.

I do have a few other questions. Perhaps I'll be back with those later, after this project is complete. Besides, I might stumble across the answers to my questions, as I have with others!

Ellengard. you have been a big help. Its really great having folks like you who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with folks like me who don't have much of either!

And thanks for your patience.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/20/2013 9:14:08 PM)

You're welcome! Glad to help. You're in a good position now that you have a backup file. No worries about losing hours and hours of work. Printing your project in "stages" should overcome your original print problem.

Last year you had PrintShop 23 or older, Win7 and HP 8600. Configuration 100% compatible.
This year you have PrintShop 3.5, Win8 and HP 8600. Configuration not 100% compatible?

Maybe that's why file size is now an issue. Just conjecturing.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 8:48:58 AM)

I appreciate your response.

Regarding your comment about "stages" I have two function questions I meant to ask you in last post, but first....

Just so you know: I've never used Print Shop in any form prior to 3.5. Probably that's why it is a challenging learning curve!

For over 15 years (we began this calendar in 1991!), I used a software program from Parsons Technology, Inc. copyright 1995 called "Announcements 4.1"

Upon purchase of the new PC in July, I "lost" that software. Couldn't find the disc, if indeed there was one. It may have been a download. At any rate, the company is out of business, perhaps sold to another, but I can't find it. Anyway, it probably would not have worked with Windows 8 OS!

For 5 - 6 years I ran Windows Vista Home Basic and my HP 8600 (an HP 8500 for a couple of years before that). During that time everything worked well together - and no memory problems. Configuration 100% compatible.

When contemplating what new software program to purchase, I settled on Print Shop, but asked customer service regarding compatibility. In an email, she said it was, with two exceptions. One was something to do with "sorts" and I do not recall the other. I'd have to look up my email record. At any rate, after an explanation as to the functions those performed, I concluded that these were not things I had needed in the past, so I went ahead with the purchase.

Now the two issues I forgot to put into my last post.

When attempting to place an object (graphic, text, etc.) in the calendar, I sometimes (okay, often) accidentally move something else in the process - usually the grid lines. So than I manually attempt to relocate it precisely where it needs to be. After saving that, I go back and place the object. The old software had a function that, with one click, erased that error and I could go ahead, with the grid lines back precisely where they were supposed to be. I cannot find a function like that and I'm sure hoping it is there someplace. I'm assuming there is.

Also, the Preview Panel at the bottom of the screen shows 26 panels, and calendar content shows up on every-other-panel, starting with panel 3. Very early on, I tried printing January, I think it was, and I indicated that I wanted to print "page 1" Result was a blank page, until I indicated "page 3".

So, if I print in stages, "1 - 4, 5 - 8, 9 - 12" as you suggested, won't I get lots of blank pages?

(I bet this will all be fun once I know what I'm doing!)



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 10:00:09 AM)

quote:

One was something to do with "sorts"...

You can sort your contacts in the Address Book, but when doing a mail merge, the order is not the same.

quote:

... accidentally move something else in the process - usually the grid lines

Lock the calendar before you add graphics. Click the little padlock on the upper right.

quote:

...if I print in stages, "1 - 4, 5 - 8, 9 - 12" as you suggested, won't I get lots of blank pages?

Assumed you already deleted the cover and picture pages since you never mentioned using them. Select page you want to delete. Click Project tab, click Remove Page.



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 4:24:50 PM)

I've been wondering what that padlock was for since I first opened the first project! Thanks. I look forward to not having to relocate the grid lines.

Did not know you could delete extra pages. Thanks, again. Sure solves the problem of running blank pages.

Appreciation for your help, again.

Frustrating when those types of info don't seem to be anywhere in the video tutorials or the guides. Glad you were there.

Now to work. I'll try my best not to bug you again .. at least for awhile. :-) But you surely have been a great help and encourager to this "newbie".



Muphomo -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 5:31:07 PM)

I am so sorry, Ellengard.

Got the extra pages deleted. Completed successfully.

But I cannot get the padlock to lock. Is there another step I need to take before clicking on the padlock? I tried it on each of the settings ("Project", etc.).

Then it hit me, you wrote "Lock the Calendar BEFORE you add graphics". If that "before" literally means that the locking step must have been done BEFORE I began adding the first graphics, texts, etc., then it is too late. Am I in a hole too deep to climb out of?

If that is true, I have a beef with the guides, video tutorials, etc., for to my knowledge, I've found nothing of that nature anywhere in any instructions to this point.

Or am I shook up about nothing ..and there is a solution?



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 7:58:38 PM)

quote:

I cannot get the padlock to lock

Hover mouse over open padlock. Now click it.



ellengard -> RE: Difficulty in Printing Long TIme Family Calendar (11/21/2013 8:11:16 PM)

quote:

When attempting to place an object (graphic, text, etc.) in the calendar, I sometimes (okay, often) accidentally move something else in the process - usually the grid lines.

That is why I said to lock the calendar before adding objects. Locking prevents accidental changes. You can unlock anytime.



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