[SOLVED] Printing in landscape

[keithm]

Hello, everyone. I have searched the forum for help with this, but all the references seem to be from more than 10 years ago, and not relevant to my set up, Kubuntu 21.10, Plasma 5.22.5.
My problem is, using Softmaker Planmaker 2021 and printer Canon MG 3650 USB, I cannot print a selected spreadsheet page in landscape mode.
I have PM page set up set to A4 landscape, I have been to System Settings<Printer<configure but there is no option there for portrait or landscape (except under 'two sided printing' which is set to off, and if I set to 'on (landscape)' it has no effect and the setting reverts to off at the next look) and when asking to 'print' the 'properties' dialogue has no option related to orientation.
Under print preview, I see the correct orientation, scaled to one page as I wish, but 'print' gives me a truncated page in portrait mode.

What am I missing?

And two supplementaries. On the 'Forum' page of this forum, this appears

Post Kubuntu 21.10 specific questions here. Note: 21.10 will reach ESS (End of Standard Support) Jul 13, 2022. Unless you have a specific need to keep this release, be sure you upgrade prior to this.

I see that support for 21.04 runs till 2025. Does 21.10 support really run out in a few months?


And second supplementary, how long do I go on being a newbie?

Best Wishes, KeithM

[kc1di]

Hi,
I can not help much with your printer issue. There should be a setting in printer management of some sort to tell it to print in landscape mode. But yes version 21.10 is a short term release and will be end of life in July 2022. After that you will no longer be able to get security or updates for that version and at some point after that the repositories will be taken down. So you will either need to upgrade to 22.04 or downgrade to 20.04. Which are long term releases and will receive updates and security patches for 5 years. long term releases are only released ever 2 years.
here is the end of life schedule for Ubuntu /Kubuntu may or may not follow it. Some time kubuntu only give 3 years of support.

[Snowhog]

And second supplementary, how long do I go on being a newbie?

Well, that's really a subjective question, isn't it?

You aren't required to post in Help the New Guy, so...

[claydoh]

And second supplementary, how long do I go on being a newbie?

I have been doing this for over 20+ years, and I am still a newbie more often than you'd think.

I will imagine that if the software is set to print in landscape, and it is not printing that way, it very well could be an issue with the software, maybe more likely than an issue with the driver.
https://forum.softmaker.com/viewtopi...ndscape#p72807
Having said that, I had no issue printing an xls spreadsheet in landscape using this software using my 20 dollar Canon TS3122 , connected via wifi, and thus not using any drivers.
Some printers have different driver types available when setting them up over USB, so maybe trying a different one (if available) might be useful?

There won't be a setting in the printer itself to print landscape or portrait, that is going to be per the document/software

As a test, can you see if printing the spreadsheet via Libreoffice has similar results?

I see that support for 21.04 runs till 2025. Does 21.10 support really run out in a few months?

You mean 20.04 LTS, as 21.04 is already EOL.
Non-LTS releases only have 9 months of lifespan, with new releases every 6 months.
LTS releases for Kubuntu and other official Flavours have only 3 years of support on the desktop side (Plasma) though technically the underlying Ubuntu OS is supported for 5 years as Ubuntu proper has a 5 year support life.
Kubuntu support thus ends in 2023.
Our blurb is incorrect and a bit misleading.

https://kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/

[Snowhog]

Our blurb is incorrect and a bit misleading.

So what should it say?

I don't make that information up; I search for End of Life statements from Ubuntu and/or Kubuntu (and Kubuntu specific information is often much harder to find). I don't want to mislead anyone here, so please correct the statement(s) or let me know what they should say and I'll correct them.

[keithm]

Thanks to each of you, all very interesting. Yes, claydoh, you were correct, I misread 20.04 as 21.04. So, Snowhog, it looks as if you might not need to do anything. All of that seems just to have wound me up as I joined the club just after 21.10 appeared. I will await the full issue date for 22.04 and upgrade then.

On the substantive point about printing, claydoh, I habitually uninstall Libre Office as I found it unreliable before I switched to Softmaker. But I have opened the spreadsheet on Excel in the cloud, and the same page on the same spreadsheet printed first time in landscape!

So, it looks as if my question should have been addressed to the Softmaker support team!

[kc1di]

Just to let you know I've been using 22.04 daily builds for awhile and so far it's looking great. So it should be ready to go in April. Good luck on the softmaker printing problem.

[jlittle]

Have you attempted to set Landscape after starting the print dialogue?

I don't know what "Softmaker Planmaker 2021" does, but in LibreOffice Writer I click "Print..." I get a print dialogue box where I can select the pages to print, but also the printer. Under the printer drop-down box is a "Properties..." button, and I can set the orientation there, if I check the "Use only paper size from printer preferences".

[kc1di]

From Softmaker planmaker handbook it says this

Page format Choose File > Page Setup and switch to the Page format tab to modify the page format (paper size, orientation, margins) of the current worksheet.

The hand book is a pdf found here: http://www.softmaker.net/down/pm2016manual_en.pdf
I have not used Softmaker so can't verify this works.

[keithm]

Thanks kclidi, actually the latest handbook is for Planmaker 2021, which i do have, and yes, i have changed page set up to landscape, and as i said earlier, this shows landscape in preview, but still prints as portrait. i have raised the problem on the planmaker forum, and await replies. Keithm

[kc1di]

Let us know if you find the answer.

[keithm]

Hello everyone. Well, after days of headscratching, finally more or less a solution to my landscape printing problem.
Softmaker support were very helpful, and sent me a personal fix. What happened next is best explained by part of the text of my reply to them

Being an amateur in these things, I did what I thought was the correct procedure to install the fix you kindly sent, the text from the Konsole window installing it is attached.
I then opened Planmaker, prepared the page I want to print, screenshot of preview attached, clicked print, looked at properties, and printed, only to get exactly the same portrait printed page with half cut off.

I then thought to check again if the settings for the printer were correct, and I went to print<printer properties and found that under media size, the setting was 'default A4' which seemed OK. I scrolled down to see if there was a setting there for landscape, did not find that, but found simply a setting 'A4', see screenshot attached. [See attachment}
I selected that, printed, and the problem was solved—the page came out as portrait as required!

I do wonder why when I printed from Excel in the cloud, it needed none of these adjustments, but never look a gift horse...

So, probably a simple solution, but i might have searched for years before finding it!

Many thanks for all your help.
KeithM

[kc1di]

Glad you found the solution

[GreyGeek]

I have been doing this for over 20+ years, and I am still a newbie more often than you'd think.....

And as I get older (currently at 80) the more newbie I become as things I once knew evaporate from my mind.