Print dialogue box disappearing under window

[tcorbett]

We are encountering a problem with PWB. When students are working with documents (articles from databases) available in PDF format, sometimes (seems like after a few have been sent to the printer or when they’re larger files) when they go to print, the print dialogue box after about 5-10 seconds literally “disappears” underneath the actual document. Because we are using PWB to essentially lock down the desktops, it is not apparent to the student how to get back to the print dialogue box. (You can alt-Tab toggle to get to it but the average student doesn’t realize that) Once the print dialogue box goes under the main screen, you can no longer print at all, since it is opened underneath and student becomes very frustrated.

This problem does not seem to happen with Internet Explorer – when I run the same kind of scenario the print dialogue box stays on top the whole time with IE.

I couldn’t see any evidence of this problem in your discussion boards. This also just started happening in the last few months – never saw this in the years we’re been using PWB before. Note that we’ve updated in the last week the version of Adobe Reader we’re running in hopes of making the problem go away, but it hasn’t. Please advise.

PS: I'm (tcorbett) submitting this on behalf of one of our libraries. Others have reported similiar behavior (always with pdfs). Thanks.

[Scott]

What version of PWB are you currently using including the minor revision number (2.10.3)?

--Scott

[tcorbett]

Hi Scott,

They were running version 2.0.4.2 but they've just upgraded to the latest posted version and the problem still persists. I asked them to see if the problem continues if they aren't running in kiosk mode and they said this does resolve the problem, but they don't want to stop using kiosk mode.

I think this relates to another posting somewhere on this site that essentially states that there isn't a resolution to this printing dialog window problem if the user is in kiosk mode. Am I recalling this correctly and is this still true?

Thanks!

[Scott]

The problem with Kiosk mode is the browser is set as the top most window. If you use a third party application that can not be set as the top most window PWB will shield the other windows.

If you only want PWB to be available on the computer, you should try using the technique described in this post.

http://teamsoftwaresolutions.com/phpBB2 ... .php?t=536

This way you can have PWB be the only application available but not the top most window.

--Scott

[Jreinard]

Hi Scott,

I was going through the forums and found this problem.

-- Edit --

I am having almost the same problem. after looking @ it much closer, it seems to be patron user error. When a PDF is open on the screen, and they click print, they(sometimes) double click the print icon. The second click is forcing the print dialog box behind the other window.

Is there a setting in the INI file that will force print dialog boxes to always be on top?

Thanks!
Jesse

[Scott]

The problem is we have no control over the print dialog as it is generated by Internet Explorer.

You can set PWB to always be on the bottom. This combined with the HideGUI application to hide aspects of the Windows GUI can be used to create a very effecive kiosk.

--Scott

[Jreinard]

I found a simple fix to the problem,

just in case anyone else is having this problem check this post out

Configuring the browser to open PDF files in an Acrobat window
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewCon ... lId=331025

All this does is forces pdf's to open outside PWB in the default reader software. With in the software when the print dialog box comes up it forces the user to select a print option and the user can't do anything else with the reader till they do.

Thanks Scott!

Hope this helps others!