1424447 - print preview missing on Mac

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Printing, defect)

Description

[Daniel Essin]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
Build ID: 20171128222554

Steps to reproduce:

Opened the file menu
Looked for Print Preview


Actual results:

It's not there


Expected results:

It should be there because the default print is so large that a small message fills multiple sheets of paper. In print preview I could have scaled ti more appropriately.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Happens in safe mode? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode-thunderbird
Anything on tools > error console?

Comment 2

[Daniel Essin]

Yes, there a ton of things in the error console but there is no way to copy/export the whole list and NO documentation about the location (presumed) of the log file that is used to populate the console.

As far as safe mode is concerned, yes, there is not Print Preview option on the File menu in either nornal or safe mode. It's also gone from Firefox 57, although there is a Firefox addon that puts it on the context menu. I haven't been able to find the .xpi for that addon and, therefore, have not been able to try it in TB.

I can send you a screenshot of the menu, if you don't believe me when I say say there is no Print Preview item.

I would have attached it here except there seems to be no option to do that either (unlike most other forums)

ALSO -

There is a persistent bug on the Mac versions that I reported a year ago. Some of the lies in the Error Console are very long. When attempting to grab the slider on the horizontal scroll bar to move it toward the right, the entire Error Console window moves, not the error entries. They will scroll to the right if I use a swipe-right gesture on the track pad and if I click in the white area of the scroll bar but NOT if I try to drag the scroll handle.

I first noticed this bug when trying to scroll the messages (in the past) and that is the error I reported. That feature now seems to work in the messages but the dysfunction is still present in the Error Console. I have never used the Console before this week so I can't say how it behaved a year ago. My guess is that the scrolling code is duplicated in each window and that whomever fixed the problem (if it is fixed) in the main window didn't check to see if there were other places that required the same fix.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Daniel Essin from comment #2)
> Yes, there a ton of things in the error console but there is no way to
> copy/export the whole list and NO documentation about the location
> (presumed) of the log file that is used to populate the console.
> 
> As far as safe mode is concerned, yes, there is not Print Preview option on
> the File menu in either nornal or safe mode. It's also gone from Firefox 57,
> although there is a Firefox addon that puts it on the context menu. I
> haven't been able to find the .xpi for that addon and, therefore, have not
> been able to try it in TB.

FWIW I have print preview in Firefox 58 beta and Thunderbird 59 nightly on Windows.


> I can send you a screenshot of the menu, if you don't believe me when I say
> say there is no Print Preview item.

It's more a matter of understanding. That said, there are no other reports of missing print preview with activity in the last 6 months of anything like this  https://mzl.la/2nLkn9b   So I think there is something wrong with your system.


> I would have attached it here except there seems to be no option to do that
> either (unlike most other forums)

"Attach File" - it's not well marked.

Comment 4

[Daniel Essin]

Print preview IS present on Windows 10.
It is missing from the menu on Mac High Sierra.
I am attaching screen shots from two different Macs

Comment 5

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Mac 1 - 2017-12-10 09.43.02.png

Comment 6

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Mac 2 - 2017-12-10_09-54-35.jpg

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Pretty convincing. 

Dossy and Albert, what do you make of this?

Comment 8

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

Attachment: firefox macos menu without print preview

Fairly sure there is no print preview on macOS. I remember that I was looking for it a while back (not printing much these days), while switching more often between windows and macOS. Attaching a screenshot from Firefox Nightly.

Comment 9

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

Attachment: firefox macos print settings with details expanded

No print preview in the print dialog in Firefox

Comment 10

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

Attachment: safari macos print settings with print preview

Safari has a print preview in its print dialog (hit cmd + p as in Firefox)

Comment 11

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

Currently I just use PDF > Open PDF in Preview, but the preview in Safari is clearly easier, so I filed bug 1424695 against core now.

Comment 12

[Daniel Essin]

I found that on one Mac I had installed “Toolbars and Buttons” in TB. I discovered that it has a Print Preview button which I added to the toolbar. Clicking that button brings up a print preview dialog. This proves that the function exists in TB and can be invoked.

The problem is that the PP option was omitted from the File menu.

It seems likely that the PP menu item could be added (restored) without much work. The js of the button does something like  doCommand(...., print-preview)

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

> It seems likely that the PP menu item could be added (restored) without much work. The js of the button does something like  doCommand(...., print-preview)

See Bug 1424695 comment 3 for why it was removed.

It's not clear to me we would restore it in THunderbird if the HIG indicates it shouldn't be.  (OTOH, Thunderbird users are known to do more printing than firefox users).

