Assuming that we have eliminated the printer and/or connections as the problem, and have found the OS blameless, only three possibilities remain: the document itself, a graphic or text element or a font. Our first step involves rechecking all print settings. In Pagemaker, you want to be sure that the final output printer is correctly named in the "Page Setup" dialog box. If your printer is a PostScript device, be sure that the correct PostScript version is specified in the print dialog box if that option is available. Double-check page range, odd/even pages, paper orientation and other settings your application may allow. If you are using a PostScript printer, you should be using PostScript, rather than TrueType, fonts. Indeed, I recommend using PostScript fonts exclusively for all purposes because PostScript fonts offer a monitor-specific file and a printer-specific file, rather than a dual-purpose file that tries to accomplish two purposes.

If you are attempting to print separations, all of your graphics must be in a standard format such as EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) or DCS (Digital Color Separation), and in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) color space unless you are using specific spot colors. If you are printing screened areas or grayscales as separations or camera-ready art, you want to disable your printer's enhanced grayscale feature and set this option to standard. Consult with your printer for the correct lpi/dpi specifications.

These are all strategies for preventing a printing problem from occurring in the first place, as well as troubleshooting tips to solve a problem. When sleuthing any computer problem, it can help to keep track of what is happening at every second of the process. Is the hard drive light blinking, indicating an alternate read/write situation, or is it glowing steadily, as it might if it is "looping" data? What can you deduce from the dialog boxes? On which page does the problem appear? When did the problem first appear? It could be related to new software you just installed or ran. You might have a hardware problem related to lack of free disk space. PostScript error messages can be a tremendous help, and I would like to discuss those at another time, due to lack of space here.

After checking the obvious, it is time to disable background printing and print spoolers. If you are printing over a network, bypass it. Try printing to disk and using a downloading utility to send a PostScript file directly. Recheck your printer driver to be sure that it is the latest version and reinstall it. Finally, you can save your file to disk and try printing from another computer that has the same application. If none of these solutions work, it is time to examine the file itself more closely.

Zoom out and clean up your artboard. Delete any elements that are not necessary to print this document, especially empty text boxes, picture frames, non-printing elements and "hidden" elements that you may have covered with another element. Use your program's "Save As" command to rewrite the file. The "Save" command merely adds the most recent changes whereas "Save As" overwrites the entire file. Try "Save As" to a new name. Open a new file and copy your elements to that one. Take advantage of any built-in diagnostic features your software offers, such as Adobe Pagemaker's Ctrl-Shift "Hyphenation..." Finally, it is time to start deleting pages until you narrow down the problem. You will eventually discover the offending element by trial and error. Then you must fix whatever is wrong with that particular element.

For example, recently I produced a legal-size, four-panel full-color brochure for a company that markets server hardware. The graphics were supplied by the client and consisted of JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) files downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site. The client specified high resolution output so I planned to save the files to disk and have film negatives output from a service bureau. My color proofs were RIPped by Splash to a 400 dpi Xerox 5751 laser copier/printer. Everything was acceptable until I tried to print separations. One graphic was simply absent on all four plates. This same graphic had given me grief earlier while I was laying out the brochure and the client had twice submitted new graphic. In each case, the graphic was downloaded from a Web site.

Let me offer a warning here. Artwork optimized for the Web is not usually suitable for print. In this case, the large physical size of the JPEG file partly overcame its low 72 dpi resolution so that it was printable, but this is not always true. I had three examples of artwork for this particular server, and none of them would separate. I had named them variously "V-class," Vclas," and "Vclass" and saved them as CMYK TIF files.

With a deadline looming, I was becoming desperate. I tried printing the graphic from Photoshop 5.0 and it was fine. So I scanned the picture, saved it as a TIF, and imported it back into the Pagemaker file. Still it would not print. This was a truly bizarre situation. Even if the file was corrupt to begin with, now I was dealing with toner on paper; the original file was not an issue. My thoughts began to turn to the supernatural when I had an inspiration. I tried one of the oldest tricks in the book of troubleshooting: I changed the name of the file. In fact, I changed the name to "Untitle." I placed the graphic, and the file separated flawlessly.

Now, even though this story has a happy ending, please don't ask me to explain why. I truly do not have a clue why changing the name of that file allowed it to print. After all, I had tried several names already, all variations of V-Class. Instead, I like to think that the moral here is that persistence pays off. I was ready to rip out my hair, with a deadline looming, but instead I kept plugging away at a solution until I found something that worked.