Complicated problem involving Windows XP SP3, WinFax Pro 10. Excel 2000,
Word 2000 and printers upon which I would some help.

The problem became apparent this morning when I selected WinFax in the
drop down File menu in a Word document. Normally this sends an
attachment to WinFax Pro. You add the name of the recipient and their
fax number and click on Send. This morning clicking on WinFax in Word
generated a Runtime Error 5140 -Word cannot Print. There is no printer
installed.

After nosing around I decided to uninstall WinFax Pro and then had a lot
of difficulty reinstalling. Eventually I succeeded. I can now send and
receive faxes but when received the faxes no longer automatically print.
Before uninstalling WinFax Pro I was able to send and receive faxes. The
automatic printing of faxes also worked this morning but it may have not
worked after I encountered the first problem as I only sent faxes after
the problem occurred.

The problem would seem to revolve around the system knowing what is the
Active Printer at any given time. Thus if you select Print the system
bring ups WinFax as the Printer and then trying to print produces the
Error. If you change the choice of printer to HP Laserjet 1200 the
document prints.

It is apparent that clicking on WinFax in a Word or Excel document
generates a macro which sets WinFax as the active and default printer
and after putting the document in the WinFax message as an attachment
it should restore the HP Laserjet as the default printer. The latter
does not happen.

One other Error message has been noted "Error on WinFax on Ne01.." Three
possible causes are mentioned. One mentions macros. Searching in Google
with WinFax + Ne01 as the criteria threw up the reference to macros and
Active Printers.

I have tried and failed to open what I take to be the macro. It is
locked and will not open. I renamed the macro in the XL Start folder to
old and copied a new one to replace it. It made no difference.

I tried System Restore but could only go back one day. It made no
difference. Further research suggested I might need to go back as far as
16 May as that is when I last used this particular facility. Between now
and yesterday I have updated Windows XP to SP3 and updated AVG from 7.5
to 8. Also I have installed Vista as a dual booting option.

My feeling now is that the macro itself may not be the problem. I have
checked both AVG 8 Free and Spybot S & D and found no evidence that they
have intervened. Other macros created by me for use with Excel still
work.

After writing this long epistle can anyone suggest how I might find out
what is preventing the macro from completing and returning the default
status from WinFax to the HP Laserjet printer? As far as I can see the
macro is unchanged so I think it must be something that controls
changing what is the default printer. I do not what this is!

~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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