Changing Multiple Page Sizes and Orientations, PDF Print Issues

[David_H]

Argh.  Does anyone at MS ever use this product?  OK, sorry for the rant.  As is so often the case I've spent the last 2 hours trying to fix Visio instead of working.  Here are the issues:

1. I made the ridiculous mistake of trying to use the feature of setting orientation across all pages of a 100 page document.  Doing so made Visio decide to also make every page in my drawing 12 x 9, even though every page is actually 36 x 24.   The funny thing is I did not even save the changes, and closed the doc right away, but when I reopened all pages are still at 12 x 9.  So I thought I might change every page back to 36 x 24 at once, as explained here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2009/12/10/improvements-to-multi-page-document-support-in-visio-2010.aspx.  However 36 x 24, the most common blueprint size in the US, does not show up as one of the freaking page size options!  I can only select that size by opening up the page setup dialog.  Is there any way I can change all pages sizes back to 36 x 24 without doing it a page at a time?

2. Another issue, when I try to save as pdf Visio (using the MS save to pdf option) always omits certain items on the background pages and doesn't print them to the pdf.  I've read numerous people complain about this and am not aware of the fix.  However if I print to Adobe pro they print fine.  Except then Visio has the print paper size of every freaking page set to 8.5 x 11.  So printing to Adobe pro fixes the background printing issue, but then Visio breaks everything by defaulting to 8.5 x 11 and the only way I can fix that is again - to change every freaking page one by one by one.  And even if i go through that hell, I think Visio loses the setting the next time I reopen and is back to 8.5 x 11.  No doubt because my default printer is 8.5 x 11.  I'm about to make Adobe the default just to see if that helps with this issue, but I don't know if there is a way to make the default for aDOBE PRO 36 X 24.

I'm at my wits end, any suggestions?  If there are any 3rd party utilities that fix/address these issues I would but them in a second.

Thanks in advance.

[vojo]

RE  1:    You could write a simple VBA to change the pageheight and pagewidth for every page in your drawing....I bet somebody on this forum has a macro that could be tweaked for this

RE 2:     I am not aware of visio printing ANYTHING from a background page to PDF or printer.   You could copy/augment the macro to copy the background page foreground and put in back of
             all shapes (or even on a different layer if you want to get elegant)....could even ensure nobody could select any of those shapes (group...group only select...etc)

hang in there....FYI, in my experience with products similar to Visio, it really is the most stable usable option out there.
(not a shameless plug....I have issues with visio like why the heck spend time doing all that container stuff in 2010 vs actually adding some new features that enhance the product)

[saveenr]

@vojo

Here is a VBA script that will resize the pages for you.

Code: [Select]

Sub ResizeEachPageTo36w24h()
    Dim p As Page
    Dim ps As Shape
    For Each p In Application.ActiveDocument.Pages
        Set ps = p.PageSheet
        ps.CellsU("Width").FormulaU = "36 in"
        ps.CellsU("Height").FormulaU = "24 in"
    Next p
End Sub


[David_H]

Thanks!!  Oh man will that come in handy.

vojo, thanks as well.  FYI, not sure what you mean that Visio won't print anything from the background page.  I'm guessing I didn't communicate the issue well.  What I meant is that when saving a foreground page that also has a background page/s, the items on the background pages don't print to the pdf file (for the foreground page).  That is an issue specifically related to Microsoft save as pdf mechanism, because if I print the foreground page to Adobe acrobat pdf, the background images print fine on the foreground page.

[vojo]

RE 2:    if you have a foreground page that uses a background page for whatever reason....NOTHING from that background page will print/pdf when you print/pdf the foreground.
            My guess is that MS intended background pages to do things like grid/floor plan for the foreground page....no need to print it.

[David_H]

I am not sure if you are not reading what I am saying or am i not reading what you are saying, as clearly we are not on the same page .

1. It doesn't make any sense to suggest this is purposeful on their part, using your floor plan example as a background, for what conceivable reason would someone not want the floor plan to print?  The entire point of using the floor plan as a background is simply so that you can do multiple drawing pages using the same background.

2. I don't know why you keep saying that "NOTHING" will print from a background when printing a foreground.  I do it every day.  The issue I was complaining about is that Visio seems to omit a few background items when saving to pdf using the native save as pdf functionality.  I am not sure why it only omits certain items and not others.  Regardless, again, ALL of the background items DO print if using Visio itself to print from, and they also DO print fine if using Adobe pro or for that matter a free prf utility such as cute pdf.  The issue is specifically related to the save as pdf mechanism built into Visio.  Otherwise background do print on foreground pages, as they always have going back as long as I have been using Visio.

[vojo]

1,   this has been the behavior since visio 2003 (maybe even before .,...but that is the version where this first revealed itself to me).....so if a bug, I would have thought they would have fixed it by 2010.   After all, they must of been bored to make one of the highlights of 2010 those containers.....so I cant believe there was too much to do to catch this if viewed as a bug.

2. All I know is if you print to printer or print to PDF, NO background shapes/text/colors/etc show up all.  Numerous posts on a variety of forums state this.
    As far as adobe pro goes....I have no experience with that....for all I know, its basically scraping the screen.....which can be done with any freeware screen scraper.

I know you are frustrated, but understand, I am just a user like you....not affiliated with MS in anyway....so vent as you need to, but I cant fix it per se.

Honestly, good luck

[David_H]

Thanks, not meaning to vent at you, I was just confused by your statements, I now realize when you say that backgrounds don't print you mean only to pdf.  I guess I remember it differently as the issue did not always occur for me, and some items have always printed, it has always been select items that wouldn't print.  Thanks again.