Changing default printer in Pages

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Level 1

10 points

Changing default printer in Pages

When I first began printing in Pages, I was using a Canon printer. Now most of my printing is done at work on an HP Laserjet. Yet EVERY time I try to print, the printer Pages chooses is the OLD one and I have to manually change the choice of printer. If I am in a hurry and try to print a document and don't stop and change the printer (every time!) then Pages sends the document off to an old printer that is not even connected to my machine.

(1) Why doesn't Pages use the last printer used, like most other applications?

(2) How can I change this "default" setting? (I've looked everywhere ... in Preferences, Page Setup in the Inspector, etc., etc.

Ken

macbook 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jan 27, 2010 6:07 AM

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Answer 1

May 13, 2010 5:06 AM in response to fruhulda

fruhulda wrote:
Better tell Apple. We who read your post are mere end-user like you.

_ http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html_

Thanks & yeah, I've done that for what it's worth.

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Answer 2

kenwsmith Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 27, 2010 8:25 AM in response to kenwsmith

Following up on Koenig's suggestion:

I created a new document and chose Page Setup so that the new document was formatted for the laserprinter at work. Then (just to be sure), I open the print menu, changed the printer choice over to laserprinter and printed that blank page. Then I saved that new document as a new template entitled "laserprinter".

I then created a new document from the laserprinter template and saved it as Untitled.
Then I quit Pages.

I re-opened Pages and opened the new "untitled" document. It seemed ready to print to the laserprinter.
Now I can make any NEW documents start with that template choice and the printer setting seems to come with that template. But this still does not fix any of the documents created prior to this.

This IS a Pages problem. All other documents on my laptop follow my System Preferences rule of using "last printer used". But Pages does not.

So (still) if I print any previous documents at work, Pages ignores the fact that that document was ALWAYS printed on the laserprinter and Pages still tries to print the document on my home Canon.

IMO this is a bug.

Ken
Ken

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Answer 3

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Jun 12, 2010 3:27 AM in response to fruhulda

Hello

The problem was reported to Apple as bug ID # 6594260 in february 2009 with a link to the thread :
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9013271

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 12 juin 2010 12:27:03

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Answer 4

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Jan 27, 2010 7:00 AM in response to kenwsmith

If you take time to search for "default printer" in the existing threads, you will see that this question is often asked.
It seems that something is odd in the way Pages grabs the print settings infos.
If we save the doc after printing, a print record is embedded in the document.
Pages is supposed to use it when we ask it to print the document.
There is no such datas in a document created from an in thebox template.
My experience is that when the documents are created from already printed documents saved as template, it behaves correctly (maybe I am just lucky).

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 27 janvier 2010 16:00:33

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Answer 5

kenwsmith Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 27, 2010 8:01 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Thanks -- but I tried to create a new template with Page Setup set to the laserprinter, but that didn't work. Even if I create a new Pages document, when I try to print, it returns to the old settings.

This is VERY frustrating. I often think I've printed something at work and then I discover that I didn't because Pages had reverted to the old print setting. Then when I get home and hook-up to the old printer, suddenly old queued-up documents start spewing out.

It almost makes me long for Microsoft.... (not really.)

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Answer 6

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Jan 27, 2010 8:12 AM in response to kenwsmith

It is a System Preference you have to make a change. Hopefully it will work in Pages afterwards.

Go  > System preferences >Printer & fax > click button by Preselected printer > change to Latest used printer

I only have one printer so I cant say if it'll work. You could tell us though.

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Answer 7

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Jan 27, 2010 8:32 AM in response to kenwsmith

kenwsmith wrote:

This IS a Pages problem. All other documents on my laptop follow my System Preferences rule of using "last printer used". But Pages does not.

IMO this is a bug.

Ken

I have alway been suspicious that the printer info is stored in the Pages documents/app, but not been able to verify it.

If it is a bug or intentiously done can only Apple programmer say.

You can tell Apple what you think by using the Pages Feedback option in the Pages menu

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Answer 8

kenwsmith Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 27, 2010 8:42 AM in response to fruhulda

Yes, good idea.

