QUICKEN 2008 Printer(s) Issue (JOHN POLLARD, please read)

Tom,

I'm not sure what you mean.

I have only the one computer normally connected to a docking station. All of my devices, i.e.. Canon i9900 printer, External Monitor, WD My Book Essential External HD, HP Scanjet G4050 and Audio Speakers are all connected to the Docking Station. The printer, external HD and scanner are all connected via USB. The speakers plug into the "headphone jack" in the docking station. The monitor is a VGA connection. I use a Linksys Wireless Router. I also have a HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse that came with the docking station. My old computer was a Desktop, not a Laptop, and all devices that I had then were plugged directly into the computer. The only "old" devices that I kept were the printer and the external HD. All other items are new.

There are no other computers and I know nothing about a network. I do notice in the Control Panel\Network and Sharing Center that I am joined to a "Home Group". I really don't know how it came to be. It had to be something that I set up when I first set up my computer. I understand it to be the ability to share files with other computers in the same "Home Group". Since I'm the only computer, I assume that this isn't necessary but may leave it in place so that I can share with my son, when he visits and not have to hassle with settings at that time.

I assumed that the Ne0x related to either USB connection or in the case of the Microsoft XPS, PDF995 and Quicken PDF printers refer to the fact that they are "physical" printers but rather software emulators of some sort. (Excuse me if my terminology and/or understanding is not quite correct, I'm not that "techie").

Also, please note that this is not a new situation for me. The same issue existed on my old computer running XP3. I don't remember if that system referenced a "Home Group" which I think use to referred to as a "Work Group". Either way, I'm not sure how file sharing would impact this problem. Also, this issue had NEVER shown up in any other application such as Word, Excel, the various Works 9.0 modules. -- Thank You, Richard

I'm sorry to say I don't think I have any insights into the matter.

I do recall reading a couple of posts (not, necessarily here) about a similar problem (I forget the details; but the basic complaint was that page scaling was unavailable), but I don't recall any "solution" having been found.

I see something similar to what you describe, in Q2008, Q2009 and Q2010; in my case, page scaling is greyed out for the Quicken PDF printer (and my Lexmark Optra +), but available for "CutePDF". [The pc where I run Q2009 and Q2010 does not have a real printer available, just the aforementioned PDF printers; but I assume the Lexmark would act the same there. Both pc's are running Windows XP SP3.]

If you're just trying to fit your report on a page, another workaround would be to use a smaller font.

Tom,

When you say "...uninstalling everything and then reinstalling everything probably was on the right track and might even work if properly done". What do you mean by "everything" and "done properly"?

I do not have any Microsoft Office products, per se, on my computer. I put it that way because I do have the VIEWERS for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I also have the Compatibility Pack for Office 2007 which was factory installed on my system along with Works 9.0. I noticed that Windows Update has installed numerous updates for these applications primarily in the form of Service Packs and/or Security updates.

On my "old system", I did have Microsoft Office 2000 Professional. Since I'm now retired, I really don't need that much power anymore and I wasn't sure that Office 2000 was compatible with Windows 7 64-bit. Therefore, I never installed it. Works and WLM seem to meet my current needs.

Since I am the only user with a single computer, how do I "eliminate" the NETWORK? As stated in my previous post, I really didn't realize that I had a network. If THIS IS REALLY the issue, I have no objection to changing that. I just don't want to have to reinstall everything from "scratch" for this printer issue, since PDF995 appears to offer a "work around".

If you haven't already, you may want to look at John Pollards post response. It seems to indicate that he has seen a similar, if not the same, issue with a different printer and also on XP3 which was my old OS. He doesn't have a solution but I find it interesting that this issue continues on from 2008 to the present 2010.

The problem DID NOT appear in the 2005 version which was on my same old XP computer. I don't remember if SP3 was installed at that time or not. I'm sure it was installed prior to my upgrading to Quicken 2008. From checking the properties of the old 2005 data files, it appears that I upgraded in March 2008. That makes sense to me, because I did it in conjunction preparing my 2007 income taxes using TurboTax and I need to upgrade in order to have the automated interface between Quicken and TurboTax. I believe that Quicken 2005 "sunsetted" by that time. I don't recall if that system was "on a network" or not. As is true today, I was the only user and there was only one computer.

