Portrait documents want to print as landscape

[amkaplan]

Having recently gotten the message from Microsoft that my old Office for Mac 2011 will no longer be supported, and finding that Office 2016 is bloated beyond all comprehension, I discovered LIbreOffice as a welcome alternative. Unfortunately, sending any document (.docx, .xls, .pdf) to the printer brings up a window with the document in landscape format. I have check the preferences within LibreOffice and everything, including the print preview, suggests that the resulting document should be portrait, but no… Thankfully, I found that John Sidles’s workaround http://tinyurl.com/yby6xm25 is quite helpful and works perfectly, but it’s not something that I would prefer to have to use every time I want simply to print a document.

I am hoping that what is apparently a long-standing issue can gain the attention of some developers for a timely fix.

Thanks,

Allan

I am running macOS 10.12.6 and LibreOffice 5.4.1.2 Build ID: ea7cb86e6eeb2bf3a5af73a8f7777ac570321527.

[Lupp]

There are two workarounds described in this thread on the topic, among them the one published by @John sidles. The other workaround should not require to be applied to every single print-job.

There is also a link to the respective bug in the mentioned thread.

[amkaplan]

The only other workaround I see is to change the paper size, which is just as much a pain, having to resize every document I reprint. And there does not appear to be a way to create a new paper size option in the LibreOffice printer dialog box for my Canon MX920 printer. I’m rather surprised this has not been updated.

[Lupp]

Seems you are using one of the outdated USA paper sizes? Please always mention the paper size in this context. ISO formats not afflicted.
Of course, you should use the workaround best suitable for your needs.
The workaround I described was mainly suggested for templates. I did not test if the changed paper size would cause a prompt for applying to documents formerly created from the template when opened first time after the change (like “Update template?”) as is done if styles were enhanced

[amkaplan]

I’m trying to use 8.5x11" “letter” size - this has been and still remains the standard in the US, to the best of my knowledge. I tried to change to A4 in the print dialog, but this had no effect on portrait vs. landscape. I’ve got years’ worth of documents in the standard letter format, and don’t foresee reformatting them to a non-US standard format every time I go to print. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[Lupp]

The workaround I was talking of didn’t suggest to use A4 instead of ‘Letter’, but to replace ‘Letter’ by a user defined format like 8.48" x 11.02"…
Lacking a Mac I cannot test myself, but it was reported the workaround did solve the Landscape/Portrait issue.
Once again: Use the workaround best suitable for you. I don’t think the problem will be fixed soon, however.

[amkaplan]

I will check that out again. I tried to create a new format like that, but it did not work for me. I’ll have to try again and make another call to Canon to see if I can redefine “Letter.” I’m quite surprised that this bug is not as simple to repair as it sounds, and that no one is working on it. It would be a pity to abandon LIbreOffice because of this.

[Lupp]

If I send DuckDuck to Go for “mac osx printing problem letter portrait” I get lots of findings not specifically related to LibreOffice.
Basically printing is a more ticklish task than we tend to believe: At least three components of software - the operating system, the printer driver and the printer’s firmware - must cooperate flawlessly before the specific application comes in.
If the mentioned triple is not unanimous (e.g.) about the way a setting is to be interpreted it may fail.

[Lupp]

If a problem is caused by one software component taking an information as “direct” while another one passed it as a pointer into a lookup (e.g.) an application “knowing” that may compensate for it. As soon as the bad part is fixed that application may fail then. (I am talking of a guess, not of facts.)