Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!apple.com!casseres
From: casseres@apple.com (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: LaserWriter/ImageWriter format problems
Message-ID: <7098@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 9 Mar 90 19:26:49 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 34
References:<6140.25f18bf9@umiami.miami.edu> <38080@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>

In article <38080@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> gilbertd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu 
(Don Gilbert) writes:
> Tell imagewriter/laserwriter users to always select the "Tall Adjusted"
> option in Page Setup for the imagewriter.  This makes the imagewriter
> pagesize equivalent to laserwriter, and no reformatting occurs.  It
> should be the default option, but isn't (probably because imagewriters
> came before lwriters).

This is NOT a reliable way to prevent refomatting of documents when you 
shift them from one system (with a LaserWriter) to another (with an 
ImageWriter).  It may work sometimes, but you will get bitten sooner or 
later.

There is only one reliable way to prevent reformatting, and that is to 
avoid changing printers.  When an application formats a document (i.e. 
when it determines line breaks and page breaks) it does so _for a 
particular type of printer_.  If the printer type changes, the formatting 
changes to match.  This is true of all the applications I know about.

If you have a document whose format you care about, you should make up 
your mind what kind of printer it will be printed on.  Then if you have to 
move it to another system, you should make sure that the same type of 
printer software (the LaserWriter or ImageWriter II file in the System 
folder) is available on the new system.  Before you open your document, 
use the Chooser to select the same printer type -- it doesn't matter if 
the hardware isn't there, as long as you aren't really going to print.  
When you want to print, go back to a system that has the right kind of 
printer.

The above is certainly not a satisfactory solution, but it will have to do 
until Apple and/or the application developers provide a better one.

David Casseres
     Exclaimer:  Hey!