I did fill out the Pages feedback.

(I wrote:
+"Pages simply refuses to obey my System Preferences requirement that "last printer used" be the default printer. Every Pages document attempts to print to an old Canon printer I occasionally use at home. That Canon printer simply happened to be the printer I was using when I installed Pages and now, like an imprinted duckling, Pages insists on first trying to print to that printer, even if I've printed to the HP laserprinter at work dozens of times.+

+One effect of this is that if I am in a hurry and don't change the print setting (EVERY time I print !) then I accidentally queue up a document for the home Canon printer. And nothing shows up at the work laserprinter. So during the week I walk back and forth between my office and the laserprinter, wondering why nothing is showing up. Then, on Saturday, when I hook up to the Canon at home, it spews out dozens of pages of documents I tried printing earlier in the week at work!+

+No other applications do this."+)

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Answer 9

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Jan 27, 2010 11:58 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I opened a Pages08 document package and sifted through the text and found that it does save the printer name.

<sl:printer sfa:ID="NSPrinter-0" sl:type="EPSON SP RX500 Series (1)"/>

Message was edited by: fruhulda

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Answer 10

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Jan 27, 2010 12:25 PM in response to fruhulda

Hi fruhulda.

In my first responce I wrote that iWork components save a print recor in documents (if they where printed).
If I undesrtand well, the OP's behaviour is that when he want to print, it's not the last used printer which is offered as default in the print dialog.

I think of two explanations :

(1) the OP didn't save the doc after the last printing task or saved it after using printer1 but wish that it uses now printer2

(2) iWork components wrongly used the info available in the embedded print record.

As I am not in front of the OP's machine, I can't decide which the true case.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 27 janvier 2010 21:25:27

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Answer 11

Mar 2, 2010 3:18 PM in response to kenwsmith

I tried the techniques mentioned in this thread (& possibly others) to no avail. So I decided to delete the printer that Pages was defaulting to & lo & behold, it seems to now use the "last used"! In the process of troubleshooting this, I switched from PrinterX as my default to "last Used" When I open Pages or select a template I created, it defaults to Printer X. But when I opened an older document which may well have been last printed with Printer Y, Printer Y came up as the default. A more recent document defaulted to Printer X. Hallelujah! I hope this helps.

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Answer 12

Mar 23, 2010 10:48 PM in response to kenwsmith

Same problem with default not switching to new printer. Old printer was HP7210 All in One. Had recently loaded latest HP software package for this model. Package included UNINSTALL. That took it out of Pages successfully.

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Answer 13

May 10, 2010 2:16 AM in response to builderjon

Yeah, this is just driving me nuts.
I have dumped my old Epson, only use it now for printing discs & now have a Lexmark laser as my default printer.
Evey application except Pages resepects the default setting.
All my templates have to be switched every time i try to print.
I've tried changing the default & resaving the templates overwriting the originals but no, the newly saved template will still default to the old printer...
Fix this Apple, it's seriously annoying. I have to tell everyone that uses the templates "make sure you switch printer before printing..."

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Answer 14

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Jun 11, 2010 12:40 PM in response to rswanker

There isn't any problem using a new printer. Let me re-fraise this. When I got my-self a new printer I didn't have any problems. But must add I did delete the old printer from the System preferences > Printer and fax.

Message was edited by: fruhulda

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Answer 15

semblant

Level 1

0 points

Aug 2, 2010 5:15 PM in response to kenwsmith

Here is where this bug becomes really annoying and why it should be fixed. When I bought my new HP printer I went through the setup with the computer hooked up to the computer via USB. Then I set up the same printer to print wirelessly via network. In this case the HP printer had two printer listings. I do 100% of my printing wirelessly and yet I have to constantly change my default each time I print, even though I am printing to the same printer. I don't want to delist the first printer listing because I use the SD card slot and there are times I need to hook up with a cable. And anyway why should I have to go though the contortions of deleting and reinstalling, etc.

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