Printing to PDF in many-prior years
01/23/09 6:54am PST, Viewed by asker 01/30/09 2:45pm PST
Total Views: 1,569
We need to provide a client a copy of their 2003 1120S. My preference is "print to PDF and email." No Lacerte PDF printer, and printing to the Adobe PDF driver gives us beautiful forms full of gibberish. I'd guess it's either a fonts issue or a printer driver issue. Is there any known workaround, other than print to a physical printer and scan?
Solved!
Helpful Answer
Go to your Printers folder. Right-click on the Adobe PDF printer and go to properties. Then go to Printing Preferences. Uncheck the "rely on system fonts" box. Try that.
Comment
Hmmm.
There's something screwy with the prep file on my computer, so all my 2003 S-corps say "Hey, you've got no REP access!" when I try to print, even though the Needs REP column is unchecked, and the other computers all can view forms. So I can't play with it on my computer.
I was going off of my boss' "why can't I print to PDF in 2003 when I can in 2008 just fine?" description of the problem. That'll teach me. Because you're right - there's a PDF radio button clear as day in the print screen in the 1040 package. Alas.
Well, I hope the rest of my day goes more auspiciously! Thanks for your help!
Comment
Oh, and if you answer, I'll rep you, and then this won't hang around as Unanswered. :)
Answer
OK, I'm answering you. I don't quite understand why, if your PREP file got loused up and it claims you don't have REP access, you are then able to print to PDF anyway. But hopefully you got your problem solved. By the way, if other computers have a correct PREP file, maybe you can copy the PREP file from the "good" computers to your computer, and then maybe you'll be able to view, print, etc., from your computer. Just in case, you can temporarily copy the PREP file that you have on your computer now, the one with the incorrect "You have to REP all those S-corps" encoded into it, to a new name (like PREPBAD.03) just in case copying PREP files won't work, and then at least you'll have a PREP file of SOME sort on your computer.
Solved!
Go to your Printers folder. Right-click on the Adobe PDF printer and go to properties. Then go to Printing Preferences. Uncheck the "rely on system fonts" box. Try that.
Comment
Yeah, I don't know what the issue is with the prep file. We had unlimited S-corp for that year, and don't have unlimited S-corp now, so that might be part of the problem. But I don't really care enough to try and track it down, since the statute's run on all those returns. Maybe in the off season. :) (On the other computer, it had rep - but I'd been moved from Preparer 2 to Preparer 1, and my boss had been deleted. So something has gone very wrong with those old years, but again, it's not worth figuring out now.)
It turns out the situation was she was trying to print a single page from the Print Forms button, which is why it wasn't obvious how to print to PDF.
Bill, I tried your fix, and it worked perfectly - thanks!
Comment
Phoebe, how can there be no "Lacerte PDF printer" in your 2003 program? Do you still have the computer, and operating system, on which your 2003 program first came? Or do you have Vista now, and the 2003 won't work properly on Vista?
I have Windows XP. I just got into my 2003 program, pretended I wanted to print somebody's return, and I got the choice of "printer, file/pdf" and several other things. I chose "file/pdf" and got a PDF file in MY DOCUMENTS, viewed the PDF file, and presumably could have printed it if I chose.
Maybe you can try the "file/pdf" part of the "print" menu. I accessed it from the screen of client names, then chose Print, and then that menu came up. Good luck, Phoebe.