Visual Dbase/Windows XP Printing Compatibility

[dlmcferran]

I have just purchased a machine with Windows XP-Pro as an OS. I installed Visual Dbase 5.5 and upgraded it to 5.7. Everything seems to work ok except it won't let me use long filenames and more seriously, I can't print any of the reports that I have programmed in .prg files. When I try to print I first get some printer gibberish and then page one of the report prints over and over until I stop the printer. (HP LaserJet 4+)

Would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[dlmcferran]

Since posting my original message I have discovered a dbase command "chooseprinter()". By using this I find that dBase is changing my default printer to another printer on my system and that if I check off Default Printer, things print fine. Problem now is that I have to open this chooseprinter() box every time I open Visual dBase since it seems to be intent on using that other printer each time it starts up. Any suggestions?

 

[dlmcferran]

Hooray......I found out what Visual DB is doing that caused my print problems. It seems that rather than recognizing the default printer it is selecting the last printer on the Window Printer List. I can change back to the default printer manually with the Chooseprinter() command but I just discovered a more efficient fix.

Since the printers are listed on the Windows printer list in alphabetical order, I changed the name of my default printer from HPLaserJet to ZHPLaserJet. This puts it last in alpha order and now when Visual DB opens, it is recognizing the alternate printer which is also my default printer.

Hope this helps someone else.

 

[charlesdenver]

i have the same situation db 5.5 xp. your soulation to print worked fine. has anyone solved the longname proablem??
charlesdenver@msn.com

 

[isdseeker]

Hi,

I have the same problem with 5.7 in XP not accepting long file names from a previous version. Specifically the error comes about when a .wfm (.wfo) is called from a parent wfm.

The only solution I have found is going through the program code and renaming any wfm's which are not in the 8.3 format. This corrects the problem. For some reason, in XP, Visual dBase only reads the first 8 characters of the called file name and says it can't find it (because the long file name doesn't match it)

What a pain to fix! But changing the names do work.