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Mufasa
Asked: 2009-05-12 05:31:15 +0800 CST

Internet Explorer sometimes only prints the first page

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We have a client who prints several pages from a web site. Most of the time it works fine. However, occasionally, Internet Explorer 8 only prints the first page, even when All Pages is selected. Again, most of the time it works fine--probably 90% or more of the time. Other browsers work fine. The HTML generated is the same.

We did occasionally experience this on our own machines too. In those cases, simply re-printing (pressing Ctrl+P to bring the print dialog back up) sometimes fixed it. Sometimes we would have to close the pop-up window (yes the page was called with window.open()) and re-open it, then re-print.

It happens on different printers and printer drivers of all kinds. Yes, IE8 is fully patched. We've only tried this on Windows XP--not sure if others have the problem but we only care about Windows XP right now. Not sure what version of WinXP client has, but we run SP3 here.

I've never really experienced this one before in all my years of IT. Suggestions?

printing internet-explorer internet-explorer-8

6 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    My form is 7 pages long but only prints 1 page in Internet Explorer. I resolved this issue by removing a style "position:absolute" from one of my DIV tags. I think this issue is related to absolute positioning of elements in your HTML page.

    After I made the change the page prints correctly.

    I hope this helps!

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  2. I'm not sure if this will help you, because you say you have tried multiple printers, but recently I had a client with this exact problem with an HP all-on-one. A search of HP's website found a specific patch dedicated to "If your printer occasionally only prints the first page, or sometimes a blank page, apply this patch." We applied the patch, and all was well.

    However, since you say it has happened on multiple printers, my thought would be to simply downgrade to IE 7. In my experience, IE8 frequently causes various random problems in windows XP, I have yet to see a situation where a downgrade to IE 7 did not repair the issue.

    • 1

  3. Found the same problem and can't offer a solution, only a work-around, when printing multiple (6) pages of a report from SalesForce.com. Printed to an HP 3005Pdn and a Kyocera KFC-3225e with the same result - only page 1 printed. However, printing all pages to PDF worked (using CutePDF)! Printing of the PDF file to paper posed no problem.

    • 0

  4. We have the same problem on a Windows XP machine printing to a network printer.

    The work-around I use is:

    • Select "File - Print Preview"

    When printing from the Preview page - all pages are printed

    When printing normally - only the first page is printed

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  5. I just recently had this issue as well. IE frustratingly does not have a print preview emulator to mess with the CSS of the document either.

    What I found the issue to be was an overflow: hidden; or position: absolute in the css. This very well could be the case for you too. I would suggest doing a project wide search of overflow and position values and change all of them (or just the ones that could potentially be effecting the print screen if you know them), then checkout your print preview to see if all of the pages are there now. If they are there, you now know that it was an overflow or position issue.

    Sidenote: I would highly suggest making a "_print.css" style page. then you don't have to actually change your apps style just to successfully print, you can just overwrite the style that is giving you trouble in the "_print.css".

    Good luck.

    • 0

  6. In my case the issue was related to usage of 

    display: flex;

    style. When I have replaced it with 

    display: block;

    the problem was gone.

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