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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?

HopelessN00b
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Mufasa
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  • This is only partly-related, and as such I will not submit it as an answer. But I'll post it to garner some insight. Back in '98, I had just rolled out 5 desktops with Office 97. One of the desktops had a Word 97 install that would, 100% of the time, print a blank page in place of a page that was jam-packed full of text. Try as I might, I could not get the stubborn install to budge, it would simply not print. Looking back, I suspect there was something amiss with the print drivers... – Avery Payne May 12 '09 at 02:43

6 Answers6

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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!

Victor
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    Also, overflow settings can cause the same problem. Several fixes detailed at: http://jafferhaider.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/fix-for-the-firefoxcss-one-page-printing-bug/ – Joel Jan 20 '11 at 20:28
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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.

Happy Hamster
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  • Maybe. The main printer it needs to work on is a special "ticket" printer, and is the latest driver. We wanted to keep IE8 because it is a CMS system that uses heavy Javascript and runs much faster in IE8, so the print layout scheme was designed for IE8. This may end up being the only solution though. :( – Mufasa May 13 '09 at 17:07
  • How about Chrome or Firefox? Do they run things better than IE7? – Happy Hamster May 13 '09 at 19:34
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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.

Alex
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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.

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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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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.

R. Kaminsky
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