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Question

Odd email printing issue using Thunderbird

by May 30, 2014 5:44AM PDT

Firefox and Thunderbird are default programs. I have been printing emails for a long time and I know sometimes you have to do special stuff to get the job done. That said, here was/is my issue. I ordered a part online and I needed to return it. The company sent me an email with instructions and told me to include a copy of the email in the return box. I clicked print, I have my printer set to display print preview before printing, I ignored the print preview and it printed. The thing is, that this email had a 'large' banner at the top, with text included, that stated: You return Instructions, and then the rest of the body of the 'text' instructions. What printed on the first page was: Your return Instructions, that's it, the rest of body of text didn't print "on the first page". The "second page printed the body of the text for the "second page".

I tried to save the email and print it. Didn't work. I disabled 'noscript', didn't know if it would apply. Still no luck. I went to Yahoo.com, that's my account. Still no luck. To be clear, when you first click on print you see "everything", but when you go to print preview or when you tell it to actually print, the problem show's up. The last thing I did was to select all, copy and paste into my LibreOffice Writer program, and I was able to print.

On a hunch, I opened up Internet Explorer. Went to my Yahoo account. The email was there. Selected print. The entire email showed up in print preview, I selected print, and it printed the way it should have from the very beginning. Final point, the copy paste thing didn't select the area that has: To: From : Subject. Internet Explorer did print this section of the top of the page.

Is there maybe some setting in Thunderbird that I need to set or change. I didn't notice anything obvious.

Dell Inspiron 3647, 3.0GHz, 4 gig's ram

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Eddie

Discussion is locked

14 Posts
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Answer
Print to a PDF file
by May 30, 2014 2:38PM PDT

you can then print the email from the PDF.

If you didn't already have Thunderbird installed when you loaded your printer software, then load that software again. In the config editor, even in my Linux version, I can see settings for the HP Photosmart printer I use. Check your config editor in Thunderbird, put print into the search box, see if you have "user set" lines in there for your current printer. If not, load the software.

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I reinstalled Thunderbird - still doesn't work
by edwardnav May 31, 2014 1:10AM PDT

I went to config editor / print / didn't see any reference to user. Uninstalled and reinstalled Thunderbird, went to config editor / print/ still no reference to user or user set.

I tried to do a save as, but there was no option to save as "PDF" file.

Thanks for replying

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I was talking about reinstalling
by James Denison May 31, 2014 1:36AM PDT

your printer software, not thunderbird. You could run the Add Printer in the Settings area and maybe then Thunderbird will pickup on your default printer.

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Reinstalled Printer - no go
by edwardnav May 31, 2014 2:11AM PDT

Uninstalled and reinstalled printer. Issue still exits. Went to config / print, closes thing I saw was print.use_global_print settings and it was set as default status and true. My printer is set as default printer.

Maybe the company that wrote their software some how set it to work only with Internet Explorer. Just a thought.

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clk on FILE
by James Denison May 31, 2014 3:13AM PDT

then in PAGE SETUP, and you should find choice of your printer there. what version of thunderbird are you using?

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Answer
(NT) NT - what is the printer make and model?
by May 31, 2014 3:16AM PDT
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Just to be clear - the printer does print other
by edwardnav May 31, 2014 4:19AM PDT

emails just fine. It's this one in particular that doesn't want to print, "correctly". Thunderbird version 24.5.0, latest. Epson Stylus NX305. When I went to page setup there was no mention of printer. I did notice that on this page there is a "Format" and a box for Print Background, so I put a check mark on that, but it didn't change anything.

Thanks again for replying, James

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that's the version of Thunderbird I'm using too
by James Denison May 31, 2014 12:23PM PDT

I guess you'll just have to use work arounds for pages like that.

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Answer
Known workarounds.
by Forum moderator May 31, 2014 4:29AM PDT

1. Print to a PDF. I use DoPDF.
2. Paste it into Word, print it.

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Previous suggestion to save as Pdf file
by edwardnav May 31, 2014 4:47AM PDT

didn't work, I guess with my default Adobe Reader. However, another Google search suggested to do a save as = hmtl file. Just did that and it worked. The whole email was saved and I was able to print it.

Still one should "not" have to go through all these "odd" steps just to print an email.

Anyway, problem resolved.

Thanks James Denison for sticking with me on this. And thanks Bob for lending a hand,

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DoPDF isn't a save as PDF system.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 31, 2014 4:48AM PDT

As to your comment about odd steps, we have yet to find a perfect OS or such. Some folk think this shouldn't be this way.
Bob

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(NT) When did "I" suggest the OS should be perfect?
by edwardnav May 31, 2014 11:57PM PDT
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I meant apps.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 1, 2014 12:13AM PDT

"Still one should "not" have to go through all these "odd" steps just to print an email."

It's either the app, OS, drivers, or such. I'm encountering folk now that can't believe we still see such problems. We write this stuff and mistakes will continue for some time.

To get around such things is the norm still.
Bob

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Granted - But its an "email"
by edwardnav Jun 1, 2014 1:11AM PDT

They have been around for ages. And In my very first post I stated that I had already found a workaround using Internet Explorer. But on another problem that I had, several people, including yourself, strongly suggested that I should get away from Internet Explorer and switch to Firefox and use Thunderbird as my email client. Which I did. And being "new" to Thunderbird, all I was asking, was there some setting that "I" didn't know about that I could employ that would have readily resolved, what I thought at the time, was a totally minor issue, since I had already solved the problem.

Anyway, problem resolved,

Thanks for everything you do for us, Bob

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