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Should you search your text for some reference that might have slighted your computer? Should you purge your document of all profane language?
Though both of these suggestions might be good ideas, they are unlikely to help with your printing problem. To resolve this situation, you must exercise your troubleshooting skills. I will use Adobe Pagemaker 6.5 for Windows to illustrate this article, but most of these comments will be applicable to other page layout or word processing applications. I will walk through the entire print process, rather than addressing only the specific error message mentioned in the opening paragraph.
First, look at the document itself. Are all page elements completely on the page? Are your graphics in a format acceptable to your application? Have you included a graphic with a file size so large that your system cannot handle it? Have you installed and loaded all the fonts used in your document?
Next, look at your hardware. Are all connections secure? Is your printer indicating that it is ready to print? Are all switches set to the correct position? Do you have the correct paper loaded into the correct tray?
Now we can examine the print dialog box. Have you selected the correct printer and, if it is a Postscript printer, the correct .ppd? Is the orientation and page range, including odd/ even/ both pages, correct? Is the correct tray selected?
If all your settings are correct, and your document does not print, you must test the printer by sending a simple text-only document. Open a new document, type "This is a test" and send to print. If such a simple document fails to print, the problem lies with the system or the printer and is beyond the purview of this article. If your results are positive, the problem is likely with your document, and that is what I am addressing here. We must look at your document anew.
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First, try printing individual pages. If some print and some do not, you know that individual elements are causing the problem. If no page prints, and you are using Pagemaker, hold down the shift and alt keys (Wintel), or shift and option keys (Mac), and select from the overhead menu Type, Hyphenation. This is a built-in repair feature unique to Pagemaker that searches the document for corrupted data. If you shortly hear one beep, no damage was found. If you hear two beeps, damage was found and repaired and you should Save As... your document, close it, reopen it, then send your print job again. If you hear three beeps, unrepairable damage was found. In this case, you should open a new file, cut and paste your page elements to the new pages and run the repair feature again.
To determine which elements are causing the print problem, you must examine the document page by page. Start with page one, move any suspicious elements to the pasteboard and send page one to print. Likely culprits are large graphics, graphics in an unusual format, and type with unusual fonts. If you cannot print a blank page, with the "Print Blank Page" feature in the print dialog box enabled, there is likely a problem outside your document and the bounds of this article. If you continue to hear three beeps when you run the repair feature, your document may, sadly, be unrecoverable.
If you can print a blank page, you will eventually be able to print this piece. Continue to troubleshoot by moving page elements to the pasteboard and sending that page to print. Eventually, you will discover the offending element. If it turns out to be a damaged font, simply use another. If the offending element is a graphic, you may have to substitute a different graphic unless you can correct the problem in a separate graphics manipulation application. If your document finally prints, but incorrectly, stay tuned for a future article on that subject.
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