Save to PDF in TextEdit - Error While Printing

Question

Level 1

5 points

Save to PDF in TextEdit - Error While Printing

When I try to save a text file to PDF I receive the error message - "Error while printing". This only seems to be happening to text files I open or create in TextEdit. It works fine if I log in as a different user. I've run repair permissions and also deleted a couple of com.apple.print plist files in my user library, but the error remains.

Is there anything else I should try short of reinstalling TextEdit?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Rick

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,454 points

Jan 22, 2013 4:17 PM in response to rfreschner

Try deleting the com.apple.TextEdit.plist preference file from your Home/Library/Preferences folder.

NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.

OT

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Answer 2

rfreschner Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, OT. I tried that one too with no luck.

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Answer 3

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Jan 30, 2013 6:33 AM in response to rfreschner

Same problem here. Error message and then a blank PDF.

Did you find a fix?

Workaround: Do the "Open PDF in Preview" option and save the resulting file.

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Answer 4

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Jan 30, 2013 1:45 PM in response to CT

Correction: the output is not really a "blank PDF". Examination of the "blank" pdf with TextEdit shows the usual (I suppose) header stuff, and some junk that I can't identify.

Has anybody else encountered this error?

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,290 points

Jan 30, 2013 2:17 PM in response to rfreschner

On OS X 10.8.2, with TextEdit, I can open or create text documents and export to PDF without any issue.

Here are the two preference tabs and settings that work for me. You can single click on the images for a larger version.

New Document

Open and Save

PDF documents on OS X are created with binary content, which is the junk you observe.

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Answer 6

rfreschner Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2013 1:42 AM in response to CT

CT - No I haven't found a fix or had too much time to investigate further. I have found that it's not happening with all text files and would write it off to as a corrupted file were it not for the fact that it's happening on new files also.

Thanks for the workaround tip with preview; I've actually switched over to using Text Wrangler for the time being.

Rick

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Answer 7

rfreschner Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2013 3:16 AM in response to VikingOSX

VickingOSX -

I'll give those preferences a try and see how they work out going forward. They didn't help with the current issue, but may in the future. Thanks.

Rick

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Answer 8

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Jan 31, 2013 4:32 AM in response to rfreschner

Ok, thanks.

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Answer 9

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,290 points

Jan 31, 2013 6:45 AM in response to rfreschner

Rick,

Have you moved all the items in logindir/Library/Caches to the Trash and emptied it?

Once you have done this, is the TextEdit to PDF problem still present?

Just before this TextEdit problem developed, what did you last install or change? Acrobat Pro?

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Answer 10

rfreschner Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 31, 2013 5:06 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX -

No, I hadn't tried deleting the cache files, but I did and that didn't clear it up. I did recently install Acrobat Pro though. I had thought about deleting that but, since other apps were still saving PDFs ok, I didn't think it would be an issue.

Rick

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Answer 11

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Jan 31, 2013 5:23 PM in response to rfreschner

Just one data point: I haven't installed anything Adobe. Of course, that doesn't mean Adobe isn't the root of Rick's version of the problem, but...

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Answer 12

May 29, 2013 5:26 AM in response to rfreschner

Greetings. this is my first post so be gentle...

In regards to the problem of getting a error while printing, my issue was that I save receipts from online purchases by saving them as PDF files from the Text/Edit or CmdP from the web page. Recently, I made another account on my mac book pro that I use for work files. If I try to save the PDF while in my work account, I get the error. Since the folders for saving the PDFs were made in my original account, I simply gave myself permission to store the PDF in the work folder and the error message went away.

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Answer 13

davemuth

Level 1

21 points

Jun 29, 2013 4:19 PM in response to rfreschner

I had a similar problem come up today. I've never seen or heard of it before. Printing to PDF with TextEdit produced only blank files, and an error dialog saying "error while printing".

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Answer 14

davemuth

Level 1

21 points

Jun 29, 2013 4:23 PM in response to davemuth

Sorry, that was only a partial post...

So, I deleted all the TextEdit plist files in ~/Library/Preferences and the problem went away.

(There were 4, sorry, I didn't record the names.) Now there are only two:

com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist

and

com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist

...

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Answer 15

Nov 8, 2013 11:43 AM in response to davemuth

Just tried davemuth's solution; in my case, there were seven files to delete:

com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist

com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist.lockfile

com.apple.TextEdit.plist

com.apple.TextEdit.plist.lockfile

com.apple.TextEdit.plist.RKwZEoG

com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist

com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist.lockfile

Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. The same two files rebuild themselves in the Library/Prefs folder, but still can't print to PDF from TextEdit.

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