Can't help but wonder if your problem is not related to the use of the docking station, and the fact that the printer is connected to the docking station and not to the computer per se.

I have a local network, with 3 printers connected to the network. The 3 printers all have TCP printer port addresses, i.e., 192.168.100.xxx. Quicken 2009, and previous versions, all work as expected with the 3 network printers.

I have no printer port addresses of the form NExx.

Can you install the printer directly to the computer and see how it works?

Also, is it only the "page scaling" which is grayed out? Does the printer work otherwise with Quicken?

Richard wrote:

Hmmm. Just checked.

"Page Scaling" is Grayed Out on my laptop version of Q2009 also!

Have to check the desktop tomorrow.

wbertram wrote:

To check your theory, I unplugged the printer from the docking station, plugged it directly into one of the laptop USB ports and restarted my computer. The results were the same, page scaling is still grayed out. My Canon Printer does work in Quicken. The things that I have noticed different in Quicken from other applications, such as Works, is that it doesn't give me a page preview (one from my printer that is. The one in the application is fine) and it also does not do "duplex" printing even though I have it checked in the printer properties. There is definitely something different about how Quicken handles printers.

I saw on your second post, that you also see the same thing on your laptop. Maybe together, with some other help, we can solve this. I'll be anxious to hear about your desktop computer. Just to clarify, my new computer is a laptop, while my old computer was a desktop. Same problem on both machines.

I'm not confident we can "solve" the problem; but here is another thought.

Why does the Quicken PDF "printer" (which, it should be noted, is not an Intuit product) not allow what non-Quicken PDF "printers" allow?

If memory serves, Intuit licensed the PDF driver from Amyundi (or someone similar), who also sells the driver as part of a complete PDF package. Presumably, to avoid any potential canibalism of the package sales, they imposed the restriction to only work with Quicken and to restrict other features in the driver like scaling.

Yes, the Quicken PDF printer is licensed from Amyuni (who also sells a more complete product). But I don't see how that would explain restricting the use of print scaling. That the "free" Amyuni PDF printer only works with Quicken makes sense to me; restricting features normally available with many (most?) printers, including free PDF drivers, doesn't.

What could Amyuni gain from such a restriction, especially once everyone finds out that free PDF printer drivers can be used with Quicken with no restriction on print scaling?

Tom,

I did a little internet research regarding networks and printer addresses. While I have indicated before that I'm not a "techie", I think I may have figured out why all my printers have Nexx port notations. I have a Wireless Network with my new laptop. As indicated earlier, I usually have my laptop "docked" and all of my peripheral devices are USB devices plugged into the docking station. Obviously, being wireless, I can use my computer anywhere in the house on battery power. Of course, when undocked, I can't use any of the peripherals unless I plug them directly into the computer. NOTE however, this doesn't explain the same printer problem on my old desktop. The old computer was a "direct connect" into a cable modem plugged into the wall cable outlet, no wireless network existed. Does any of this make sense? This is definitely a case of not understanding what I'm writing about.

I would think that, in this day and age, with wireless networks being so common, that Quicken should fully function on them. But then again!

I'm sorry that I didn't mentioned this before, I guess I didn't think of wireless as a "network". Though, as mentioned above, this doesn't explain the fact the problem existed in a "direct connect" environment.

John,

A slight correction. It's not what >Amyuni< could gain from the restriction. A wild but probably accurate guess is that Amyuni pays Adobe licensing fees for the use of Adobe's technology; in turn, Intuit pays Amyuni a per-copy fee for the fees associated with Amunyi's technology; and, finally, we all pay for the various licensed technologies with each copy of Quicken that we buy.

So, everybody pays. However, Adobe has open-sourced the PDF format. Now, open source players like PDF Creator are up and running on Source Forge. It's free, as in both beer and cost. This means that Intuit can make more profit by halting payments to Amunyi and providing Quicken for either the same cost (boo) or lowering the cost to customers a bit (yea).

