I
Igorian
Has anyone else noticed a problem with Windows Photo Printing Wizard?
One of my clients produces engineering drawings in TIFF format and store them in CD libraries and there maybe several thousand drawings per CD. The drawings can consist on one or more pages.
With Windows XP, the drawings open up in the default viewer, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, and the print function opens up yet another Windows lovely called Photo Printing Wizard. This is all very nice and on the face of it, seems to work quite well.
However, I have found what would seem to be a bug.
When you start the Print Wizard, it produces a preview of the document you are about to print. No surprise there. If the document contains multiple pages, the preview will show them all. Again all seems normal. If, however, the document is a single page TIFF and there are other TIFF files stored in the same folder, the Wizard attempts to collate ALL the documents in the folder and generates a preview of them. With several thousand images, this can take some time (up to 15 minutes in our tests), and all just to print one drawing!
Now, those of you who know XP, will immediately see some workarounds, but as I see this as a bug, or at the very least an annoyance, I decided to report the issue to Microsoft on behalf of the client.
first, I telephone the support line and go through the motions of identifying the client, the product and the problem. "No problem sir" comes the reply, "however, the support call will cost £199 and I need to take your credit card details". After debating a little and pointing out the fact that I am reporting a potential problem, I am told that, if it is a known issue, the money will be refunded.
. After yet more chat, I am given a "special" email address so I can get some free support. Great, we are on the way. I didn't expect it to be quick, but in less than 48 hours, i had my reply. After the usual pleasant introductions etc., we get a short note to say, "Thankyou for contacting Microsoft technical Support. Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist you via email. It will be necessary for you to contact a support engineer...". Yep, you guessed it, back to the original phone number.
So, would you ask the £199 question?
One of my clients produces engineering drawings in TIFF format and store them in CD libraries and there maybe several thousand drawings per CD. The drawings can consist on one or more pages.
With Windows XP, the drawings open up in the default viewer, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, and the print function opens up yet another Windows lovely called Photo Printing Wizard. This is all very nice and on the face of it, seems to work quite well.
However, I have found what would seem to be a bug.
When you start the Print Wizard, it produces a preview of the document you are about to print. No surprise there. If the document contains multiple pages, the preview will show them all. Again all seems normal. If, however, the document is a single page TIFF and there are other TIFF files stored in the same folder, the Wizard attempts to collate ALL the documents in the folder and generates a preview of them. With several thousand images, this can take some time (up to 15 minutes in our tests), and all just to print one drawing!
Now, those of you who know XP, will immediately see some workarounds, but as I see this as a bug, or at the very least an annoyance, I decided to report the issue to Microsoft on behalf of the client.
first, I telephone the support line and go through the motions of identifying the client, the product and the problem. "No problem sir" comes the reply, "however, the support call will cost £199 and I need to take your credit card details". After debating a little and pointing out the fact that I am reporting a potential problem, I am told that, if it is a known issue, the money will be refunded.
. After yet more chat, I am given a "special" email address so I can get some free support. Great, we are on the way. I didn't expect it to be quick, but in less than 48 hours, i had my reply. After the usual pleasant introductions etc., we get a short note to say, "Thankyou for contacting Microsoft technical Support. Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist you via email. It will be necessary for you to contact a support engineer...". Yep, you guessed it, back to the original phone number.So, would you ask the £199 question?
