Cannot Print Postscript File

[chiefl]

When printing from Pagemaker to a PS file using any PS printer, I get a flurry of activity on the screen and then I am back to my document. I look everywhere and no PS file gets created. I have Pagemaker 7.01, windows 2K and a headache. I am trying to create a PDF file from my document. I have tried a new one page text only document, same result. I have removed Pagemaker, used regedit to get rid of all references to PM, installed PM from the safe mode, same result. I have gone to the printer, currently using the Adobe supplied PS generic, and printed a test page. I get a PS file of the test page that says I have installed the printer correctly etc. I have created PS files from other programs, Word and Illustrator with no problem. Any help would be appreciated.
Jim

 

[Eggles]

The 'flurry of activity' certainly indicates something is happening, but where is that postscript file being stored? You say you have done a search for the .ps extension after the process and can't find it?

The place where you sepcify the location of the ps file is as follows (on PM6.5, and I'm sure it's the same on 7):

Go to Print, and select your postscript printer (make sure the Distiller PPD appears in the window below the printer name) then click the OPTIONS button. Place a checkmark in the box 'Write Postscript to file' and you will see that the 'Browse' button becomes non-greyed out. You can either accept the default location of where it is going to put the ps file, or choose your own location. I usually make it the desktop, simply because it's easier to find when I want to distill it, and I also remember to delete the ps file after I have made the PDF - no point in keeping it.

 

[chiefl]

Thank you. I did all of that before and did it again still and no PS file. The PPD file is ADIST5.PPD, Format Version 4.3, FileVersion 1.0. and it is located in the PM PPD4 directory. I did look at printer styles and get an error message about not able to access a printer driver when trying to use the distiller printer.

 

[viol8ion]

chiefl

Have you uninstalled and reinstalled the printer driver? How about checking for the latest printer driver? Have you tried using a different PPD? Adobe has a bunch of updated ones for download on their site. Have you been able to create PDFs or .ps files before with PM? If so what changed? If not, is the W2K a clean install or is it an upgrade from win98 or NT?

What happens if you attempt to File>Export to PDF? When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com

 

[chiefl]

Thanks! I did all of the above. This is a first for me with PM. It is a new HD with W2k as the first install. After an evening away and a clean boot, I uninstalled everything to do with PM, reinstalled all and now I have a different problem. I now get a printing error message and I get a 0 byte PS file.
Chief L

 

[viol8ion]

Are you logged in with admin privileges? PM requires admin priv's or power user rights to run. I have heard of this before and can't remember the fix.

What sort of document are you trying to create a .ps from? Is it all text? What fonts? What sort of graphics? How did you place the graphics?

Try making a test document with a known good post script font and some text, and with one graphics, a TIFF, placed using File>Place and not copy/pasted. Now try to print to file, as well as File>Export to PDF. What happens? When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com

 

[chiefl]

Thanks for the inputs. I am the administrator, the file includeds texr, graphics, and a MS Word table, I placed the graphics using the File/Place steps. I set up a new file with one page, text only and same problem. Now the good news. I printed to the distiller and turned off, print to file, it created a PDF document. I did it several times to be sure it's wasn't a fluke but it works every time. Any idea why it works this way?
Chief L

 

[Eggles]

Aha! If I am following you correctly, I think the problem is the Word table that you placed. I went through all this a week or so ago, and found that if I either Edit>Insert Object (and then you can browse to where your Word table is and click to select table only and not the whole page) and then the table gets inserted as an OLE. I was then able to PDF the PM document in which this Word table was inserted as an object. So you could try that.

The other alternative is to convert the Word table to a PDF, then place that in PM and then PDF (you can PDF a PDF!). Just check and make sure your graphics are NOT JPGs 'cos that mucks up the PDF process as well.

 

[viol8ion]

PM does not like Word and Excel tables and charts, or most OLE objects.

I found a good free utility that does a great job of creating PDFs with PM docs that have OLE objects.

http://www.pdf995.com

offers it for free (with banner ad) or for $20 which is not a bad price at all. It installs and acts like a printer but outputs to PDF, sort of like File>Export to PDF. It handles Word tables 100%. It chokes on some fonts, and so far that is the only problem I have experienced. And it works with any app for creating PDFs.

I don't know why it would choke on the text only file. Have you set the default printer to something different when using the print to .ps method? I suspect the problem lies there, or in the choice of PPD. Whne you use the Export method, I believe PM uses a different PPD thn when you print to file and you may have to force it to use the correct one. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com

 

[chiefl]

Thanks for all of the ideas. I removed all printers from the system, removed all files from the WINNT\System32\Spool\W32x36 folder, and reinstalled the Distiller printer and the Adobe generic PS printer. The files in the W32x36 folder number about one third of what was there. It leads me to believe there were duplicate files and that maybe they were causing the problem. All appears to be working well. Thanks for all the ideas.
Chief L