Unchecking Collate does not work

I never print that way but I just tried and it worked fine... I'm using Excel 2003 w/SP2 installed.

What version of Office? Do you have all of the latest patches/service packs installed?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx

Excel 2003 SP1.    I'll update it as soon as the user goes to lunch and give that a shot.

OK.  Latest SP and updates.  Still will not print properly.
Continued to troubleshoot.  I CAN print to another network printer HP 4200 PS.
I tried those drivers for this particular printer and it did not print right.
I could also print to my RightFAX printer (it uses HP 6P drivers) and it DID print correctly.
I've tried numerous other drivers for the printer that I am using and still the same issue.  Strange that it does work in Word but not excel.
Any suggestions?  I'm grasping at this point.

Have you tried this on another computer on the network? Does it work properly? Is it isolated to your computer? It certainly is an odd problem. My only thought here would be to start from scratch with Office.

How to install or repair and reinstall Office 2003 programs and features
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821593/en-us

How to understand the repair feature in Office 2003 and in Office XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822238/en-us

Description of the differences between repair and reinstall in Office XP and 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298027/en-us

Well, I thought of going that direction however it does work printing from that pc to another printer.  It just SO seems like a printer OR driver issue.

Sorry, I misread above where you said it did work on another printrer. What printer are you're trying to print too that won't print correctly?

Thanks for continuing to care.  :)
The printer is an HP 1200 Series
http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/1200-Catalog/1200-AssblyContents.html

I have tried the following drivers with that particular printer.
1200 Series PCL
Laserjet 4
Laserjet 4200 PS

I burned quite a few trees in troubleshooting this.  :)
Now I have alot of scratch paper for notes.  LOL

I would try the Laserjet IIp and Laserjet III drivers. Those are before PCL5e and PCL6 and see if they will work properly for you...

As for the trees, a truely renewable source - we'll plant more! :)

OK.  Tried LJIIp and LJ III drivers.  Same problem.
Maybe I should post a link to this question in the hardware forum?

I would agree with you that the printer is the problem... so maybe they could help with sending ESC sequences to the printer to get it to behave.

What type of printer is this. Did miss somewhere that you posted the actul printer model giving problems? I see where you have tried multiple drivers but no mentionm of the printer.

HP 1200 Series.  Scroll up.  :)  I had already posted that.

Are you disabling collation in the driver or in Excel's print dialog? I would disable it in both places. If the driver isn't properly reading the DM_COLLATE field in the devmode, it could be ignoring Excel's collation option (or the other way around if it's not setting it). I can't recall if the 1200 driver behaved properly or not, since it's been years since I worked with it.

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Troy

One more thing I thought of doing. Try printing to file. Open up the PCL file in Notepad and see if you can tell if the header shows collation on or off. If you can tell by the header, you won't have to print to see if it made a difference. If you can't tell, print to file once with settings that you know will result in collated copies. Then, repeat the test to a different file. From the command prompt to a fc /b <file1> <file2> to see if there are any differences. If they're identical, it will be collated.

Obviously, this won't solve your problem, but it might save some paper, toner, electricity, and time (since printing to file will be much faster than waiting for the printer).

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Troy

I'm disabling collation when selecting file, print, choosing the number of copies, and unchecking collate?  Where else can this be changed?  You mentioned "both places."  

Thanks,
Mike

I see what you mean in my personal system.  Seems like an extra step for the user but It is worth trying cause I'm about to just throw in the towel on this.  Thanks for the post.  I'll give it a try.