Print dialogue "print Frames"

Discussion of features in Mozilla Firefox
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Tatsfield
Posts: 127
Joined: February 6th, 2006, 5:58 am
Location: Poole, UK

Print dialogue "print Frames"

Post by Tatsfield »

When I print a downloaded document in Firefox, the print dialogue box offers print frames as either "As laid out on screen" or "Each frame separately"

The default is "Each frame separately". If the other option is not selected the resulting print is a lot of separate pages with gibberish. I cannot think why 99% of users would not use the "As laid out on the screen" option and if this is the case, why is it not the default. Who decided that most people would have to make that selection every time and if failing to do so, would waste paper and time. Can someone with influence in this area not review the layout and change the default? The work of a moments code writing. As it is, it is not user friendly. Can anyone help?
Win7 - Firefox 29.0.1 Thunderbird 24.5.0
morat
Posts: 6404
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Print dialogue "print Frames"

Post by morat »

AFAIK, there isn't a preference to select the "As laid out on the screen" option.

Test
http://www.quackit.com/html/templates/f ... ple_6.html

Reference
http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-release/ ... idoutRadio

P.S.

I can't change the option in my printer preferences.

Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers

* right click Brother HL-L2340D series
* click Printing preferences

IMO, it works better in Chrome.

Edit:

Oops. The reference link is for Linux, not Windows.
Last edited by morat on October 7th, 2017, 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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the-edmeister
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Joined: February 25th, 2003, 12:51 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Re: Print dialogue "print Frames"

Post by the-edmeister »

morat wrote:AFAIK, there isn't a preference to select the "As laid out on the screen" option.
It's in the "Native print dialog" box with "As laid out on the screen" at the top, followed by "The selected frame" (which Firefox defaults to if the user has "selected a frame" by clicking on the page), and then "Each frame separately" which seems to be the default if no frame has been clicked upon, to "focus" that frame. The "Native print dialog" box is what the user see's when they use {Ctrl + P} to initiate printing. which is pretty standard in almost all applications for Windows, although any use the "expanded Print" dialog which offers more prefs from the installed Print drivers - which in the "Native dialog" are accessed via the "Properties" button in Firefox.
IOW, there are three 'radio' selection choices provided by the operating system. Firefox has always used the "Native print dialog" box, which is a truncated version of the "Print" dialog box used in Microsoft applications.

BTW, that "Native print dialog" tag is something that I saw back in 2005 - 2006 when reading all the "Print" related code I could find in Firefox 1.0 or 1.5 to gain an understanding of how it worked. Netscape documented their code very completely; sad to say that I discovered in later years than when Mozilla rewrote or modified the Netscape "Print" code it didn't document the changed code, prefs, or selectors to well if at all.

----------------------------------
Chrome uses a different (at least on Win7) type of dialog from {Ctrl + P} which is similar to Print Preview in Firefox. {Ctrl + P} with Chrome uses its own dialog box rather then the "Native print dialog. Using {Ctrl + Shft + P} opens an expanded "Native" box - the same one that Microsoft uses for their own Windows applications, which offers the user more choices from the printer drivers right in the browser, rather that the user having to open "Properties".
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mine has wandered off and I'm out looking for it.
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Tatsfield
Posts: 127
Joined: February 6th, 2006, 5:58 am
Location: Poole, UK

Re: Print dialogue "print Frames"

Post by Tatsfield »

Does this mean that nothing can be done, or can my pleas for a Firefox developer to change the default actually be possible? Sorry for being ignorant in these matters. I understand that Chrome might solve the problem but then I'd have to break the habit of a decade and move away from Firefox! And if someone, somewhere, could do this, where is the best place to bring this matter to the attention of that person? Is it here or is there a more direct route?
Win7 - Firefox 29.0.1 Thunderbird 24.5.0
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