Troubleshooting Printing Problems in FoxPro Ver 2.0 & 2.5

• Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, versions 2.0, 2.5, 2.5a

SUMMARY

If you are having a problem printing, the following procedure can help you to establish what is causing the problem.

1. From the Window menu, choose Debug.



2. In the left side of the Debug window, type the variables in the left column below:

   
         SYS(6)          && Printer Device
         SYS(13)         && Printer Status
         SYS(101)        && Device Setting
         SYS(102)        && Printer Setting
         SYS(2005)       && Resource File in use
         _GENPD          && GENPD.APP in use
         _PDRIVER        && Printer Driver File
         _PDSETUP        && Printer Driver Setup 

• Report is printing ASCII characters or is not using the printer driver setup you want.
  
  
  1. Before you call up your report, check _PDSETUP in DEBUG and see what printer driver setup, if any, is selected. Then, modify your report while DEBUG is still open and check to see if _PDSETUP changes. If so, then you have specified a printer driver in your report.
  
  
  
  2. If the driver you want to use is the one specified in your report, include keyword PDSETUP following your command to print the report. For example:

     
              REPORT FORM <name) TO PRINT PDSETUP 

  
  
  
  3. If the driver you want to use is the one specified by your environment, (either in your CONFIG.FP file or by issuing the command SET PDSETUP TO "<name of setup>", DO NOT use the keyword PDSETUP when you issue the PRINT command. For example:

     
              REPORT FORM <name> TO PRINT 

  
  
  



• Printing options are dimmed (unavailable).
  
  
  1. Check _GENPD in your Debug window to see if GENPD.APP can be located. GENPD.APP must be available in order to print.
  
  
  
  2. If you are distributing an .EXE file, GENPD.APP must be included in the project and marked as Excluded. To do this, modify your project, choose Add, select Application and locate GENPD.APP. FoxPro should automatically mark GENPD.APP as excluded. GENPD.APP, DRIVER2.PLB, PSAPI.PLB, FOXSWAP.COM, and PROAPI16.EXE (if on an 80386 machine) must then be distributed with your .EXE file.
     
     NOTE: PROAPI16.EXE is no longer needed with FoxPro versions 2.5 and later.
  
  
  



• Report is printing ASCII characters instead of boxes.
  
  Printer drivers were updated with patches of new releases. Make sure you have applied the latest patches. If you are using the latest release of the drivers and you are still having this problem, the setup is trying to print with the IBM character set. In this case, you have the following choices:
  
  
  • Choose a printer font on your printer that will print the IBM character set. For example, on a Hewlett-Packard printer, choose PC-8.
  
  
  -or-
  
  
  • Modify the P_CODES.DBF P_startup to include the escape sequence needed to place your printer in the font that will use the IBM character set.
  
  
  



• ASCII text files are not using your printer driver setup.
  
  
  • ASCII text files will not use selected printer drivers. They will always use the generic text printer driver (the default printer setting).
  
  
  
  • ASCII text files will not use any user-defined functions (UDFs) you have created.
  
  
  

REFERENCES

FoxPro online help file, released June 6, 1992 "Commands & Functions," version 2.0

Additional query words: FoxDos TSHOOT grayed out greyed printstatus() q&a questions and answers

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Last Reviewed: August 8, 1999