Firefox only prints one page

paulpsd7 · 03-20-2006, 03:41 PM

I've recently been alerted that on one of the sites that we've developed, Firefox will only print out one page even if the content spans multiple pages.

For example, look at this page. This is 4 printed pages of content. However, if you try and print it using Firefox, you'll only get 1 page out of it. I've tried other browsers on both Windows and Mac platforms, and no other browsers have this problem.

However, Firefox doesn't have this problem everywhere. So there must either be a workaround, or perhaps we've done something in developing the site that doesn't agree with Firefox. Does anyone have any insight about this?

martt · 03-21-2006, 12:35 AM

It seems you're not the only one experiencing this with some sites. Pop over to the Mozilla forums and use the 'Advanced' search option. Type in, 'prints and first and page' (the 'and' makes the search look for posts containing all those words).

It looks like it's a bug that's been around for a while (there are descriptions about it to be found). Since Firefox doesn't have this problem with all sites, perhaps some alteration of the sandhill.com site might help? I use a Firefox extension called HTML Validator. According to this, the sandhill page has 0 errors and 31 warnings. Maybe it's one or more of the 'warnings' that are making the difference. Perhaps try examining a site that doesn't have the print problem and see what the difference(s) are with this one.

My site is only a simple one without any smart effects (just links and no javascript etc) but it does pass the W3C tests. A program called 'HTML Trim' helped get it to that standard. My site doesn't have the print trouble, maybe because of using HTML Trim on the pages.

http://dev.int64.org/htmltrim.html?fno

I don't know if this utility would be a help if you want to keep the presentation of the site as it is (most sites that look OK have errors according to HTML Validator's standards). But perhaps rectifying some of any errors HTML Trim finds might make a difference to the print problem.

Just one point. The utility rectifies some errors it finds without warning, so if you do run it on a web page, make sure the 'backup' option is ticked, or that there are other backups (I'm sure you've got this covered anyway but thought it just worth a mention).

paulpsd7 · 03-21-2006, 10:22 AM

Excellent reply, thank you! Yes, I had a feeling ours wasn't the only site experiencing this. And you're likely right, that one or more of those 31 warnings is probably the culprit. That site does not have perfectly valid code, and it's been bugging me for some time. Fortunately, the client wants to do a complete redesign in the next few months, at which point I intend to rectify all its various problems. Until then, I'll hang onto the email notification from this post and refer to it when I'm ready to focus on the problem. Thanks again!

03-20-2006, 03:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
paulpsd7 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2 OS: Mac OS 10.4	Firefox only prints one page I've recently been alerted that on one of the sites that we've developed, Firefox will only print out one page even if the content spans multiple pages. For example, look at this page. This is 4 printed pages of content. However, if you try and print it using Firefox, you'll only get 1 page out of it. I've tried other browsers on both Windows and Mac platforms, and no other browsers have this problem. However, Firefox doesn't have this problem everywhere. So there must either be a workaround, or perhaps we've done something in developing the site that doesn't agree with Firefox. Does anyone have any insight about this?

03-21-2006, 12:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
martt Alternative Computing Team Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: South of England Posts: 310 OS: XP Pro	It seems you're not the only one experiencing this with some sites. Pop over to the Mozilla forums and use the 'Advanced' search option. Type in, 'prints and first and page' (the 'and' makes the search look for posts containing all those words). It looks like it's a bug that's been around for a while (there are descriptions about it to be found). Since Firefox doesn't have this problem with all sites, perhaps some alteration of the sandhill.com site might help? I use a Firefox extension called HTML Validator. According to this, the sandhill page has 0 errors and 31 warnings. Maybe it's one or more of the 'warnings' that are making the difference. Perhaps try examining a site that doesn't have the print problem and see what the difference(s) are with this one. My site is only a simple one without any smart effects (just links and no javascript etc) but it does pass the W3C tests. A program called 'HTML Trim' helped get it to that standard. My site doesn't have the print trouble, maybe because of using HTML Trim on the pages. http://dev.int64.org/htmltrim.html?fno I don't know if this utility would be a help if you want to keep the presentation of the site as it is (most sites that look OK have errors according to HTML Validator's standards). But perhaps rectifying some of any errors HTML Trim finds might make a difference to the print problem. Just one point. The utility rectifies some errors it finds without warning, so if you do run it on a web page, make sure the 'backup' option is ticked, or that there are other backups (I'm sure you've got this covered anyway but thought it just worth a mention). Last edited by martt; 03-21-2006 at 12:57 AM.

03-21-2006, 10:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
paulpsd7 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2 OS: Mac OS 10.4	Excellent reply, thank you! Yes, I had a feeling ours wasn't the only site experiencing this. And you're likely right, that one or more of those 31 warnings is probably the culprit. That site does not have perfectly valid code, and it's been bugging me for some time. Fortunately, the client wants to do a complete redesign in the next few months, at which point I intend to rectify all its various problems. Until then, I'll hang onto the email notification from this post and refer to it when I'm ready to focus on the problem. Thanks again!