In any case I find PDF Creator more stable than the Intuit/Amunyi offering, so I go with that.

K. Becker

I have no argument with what you say; but where does that leave you on the reasoning behind why Amyuni would be restricting their Quicken PDF printer to be unable to do print scaling?

Doesn't it still seem like there is less chance of Intuit paying Amyuni anything, if Quicken users can get a better PDF printer driver somewhere else, for free? Doesn't Amyuni want to be the provider of a PDF printer for Quicken? If they do, and they are providing a hamstrung PDF printer, aren't they less likely to continue to be chosen to provide that PDF printer, as Quicken users catch on?

I only got into this somewhat side issue in an attempt to see whether any insights to the original problem might be found in the fact that only free, non-Quicken, PDF printers seem able to do print scaling. Are there any real printers, that are still able to do print scaling in Q2009 and Q2010?

If Amyuni has intentionally blocked print scaling, then there would seem to be no relationship between the failure of the Quicken PDF printer to allow print scaling and the failure of other printers to allow print scaling in Quicken (since, I think it's a safe bet that the other printer manufacturers didn't intentionally restrict print scaling when their printers were to be used with Quicken).

But if Amyuni didn't intentionally restrict print scaling; what common treatment would Quicken give to the Amyuni PDF printer and to other real printers ... but not give to the free PDF printers (which all seem to allow print scaling) - that would restrict print scaling.

John,

The only thing I can think of is that Amyuni was charging Intuit more for each and every feature they could turn on or turn off. If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure that the inclusion of Amyuni's technology predates Adobe's open sourcing of the PDF format; at the time, it was considered a nice benefit to Quicken users to be able to print reports to PDF, which could then be mailed, archived, or whatever. So, Intuit would have gone for the option that cost the least: Locked to Quicken, least number of features, etc.

Remember, the alternative, if one wanted PDF's, would be to buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat. A quick search on Google shows that that costs around $100 nowadays; back then, I think it was over $200. So, a locked-down, cheap version of Acrobat would have been a good deal for Intuit and its customers.

Time have moved on. The open-sourcing occurred, I think, about three years ago. One can still do (relatively) amazing things with Acrobat; but, for generating PDF's for general print-driver style of use, the price has dropped to zero. I think it likely that Intuit will simply replace Amyuni with one of the open-source solutions. All they have to do, at least with the GNU GPL, is provide the unmodified source files with the open sourced solution with the CD and/or download.

It's hard to compete with free, as in cost. If Amyuni had wonderful features that was better than the open-source versions, then there'd be an argument for Intuit to hang on to the Amyuni solution. However, it looks like Amyuni has run in the opposite direction.

Regards,

Ken Becker

Well, I've procrastinated long enough. It's time to bring this subject up to date with my findings. When you read this, you understand why I'm done dealing with this subject. I'm too old for this.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Of my two printers of chose, I can either use the Canon i9900 physical printer or the PDF995 printer for Quicken.

Once I make my selection, I can not switch from one to the other without "screwing up and making unusable, within Quicken, the PDF995 Printer. For example, if I run a report and using the Canon printer. I cannot run that same report using the PDF995 printer. I get a error "Unable to verify active printer at the system level". Quicken Article ID: 4245 addresses this issue but the solution doesn't work for me.

If I use the PDF995 printer, I have full report generation capability including paper size, through the printer properties, and "page scaling" within Quicken. Under NO circumstances, do I have "page scaling" using the Canon printer.

As a result of the above, I have selected the PDF995 printer as my printer of choice because it allows full page setup control. I can archive reports and print paper copy from the archive, if desired.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS:

All of the above was discovered through trial and error (a lot more error by far). I ended up uninstalling, reinstalling and performing system restores multiple times before finally understanding my options. (Note: I never claimed to be the fastest draw in the west).

Without going into excessive detail, I performed actions using the following basic steps.

