Printer question, none show up

[John Ralls]

On Apr 9, 2010, at 12:49 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

> GnuCash 2.2.9, Build r17949M on 2009-09--8
> Mac OS X 10.5.8
> 
> I'm just starting to learn GnuCash, and I'm not migrating from anything
> except pencil and paper.   LOL
> 
> I couldn't find any info in the archives on printing issues with OS X, but
> maybe I looked in the wrong place.
> 
> GnuCash loaded just fine, but I wanted to print some reports before entering
> any data to see what they looked like.  When I open the Print Report menu,
> there are no printers listed.  I have 2 USB and one network printer
> installed.  Is this normal, which seemingly means I can't select a printer
> to use, or did something go wrong during installation?
> 
> I can export a web page, but that's got a small bug apparently.  The export
> function does *not* automatically add the .html file extension to the file
> name.  As a result, when you open the report, you get a blank window in your
> browser.  And Macs do not automatically add file extensions to filenames.
> Normal, or did I miss something here?
> 
> I did discover that if I manually add the extension to the file name, the
> data does show in the web browser.  So I can get the report printed,
> although I am not pleased about having to go this route to get the data
> out.  I want my computer to do this mundane work of printing.   LOL
> 
> 

Two separate questions, really. 

The answer to the first one has been discussed here, and the workaround is in the README file in the Wiki, which you can get to from http://www.gnucash.org. Basically, printing works fine, but gtk can't see the Mac printers, so there isn't anything to print to. The workaround is that the "preview" button in the print dialog works, and will open a PDF of your output in Preview.app from which you can print it.

The second issue is a Snow Leopard quirk or bug, depending on your viewpoint. Traditionally, Macs ignored suffixes and used a "creator code" in the "resource fork" (file metadata) to determine what application to use to open the file. Snow Leopard broke that convention: It ignores the creator codes altogether... but its "save as" function isn't smart enough to tack on the appropriate suffix, so it's left to the user to do so.

Regards,
John Ralls