This is driving me crazy!!!

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  • This is driving me crazy!!!

    I am DESPERATE for help as this is driving me insane.

    I am hoping someone else who has experienced this has found a solution because I have tried EVERYTHING and I cannot get it to work.

    So, I am UK based, but I write for the American market so I need to work on American sized 'letter' paper, not A4 size paper.

    On my old laptop (32 bit Vista) I was able to do this just fine. But I recently bought a 64 bit Windows 8 laptop and I am having problems.

    Inside the FD (8.3) program, it seems to display a 'letter' size page, but when I print to pdf (or save to pdf) it always prints in A4 size.

    So, I go to 'Printers and Devices' and I select my Final Draft virtual printer and I attempt to adjust the page size by clicking advanced (because I remember on my old laptop that's how I do it, and it would give me the option to adjust the size) but there are no such options here. It just shows an 'about' box about the Final Draft program developed by Amyuni. But there are no options to change anything.

    But, I of course have the option of using other virtual printers I have. So I set a different one as my default and I do have the ability to change the paper size. So I set it to 'letter' size paper, but...

    ...it still prints to pdf as A4 size.

    This is driving me crazy.

    Please don't tell me to do something obvious, I've tried everything about a hundred times over, but if there is anything you can think of, please let me know. Or else I may have to stamp on this laptop with my boot.

  • #2
    Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

    Sounds like a Win8 issue. You might google "windows 8 paper size".

    I vaguely recall from past episodes that Windows exerts some control over the catalog of "paper" sizes. IOW, software can only choose a size from amongst those in the list that Windows maintains. But again, that is a vague recollection.

    (Also, for a new guy here, you've "entered screaming" with lots of love for "!" in your threads!)

    And if this really is an EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you could try setting your computer's region setting to US just to fix this problem for the moment.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

      Originally posted by Manchester View Post
      (Also, for a new guy here, you've "entered screaming" with lots of love for "!" in your threads!)
      Can new people not enter screaming?


      Originally posted by Manchester View Post
      And if this really is an EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you could try setting your computer's region setting to US just to fix this problem for the moment.
      Oh, this sounds like it could work. Didn't know that was even a possibility. Maybe I'll try and do that, if it doesn't mess up anything else on my computer.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

        I sympathise, because I used to have the same problem. What I ended up doing was downloading the free PrimoPDF converter (as recommended by Comic Bent ) which lets you choose the paper size when it creates the pdf. So now instead of 'Save as PDF' in Final Draft, I click 'Print' and then select 'PrimoPDF' from the dropdown list. The paper size is in the Advanced Options in the Properties box.

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        • #5
          Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

          I don't think that will work Lincoln. Like I said, I also use different virtual printers (not just FD's) and I set that to any size I want, but the it still prints in A4 size.

          For instance, one of my virtual printers is Nitropdf, and although I select 'letter', it still prints it in the UK size.

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          • #6
            Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

            Originally posted by alexscreenwriter View Post

            But, I of course have the option of using other virtual printers I have. So I set a different one as my default and I do have the ability to change the paper size. So I set it to 'letter' size paper, but...

            ...it still prints to pdf as A4 size.
            Did you set it to letter size in the midst of starting a print job from FD? (i.e., temporarily) Or, did you go directly to printer properties - via the Windows interface - and set letter size as the default for that virtual printer... and then done the print job from FD?

            IOW, (a) install/use a specific 3rd-party pdf driver, (b) in Windows (outside of FD) set that driver to default to letter size (not A4), then (c) use that driver from within FD.

            (I vaguely recall that FD will only print to a driver's default paper size, despite what you do on a temp basis for a specific print job. At least FD 8 on Win7.)

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

              Yeah, I went to 'devices and printers' through windows interface (outside of the FD program), set a different virtual printer (such as Nitropdf) as the default and changed it to 'letter' size.

              I then open FD up again fresh, and attempt to print, or save, to pdf, but each and every time without exception is always prints to A4 size.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                Originally posted by alexscreenwriter View Post
                Yeah, I went to 'devices and printers' through windows interface (outside of the FD program), set a different virtual printer (such as Nitropdf) as the default and changed it to 'letter' size.

                I then open FD up again fresh, and attempt to print, or save, to pdf, but each and every time without exception is always prints to A4 size.
                Even after you did that, did you also check manually in Properties as you were doing the print job in FD to also see that letter size was selected there?
                You might also try contacting FD directly.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                  This is something that would probably take 30 seconds to diagnose and fix if I were physically there, but I know from past experiences that trying to go step by step through the whole process, in postings like this, is very difficult and frustrating.

                  When you choose your "printer" (PDF driver), such as NitroPDF, are you sure that you are:

                  (1) Changing the Properties of the "printer" to print to "letter" paper? (I think you said you were, but this is the first critical step.)

                  (2) When you have made your changes to the Properties of the "printer", and you come back to the Print dialog window, are you then clicking on OK? You should click OK, not "Print to PDF".

                  I know that you are probably doing things correctly already, but these are two critical steps.

                  If you use the NitroPDF driver, and you check the PDF document properties, does the information indicate that you created the PDF with NitroPDF or with the Amyuni converter?

                  EDIT TO ADD: Thanks to Lincoln Lass for the shout-out. By the way, the PrimoPDF driver (which is excellent) is the free version of the NitroPDF program.

                  "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                    Yeah, checked in properties too, within FD program, and it is set to 'letter' size, but the pdf comes out in A4.

                    It's a complete mystery to me.

                    I emailed FD a couple of weeks back, and they said they had no reported problems of FD in Windows 8. But I find it hard to believe I'm the only one experiencing this.

                    ............................

                    Are there any UK writers here currently using FD on a Windows 8, 64 bit machine? Let me know guys.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                      Again, if this is such an emergency, have you tried to temp set your country is US? That may change your keyboard (though you should be able to set that manually to UK). Again, just as a temp measure for your EMERGENCY!!!!!!!!!!

                      BTW, I just checked my FD8 and it seems that I cannot format a script for A4. I can print to A4, but it's still formatted for letter size. (IOW, it seems to be taking its page size from the default country setting.) From the FD Help file, it seems that page-size settings may only be available on Macs.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                        One other option: After you print to pdf and it's in A4, have you tried printing from that A4 pdf to another pdf set to letter size?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                          You still did not say whether you are clicking on OK to print, or clicking on Print to PDF, after you have set everything. See my previous post.

                          "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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                          • #14
                            Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                            Change the settings in your printer.
                            il faut d'abord durer

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: This is driving me crazy!!!

                              I looked into this a little more and there may be no fix. Well, no easy fix. It seems that even if you change the Windows regional settings - in at least two places - you then might still have to reinstall the print drivers to get them to actually default to letter size. IOW, there is no easy toggling back and forth between UK and US region settings when dealing with this sort of problem.

                              Among other things, the fact is that when you print a doc, it's not merely software communicating directly with the print driver. Rather, it is going through Windows to get to that print driver, and all sorts of things can happen there. For example, Windows apparently allows the print-from software to override certain supposedly "default" setting in the print driver.

                              And so, the only easy solution is to print the doc twice: Once from FD to pdf in A4, then print that pdf doc again into a letter-size pdf. (Caveat: I use Win7. I have not used Win8, and maybe it has an even larger problem with this issue than I have envisioned.)

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