1. I uninstalled Quicken 2008 and both the Canon i9900 and PDF Printers. (Note the PDF printers were uninstalled either in conjunction with Quicken or through the software uninstall programs feature of Windows 7.

1. I followed all of the steps outlined in Quicken Article ID: 4108 "Using QcleanUI to uninstall Quicken.

2. I also uninstalled TurboTax 2009 on the assumption that Quicken and TurboTax shared some components. (This was a big mistake as explained later.)

1. I reinstalled Quicken 2008 using Windows Vista compatibility and "run as administrator".

2. I reinstalled PDF995 via software. (Note, the Quicken PDF printer, which in my opinion is absolutely worthless, is installed as part of Quicken.)

1. I plugged the Canon i9900 into a USB port and let Windows and Windows Update find the driver. (This is the recommended method for this printer. Windows 7 has a specific driver for this printer.)

TURBOTAX REINSTALLATION WOES:

I followed the uninstall steps in Quicken Article ID: 4108 for both TurboTax and Quicken, for reasons previously stated. Where the Article indicates to "delete" a Quicken folder, I ACTUALLY deleted the Intuit folder which includes sub-folders for both Quicken and TurboTax. While not creating a problem when reinstalling Quicken, it created a "disaster' when reinstalling TurboTax. TurboTax would not install and I would get an Error Code: 1402 related to a *.msi issue. The specific msi file name would change with each reinstall attempt.

I spent hours on the telephone with TurboTax tech support and they concluded that it was a Windows installer issue and referred me to Microsoft. Fat change Microsoft would talk to me with an HP OEM version of software so I called HP tech support and spend more hours on the telephone, they concluded it was a TurboTax problem and referred me either back to TurboTax or to their "for fee" support. During the TurboTax failed install process, I had an option of send an error report to TurboTax with additional comments. I elected to send it with some "not so nice" comments never expecting anything to come of it.

A TurboTax engineering ACTUALLY responded via email with a command prompt solution that resolved the problem. While I don't understand the solution completely, I can tell that it as a command to fix a corrupt registry entry. I was then able to install TurboTax without issue and it is now fully functional.

All of the above confirms to me that I know just enough about computers to "get into real trouble". I just have to learn to "leave well enough alone". I suppose "playing around and tweaking" is fine if you have a separate system to do it on. But, when you only have one computer, it's probably not advisable to do things via "trial and error".

Thanks to everyone, in this thread, that tried to offer solutions and I wish each of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bee Lee had written this in response to

: Richard, I am having the same printing problem with my Quicken 2007, R5: the Print Scaling feature is "grayed out." Will you please confirm if/how you resolved this issue. Thank you, Bee

------------------------------------- Richard wrote:

##-----------------------------------------------## Newsgroup Access Courtesy

Tax and Accounting Software ForumsWeb and RSS access to your favorite newsgroup - alt.comp.software.financial.quicken - 20810 messages and counting! ##-----------------------------------------------##

Bee,

I never did resolved it but found a workaround.

In order to get the workaround to function, I had to uninstall my printers and Quicken and reinstall everything. Once reinstalled, I selected my PDF995 printer which allows me to save my reports in PDF format and then I can print from there. Even with this workaround, I have to be vvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy careful because once I set up the PDF printer as the "default" printer, I dare not change it to my Canon printer or the whole thing malfunctions again.

You didn't indicate what kind of printer you have. If it's an HP, you may try to "Google" the issue. My recollection, is that I saw an HP article on a fix for certain of their printer. I don't remember the details. I did email Canon with the problem and they replied with the standard tech support response "it's the other guy's problem". Since I had this problem even on my old XP computer when I first installed Quicken 2008, I didn't bother with Intuit tech support this time since they were of no help initially.

I went from Q2005 to Q2008 so I can't comment on Q2007. John Pollard indicates that the issue continues in Q2009 and Q2010. Also the Quicken PDF printer driver also doesn't work so don't even try it if you go through the efforts that I did. Since at least the desktop version of Quicken is going away within 5 years, I doubt that we will ever see final resolution.