BUG: Printing General Fields Produces Black Output

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
• Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, versions 2.5x, 2.6a

SYMPTOMS

When you are printing a general field to a laser printer with FoxPro for Macintosh, the output may appear all black or in reverse video. The black output appears when you are printing a general field through the Query Wizard, the Report Writer, and @ ... SAY <general field> commands. For example:

   USE SYS(2004) + "Sample\OLE\OleTable.dbf"
   SET DEVICE TO PRINTER PROMPT
   * When the LaserWriter Print Options dialog appears,
   * choose Black & White.
   @ 2,2 SAY object
   SET DEVICE TO SCREEN
   SET PRINTER TO

CAUSE

FoxPro for Macintosh treats any colors as black when printing in Black & White. Unless the background of the object to be printed is clear, the background will be printed as black.

RESOLUTION

When you are printing general fields, choose the Color/Grayscale option in the LaserWriter Print Options dialog box.

NOTE: Printing with the Color/Grayscale option will display a gray background instead of a black background even if the background of the object stored in the general field appears to be white. To avoid having a gray background for graphs stored in general fields, do the following:

1. Using the first record of the OleTable database, issue the command:

   MODIFY GENERAL object

2. Double-click the graph to invoke MS Graph.

3. Double-click the outermost edge of the graph to bring up the Area Patterns dialog box.

4. Choose the second item of the Border Color popup to select a white border.

5. Choose the second item of the Area Foreground popup to make the area white.

6. Choose OK, update the graph, and return to FoxPro.

   SET DEVICE TO PRINTER PROMPT
   * Choose Color/Grayscale from the Printer Option dialog box.

   * Note that a SIZE clause is included to prevent a large
   * gray border.
   @ 2,2 SAY object SIZE 1,1

   SET DEVICE TO SCREEN
   SET PRINTER TO

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.