Comment 14

[Daniel Essin]

The addon is called ToolbarButtons. This is the code:
	CustomizableUI.createWidget({
		id: 'print-preview',
		type: 'custom',
		label: buttonStrings.get('print-preview.label'),
		tooltiptext: buttonStrings.get('print-preview.tooltip'),
		onBuild: function (document) {
			var window = document.defaultView;
			var toolbarbutton_0 = document.createElement('toolbarbutton');
			toolbarbutton_0.id = 'print-preview';
			toolbarbutton_0.setAttribute('label', buttonStrings.get('print-preview.label'));
			toolbarbutton_0.setAttribute('tooltiptext', buttonStrings.get('print-preview.tooltip'));
			toolbarbutton_0.setAttribute("command", "cmd_printpreview");
			toolbarbutton_0.classList.add("toolbarbutton-1");
			toolbarbutton_0.classList.add("chromeclass-toolbar-additional");
			return toolbarbutton_0;
		}
	});

Comment 15

[Daniel Essin]

Relative to whether it should be on the menu or not:
It's really annoying to print a mail and discover its coming out in 72point type, consumes 6-8 pages of paper and is basically unreadable. If there was to be only one menu item for printing I would make it show a preview (like the latest Safari does on high sierra and like chrome and vivaldi do).

Offering only the minimal, OS provided print dialog, is the least useful option, IMHO.

Thank you

Comment 16

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

I think, we shouldn't re-add the menuitem. No other Mac program I know, especially from Apple, have such.

What you could try, is to persuade the Mac core developers to add the preview like Safari or Mail have for more equality. But maybe this is a function which isn't accessible for non-Apple programs.

Comment 17

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 11.58.43.png

Comment 18

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 11.58.59.png

Comment 19

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 12.00.52.png

Comment 20

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 12.08.02.png

Comment 21

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 12.10.56.png

Comment 22

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Screenshot 2017-12-11 12.12.01.png

Comment 23

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Debian 9.jpg

Comment 24

[Daniel Essin]

I think that a decision to not offer the Print Preview (PP) is ill considered for the following reasons:
1 - the code is already there to display PP, why not use it?
2 - For the simplicity of the code base and the sanity of cross-platform users, the UI should be the same everywhere. See attached screenshot of TB on Debian 9, for example.
3 - If for some reason you have an objection to using code that already exists within TB, the other screenshots demonstrate that Apple's standard print dialog includes a preview and that it is available to all developers, not just Apple.
4 - One of the reasons for preferring apps like TB, Firefox and LibreOffice is that Big Brother is not standing there telling is what we can't do. The spirit of open source is to allow people to do what they want and need to do. So the question is, whose aesthetic sense is so offended by a PP item on the Mac menu (when it's acceptable on Windows and Linux) that something simple and useful should be omitted when it's offered on the other platforms and people have gotten used to having it available?

Comment 25

[:Dossy Shiobara]

-1 for adding a "Print Preview" menuitem.

+1 for using OSX's built-in "Print Preview" functionality in the NSPrintPanel object.

Relevant docs:

* https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Printing/osxp_flexible/osxp_flexible.html
* https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Printing/osxp_printpanel/osxp_printpanel.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000862-SW3
* https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nsprintpanelaccessorizing/1490516-keypathsforvaluesaffectingprevie

Comment 26

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

(In reply to Richard Marti (:Paenglab) from comment #16)
> What you could try, is to persuade the Mac core developers to add the
> preview like Safari or Mail have for more equality. But maybe this is a
> function which isn't accessible for non-Apple programs.

Thanks Marti, that would be great. That's what I opened Bug 1424695 for.

> +1 for using OSX's built-in "Print Preview" functionality in the NSPrintPanel object.

Daniel, Dossy, maybe you want to vote on Bug 1424695?

Comment 27

[Daniel Essin]

Attachment: Windows.jpg

Comment 28

[Daniel Essin]

The Print Preview is on the file menu already in Windows and Linux (see Debian.jpg and Windpws.jpg) AND the code to display the PP dialog is already in the base and it works on the mac if you can figure out how to invoke it. It's probably only 5-10 LOC to add (restore) the option to the menu. I don't understand the huge reluctance to doi it and make all platforms equal.

Comment 29

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Daniel Essin from comment #28)
> It's probably only 5-10 LOC to add (restore) the option to the menu. 

Unfortunately that's not the most relevant issue.

> I don't understand the huge reluctance to doi it and make all platforms equal.

Because for each OS, we try to follow the platform spec. AIUI, the spec for Mac is to not provide in the application what you are asking for.

It looks like firefox is opting for bug 219412 as a solution

Comment 30

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This should now work in version 91