278138 - printing with frame

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[olivier]

printing a page that is composed of frames can be impossible to normal user.
If the page is separated in two frame and the user wants to print the lower one
and that this frame is more than one page long, the printout will only be one page.

The only work around is to display the frame in another window or frame via the
contextual menu.

A better solution would be to detect frames and the fact that one of the frame
is larger than a one page print out, then ask the user how he wants to proceed.
Maybe better would be to directly print the whole length of the two frames,
leaving the top frame at the top of the print out. because most of the time, it
will be what the user want to do.

Comment 1

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

this is more general to mozilla than camino.

Comment 2

[David Stembridge]

When printing an individual frame on a secure site; such as banking site, the
frame must be reloaded as "show only this frame to print"BUT, the frame won't
load alone because it is secure. On Safari and Explorer, you can print just an
individual frame. Firefox, and Netscape do not offer this feature. BTW, I'm
using Firefox/1.0.6 on Mac OS 10.3.9

Comment 3

[Luke Brannon]

I confirm this issue with Firefox vMozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7 and also with v1.5RC1

Also confirmed with 1.1.

This problem becomes a major issue within webmail clients that use frames to display their messages, specifically on the Mac platform.

The work around is to go into the print dialog box and select Firefox from the drop down menu select "The Selected Frame" from the Frames options.  Unfortunately this is grossly unintuitive as 1. the average user rarely is aware that you can set program specific options from the print dialog; and 2. one you've gotten to the print dialog box, do you know which frame has been selected; 3. this is completely opposite from how Firefox on Windows OS works.

On Windows, Firefox defaults to print the selected frame and from the print dialog box it is obvious this is what you are doing.

Here are four ways to rectify the situation:

1.  Rt. click in the frame to bring up a contextual menu.  Under the "This Frame" menu include "Print this Frame."

2.  Under the File menu add: Print This Frame.

3.  Default the print option to print the current frame

4.  Default the print dialog to open to the Firefox options. 

It is critical that this be resolved as this becomes a major issue in areas such as computer labs.

Comment 4

[Eric Hattemer]

>Also confirmed with 1.1.

Sorry, I had Luke add that in.  It should have said Firefox 1.0.1

Comment 5

[Eric Hattemer]

Please change OS to Mac OSX.  Firefox on Windows defaults to printing individual frames, and makes it obvious to what it is doing on the front page of the print options window.  Although all platforms could use a "This Frame / Print this Frame"

Comment 6

[Luke Brannon]

This bug remains in Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Comment 7

[u84638]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Please change OS to Mac OSX.  Firefox on Windows defaults to printing
> individual frames, and makes it obvious to what it is doing on the front page
> of the print options window.  Although all platforms could use a "This Frame /
> Print this Frame"

The print preview still defaults to showing the whole page in Windows, too, which I consider as inconsistent behaviour. There is no frame selection provided in the print preview. I would consider the following as consistent for all platforms:
- Both print dialog and print preview provide the 3 print frames options
- Print/print preview command via file menu or keyboard shortcut default to the whole page
- "This frame" context menu provides both "Print this frame" and "Print preview for this frame" which default to this frame of course.

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

do you see this issue still with version 3.6 or 4.0 beta?

Comment 9

[Stephanie Daugherty [:sdaugherty]]

No resonse to needed info. -> incomplete