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stoltobot

Q: 'print from finder' shortcut skips some files

I have a late 2008 aluminium unibody running El Capitan 10.11.5 with 8 gigs of ram and a 2.4 Ghz intel core dup processor.

 

When I use the print from directory shortcut (command+p) in finder to print a large bunch of my students' submissions it randomly skips some files, which made a small commotion last week when a lot of students didn't get their drafts back.

 

The work was mostly created in word on a smartphone or PC in numerous versions of Microsoft Word and saved as .doc or .docx or with the file name amputated, as well as some created in pages or plain txt. They have been uploaded through dropbox to shared folders.

 

I could not see what is the criteria for skipping files, but most of the skipped files appear to be .docx, and sometimes it even prompts me what program to open them in (duh El Capitan, Microsoft Word of course).

 

I'm curious if there is a way to help this work. Command+p'ing every single file is not fun. Any ideas?

MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jul 1, 2016 2:33 AM

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Q: 'print from finder' shortcut skips some files

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  • by chris_g1,

    chris_g1 chris_g1 Jul 1, 2016 3:13 PM in response to stoltobot
    Community Specialists
    Jul 1, 2016 3:13 PM in response to stoltobot

    Hello stoltobot,


    Thanks for that info and choosing the Apple Support Communities. I know how important being able to print multiple files on your Mac is to you!


    Based on what you stated, it seems you may be having issues with what application on your Mac opens the files that cannot print, as the Print option in Finder temporarily opens the application(s) of the file you're printing.


    You can test this by selecting multiple files in Finder that use different applications to open the file, such as one Word file, one image file, one Excel file, then using the Print option from Finder’s File menu.


    You mention that the file that seems to be causing this use the .docx extension. Follow the steps in the section titled “Permanently change the app used to open a document” from this article and then test your issue again.


    OS X El Capitan: Choose an app to open a file


    Cheers!