Peter Oram1

Q: Pages document landscape & portrait format or print

I have a Pages document that seems to be confused about its portrait/landscape format. It looks like landscape on the screen (which is what I want), but it prints to portrait, chopping bits off. If I look at the document formatting, portrait mode is in fact ticked (checked)!

looks-like-landscape.jpg

If I change the formatting to landscape, the document changes to look like portrait.

looks-like-portrait.jpg

Any ideas what could be causing this? Or what could I do to solve it?

 

Thanks in advance.

Peter

 

Pages Version 5.6.1

OS X El Capitan 10.11.1

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Jan 19, 2016 9:38 PM

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Q: Pages document landscape & portrait format or print

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  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Jan 19, 2016 10:09 PM in response to Peter Oram1
    Level 8 (35,693 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 19, 2016 10:09 PM in response to Peter Oram1

    Portrait/Landscape is an orientation in the Printer dialog not a shape.

     

    Portrait is straight feed. Landscape is rotated 90°.

     

    You can have a wide portrait and a narrow landscape.

     

    Just get them to agree with your paper size and the way it feeds into the printer. Check in Print Setup that the paper size is actually taller than wide.

     

    Sounds like you should have a tall A4/Letter size set to landscape (rotated).

     

    There are occassional faults in the Printer Drivers with the latest versions of OSX. Try downloading the latest driver for your Printer and see if that fixes it.

     

    Peter

  • by Peter Oram1,

    Peter Oram1 Peter Oram1 Jan 21, 2016 2:12 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 21, 2016 2:12 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Every other document of ours - Pages, Numbers, PDF, etc - prints as expected. I don't understand what you mean when you say "Portrait/Landscape is an orientation in the Printer dialog not a shape." I do indeed have a tall A4 document set to landscape orientation within Pages document format AND in the printer dialogue. There is something peculiar to THIS document that I can't see or find.

  • by BonnyDonny,Helpful

    BonnyDonny BonnyDonny Sep 14, 2016 4:33 PM in response to Peter Oram1
    Level 1 (32 points)
    iOS Apps
    Sep 14, 2016 4:33 PM in response to Peter Oram1

    I also have this problem. I know this problem has existed for YEARS. Pages is BROKEN.

     

    Pages version 5.6.2 running on MacOS 10.12 Beta (16A254g) on a iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010).

     

    There is a work-around. Export the Pages file to PDF. Print from Preview. (Screenshots below)

     

    The developers of Pages need to fix the printing dialog. Testing should have found this problem!! It's a very old problem! This bug and many others is why nobody uses Pages.

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.24.47 PM.png

    Look at the Page Orientation set to portrait...

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.18.47 PM.png

    Or Page orientation set to landscape, which does a bit of re-layout...

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.18.54 PM.png

    OK, now try to print the landscape page.  Oops, the print dialog shows how the clipping is all wrong for the landscape orientation. And, very strangely, there is NO WAY to change orientation in the print dialog as is customary.

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.19.32 PM.png

    Print OK in portrait? Nope, the print dialog shows how the clipping is all wrong for the portrait orientation.

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.58.05 PM.png

    The following image is how the same document looks (and prints) in Preview after exporting is as PDF.

    Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 7.23.53 PM.png

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Jul 29, 2016 9:23 PM in response to BonnyDonny
    Level 8 (35,693 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 29, 2016 9:23 PM in response to BonnyDonny

    ...AGAIN...

     

    Portrait is an orientation it is not a shape.

     

    It simply means the top of the page as you see it on screen is fed head up into the printer.

     

    Landscape turns it 90 degrees.

     

    Check your Page Setup is correct. If you expect Portrait to be taller than it is wide it should be set that way in Page Setup.

     

    Peter

  • by Peter Oram1,

    Peter Oram1 Peter Oram1 Sep 14, 2016 4:56 PM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 4:56 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Peter,

    Thanks for your reply (although it seems like you're a bit annoyed with us who are having this problem). I think I now understand what you mean when you say "Portrait/Landscape is an orientation not a shape." It seems to me that for some if not all documents, going to the Document tab on the right (next to the Format tab), and clicking on Portrait or Landscape doesn't achieve what the user expects. I have to choose File > Page Setup and choose the desired Orientation there. I would expect these two things to achieve the same outcome, but they don't, or at least they don't do so consistently. Now that I have fixed the particular document that was causing problems, those 2 methods for indicating orientation seem in fact to achieve the same outcome, but if I re-open the original, unchanged document, the problem is there again. See screenshots.

    This is before any changes. Broken.

    1original-portrait-orientation.png

    This is after clicking on Landscape under the Document tab. Still broken.

    2landscape-orientation.png

    This is after clicking on Landscape in Page Setup, and clicking OK. The document is oriented as the user expects AFTER clicking OK. I went back in to Page Setup just for the screenshot.

    3pagesetup-landscape.png

    If you think this is correct behaviour, and can explain or justify it, good luck. I can't see how it isn't a bug. But thanks to the heads-up about Page Setup - that is a method that feels like voodoo, but achieves what I want.

    Cheers,

    Peter

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Sep 14, 2016 7:03 PM in response to Peter Oram1
    Level 8 (35,693 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 7:03 PM in response to Peter Oram1

    I am not on a Mac now so can't see in which order dimensions are given in the Print dialogue. In the USA they do it differently to everyone else so I thibnk they do it high first then width. So it has to do with what dimensions are set on the document.

     

    A page can be wider than it is high in "portrait".

     

    I get exasperated by I take the trouble to explain things in detail and clearly but people don't bother to read it.

     

    Peter