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In the Print window, the option to "Print Selection Only" is not working all of a sudden.

Starting yesterday, I can no longer print selected text that I have highlighted from various websites. This issue is present with both my browsers (Firefox and Safari) and both my printers. It does not matter what webpage I'm on, the problem is affecting all webpages. It's as though the computer is suddenly unable to recognize that there is highlighted text on the webpage, so the option to print the selected text only is not available no matter which browser I use or which printer I use. (The option to Print Selection Only is grayed out in Firefox. In Safari, the print window thumbnails show the entire document is about to be printed.)


Note: When printing selected text from Word documents, I am able to print just the highlighted text, so the issue is limited to printing selected text from websites only.


In trying to resolve the matter I ran Disk Utility from my normal login and from safe boot, cleared the system and user caches, reset the PRAM and the SMC, but the issue remained. So I trashed the printer preference in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist, restarted the computer, turned off/on both my printers, but I am still unable to print just the selected text. I do not understand what has caused this issue to trigger all of a sudden. Any assistance or suggestions you can provide me is very appreciated. Thank you.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Oct 22, 2016 2:18 AM

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4 replies

Oct 22, 2016 3:14 AM in response to youngjane

As far as I can recall, there has never been a 'Print Selection Only' option available in Safari. I don't see one in version 10.0 and OS X 10.11.6.


FIrefox 49.0.1 provides the facility and it works fine for me with OS X 10.11.6.


I don't normally install any add-ons or extensions so, if you do, that's where I'd start looking. I'd be cautious about trashing too much of your general OS X setup. I think this is very probably a Firefox issue not an OS X issue.


C.

Oct 24, 2016 1:44 AM in response to cdhw

Thank you for your assistance. You are correct, in Safari there is no option to print selected text only. However, when I select/highlight text on a webpage, followed by Command P, the Safari print window thumbnails usually show just the selected text which is to be printed, versus the entire document. (Safari skips a step that Firefox users must select separately.)

Like you, this issue did not exist for me in FF 49.0.1 with Mac OS 10.11.6. The problem began after I updated to FF 49.0.2. on 10-21-16. Why it affected Safari is indeed quite odd. I have reported this issue to Mozilla as a bug.

P.S. I have no add-ons or extensions whatsoever.

Oct 24, 2016 2:57 AM in response to youngjane

I've just tested with Safari version 10.0 and OS X 10.11.6 and selecting text before printing make no difference to what's printed on the couple of sites I tested on. Apparently it's a feature that's been removed.


It could be a bug, but I can imagine that it could have puzzled people who invoked it unintentionally and then wondered why the page didn't print.


Anyway, if you want it back in Safari you'll need to send feedback here:


http://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html


As a possible workaround, try copying the selection from Safari into a blank TextEdit document. You can, of course, also use the Print dialog to restrict the page range printed.


All the best


C.

Oct 24, 2016 6:55 AM in response to youngjane

youngjane wrote:


Starting yesterday, I can no longer print selected text that I have highlighted from various websites. This issue is present with both my browsers (Firefox and Safari) and both my printers. It does not matter what webpage I'm on, the problem is affecting all webpages. It's as though the computer is suddenly unable to recognize that there is highlighted text on the webpage, so the option to print the selected text only is not available no matter which browser I use or which printer I use. (The option to Print Selection Only is grayed out in Firefox. In Safari, the print window thumbnails show the entire document is about to be printed.)




I have never seen the kind of behavior that you described in Safari.


In Firefox I also see the "Print Selection Only" greyed out, and I'm still on 49.0.1, so I don't think it was the update.

No matter what I do, it is always greyed out.

In the Print window, the option to "Print Selection Only" is not working all of a sudden.

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