Previewing Before You Print

You can prevent most unexpected printing results by previewing the printed drawing before you print it. You can use the Print Preview command on the File menu to do this or use the preview images that appear in the Page Setup dialog box. The following sections help you troubleshoot the most common problems that users encounter when printing Visio 2007 drawings and diagrams.

Using the Print Preview Window

Most Office applications have a preview window that you can use to see what a document looks like when printed. The Print Preview window in Visio 2007 works pretty much like all the others and can help you diagnose drawing page and printed page conflicts before you send your diagram to the printer.

Print Preview

To preview a drawing or diagram, choose File, Print Preview, or click the Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar.

When Visio 2007 displays your drawing page in the preview window, the margins that are set for your printer appear as gray lines. If your drawing page is larger than the printer paper, the gray lines show you the page breaks, as Figure 8-10 shows.

You can’t edit shapes in the Print Preview window, but you can display the window alongside the drawing page to see the effect of changes you make there. This technique can be useful for large diagrams that tile across several pages. To display the window in this manner, select Window, New Window. Open the same file in your new window, choose File, Print Preview, then choose Window, Tile. Changes you make in the drawing window will be reflected in the Print Preview window. Now you can move shapes on the drawing page to make sure they don’t fall into the margin area on the printed page.

The page and paper settings available in the Print Preview window are the same as those available when you’re working on the drawing page. To change these settings, click the Setup button on the Print Preview window’s toolbar to display the Page Setup dialog box.

Inside Out: Using a slide show to preview your print job You can preview Visio 2007 diagrams like a slide show by displaying them in full-screen view. This view hides the toolbars, title bars, status bar, menus, scrollbars, and stencils so that the drawing page takes up the entire screen. To do this, choose View, Full Screen. To exit full-screen view, press the Esc key. For details, see the section titled “Delivering a Slide Show in Visio 2007” in Chapter 13, “Adding Impact to PowerPoint Presentations.”

Previewing with the Print Setup Command

You can predict printing and page size conflicts with the Print Setup and Page Setup tabs in the Page Setup dialog box (File, Page Setup). Visio 2007 shows you whether your drawing page will fit on the paper specified for your printer. When you display this tab, you want to make sure that the drawing page and the printer paper match, as they do in Figure 8-11. When the preview shows you something different, as Figures 8-12, 8-13, and 8-14 show, you might want to adjust either the page setup or the print setup options.

Printing Visio 2007 Diagrams as PDF Documents

PDF is a fixed-layout electronic file that preserves document format and enables sharing. The PDF format ensures that others can view and print your information but cannot modify it. To print your diagram as a PDF document, you first need to save your diagram as a PDF document. Follow these steps:

1.	On the File menu, click Save As.
2.	In the Save As Type drop-down box, scroll down to choose PDF. (If you don’t see this option, choose File, Find Add-Ins For Other File Formats and follow the prompts for installing the PDF add-in.)
3.	Click Save.

You can print what you have just saved from Visio 2007, but it will not be in actual PDF format; it will still be a Visio diagram. To print in PDF format, you need to publish your diagram in PDF file format. Printing will then require that you have Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on your computer. To publish your diagram in PDF file format, follow these steps:

1.	On the File menu, click Publish As PDF Or XPS.
2.	Type the name that you wish your file to be called, and click Publish. This will start Adobe Acrobat Reader (if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer), and your diagram will be displayed.

To print from PDF format in Adobe Acrobat Reader, follow these steps:

1.	On the File menu, click Print.
2.	If all the settings are as you would like them to be, click OK.

Troubleshooting: Printed text looks different from text on the screen Visio 2007 includes type display functionality that makes text and lines look crisp on the screen, so your printed output should resemble the screen more closely. However, text might print in the wrong font or look rough when there is a conflict with the printer driver. If you experience problems, here are some things to try: If your drawing file contains TrueType fonts, you can download each TrueType font to the printer as a bitmap font, which might resemble your diagram more exactly. This option is available for some printers in the Advanced Options dialog box for the printer driver. For example, choose File, Print, and then click Properties. Look for an Advanced button, Advanced tab, or Fonts tab that contains TrueType options, such as Download As Soft Font or Download TrueType Fonts As Bitmap Soft Fonts. If your printer supports font substitution, try turning it off. Verify that you have the latest printer driver for your printer. Check the Web site of the printer manufacturer or call your printer vendor for verification. If the printer driver is set to emulate another printer, try turning off emulation.