Word 97+: Some Printers Will Not Print Russian Characters

Problem: you can see a normal Russian on your screen in Word 97 and later versions, but when you print it, you see only some squares or some gibberish symbols instead of Russian on the paper.

Note. MS Excel 97 also may have such problem. Below is a link to Excel instruction on Microsoft site - article Q191191 in Microsoft Knowledge Base: Excel 97: Problems Printing Unicode (Extended) Characters.

The very first thing to try (same - if you have such trouble in any other Office application such as Excel) is to get the most recent printer software (printer drivers) - go to the Web site of your printer's manufacturer and download and install the up-to-date software.

If the above did not help, then try one of the following methods:

1. HP DeskJet printers

One method of solving this problem (other methods - in section 2 below):

go to folder Windows\System and find a file hpfcfg.exe
double-click on this file to execute it
Uncheck a check box called "Windows printing technology"
Put a check mark on a box called "Print True Type in a Graphic mode"

2. Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: Q159418:
Word 97: Some Printers Will Not Print Unicode Characters

There are no my own instructions below, it is a copy of the article Q159418 from the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

This Microsoft article
"WD97: Some Printers Will Not Print Unicode Characters"
is currently located here: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q159/4/18.asp
but because MS Web site is often being re-arranged, I provide below a copy of this article.

Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: Q159418

WD97: Some Printers Will Not Print Unicode Characters

Last Reviewed: January 22, 1999

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, you should first make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files in the Windows folder.

SYMPTOMS

If you print a document containing extended characters, such as Greek symbols, to certain printers using printer drivers that do not accept Unicode characters, the extended characters may be printed as square boxes even though they are displayed correctly on the screen.

The problem affects the following printers and printer drivers:

Canon BubbleJet BJ-C600, 4000, 4200, 4500, 4550, v 3.40
Canon Multipass 2500 3.40
Epson Color 500
Epson Stylus Color, v 2.x
Epson Stylus Pro / XL v. 2.11BE
HP Color LaserJet 5 PCL, printer driver version F 1.300
HP DeskJet 1600C, printer driver version 4.20
HP LaserJet 4 PCL, printer driver version 3.78
HP LaserJet 6P, standard printer driver
Okidata 4 laser printer

CAUSE

This problem occurs because these printer drivers do not provide support for Unicode characters.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use any of the following methods.

Method 1: Set a Print Flag

There is a flag (registry setting) for the printer driver that causes it to use American National Standards Institute (ANSI) character layout functions instead of Unicode character layout functions. When set correctly, this flag allows the printer driver to print the extended characters correctly. To set this flag, use the method appropriate for your version of Word.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows 95. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the Changing Keys And Values online Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Note that you should make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat) before you edit the registry.

Microsoft Word 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1):

(you can check your version via Help/About)

If you have installed Microsoft Word 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1), you can set one registry entry that applies to all installed printers. If you have the original (non-SR1) version of Word 97, see the "Word 97 (Non-SR1) Version" section later in this article instead.

To set the registry entry, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, click Run.

2. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) and then

   click OK.

3. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options

(for Word 2000 - 9.0 instead of 8.0 should be above)

4. Double-click the Options key to open it.

5. With the Options key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New and click

   String Value.

6. In the right pane, type "NoWideTextPrinting" (without the quotation

   marks), and press ENTER.

7. With NoWideTextPrinting selected, on the Edit menu, click Modify.

8. In the Value Data box, type the value "1" (without the quotation marks)

   and click OK.

9. On the Registry menu, click Exit, and then restart Word.

For additional information about SR-1, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q172475
   TITLE     : OFF97: How to Obtain and Install MS Office 97 SR-1

Word 97 (Non-SR1) Version:

If you have not yet installed Word 97 Service Release 1, but have the original (non-SR1) version of Word 97, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, click Run.

2. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) and then

   click OK.

3. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word

(for Word 2000 - 9.0 instead of 8.0 should be above)

4. Double-click the Word key to open it.

5. Under the Word key, click to select your printer name.

   NOTE: If your printer name is not displayed under the Word key, then
   follow these steps:

    a. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

    b. Start Word.

    c. On the File menu, click Print. Under Printer, select your printer in
       the Name list, and then click the Close button (the "x" on the right
       side of the title bar). If the appropriate printer is already
       selected, then click Cancel.

    d. On the Tools menu, click Options.

    e. Click the Print tab, and then click OK.

    f. Start method 1 again at step 1.

6. With the printer key selected, on the Edit menu, point to New, and click

   String Value.

7. In the right pane, type "Flags" (without the quotation marks), and press

   ENTER.

8. With Flags selected, on the Edit menu, click Modify.

9. In the Value box, type "8192" (without the quotation marks) and click

OK.

The printer should now print the extended characters correctly.

Method 2: Printer-Specific Workarounds

The following information describes workarounds that are available for specific printer drivers. Note that not all printer drivers may have a specific workaround (in this case, method 1 is the only available workaround).

HP DeskJet 1600C:

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers.

2. Click the HP DeskJet 1600C ColorSmart printer icon.

3. On the File menu, click Properties.

4. In the HP DeskJet 1600C ColorSmart Properties dialog box, click the

   Details tab, and then click the Setup button.

5. In the ColorSmart Setup dialog box, click the Advanced button.

6. In the Advanced dialog box, select "Use LaserJet III font scaling"

   and click OK to close each of the open dialog boxes.

HP LaserJet 4 Series PCL:

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Printers.

2. Click the HP LaserJet 4 printer icon.

3. On the File menu, click Properties.

4. From the HP LaserJet 4 Properties dialog box, click the Fonts tab.

5. In the Fonts dialog box, under True Type fonts, select "Print TrueType

   as graphics" and click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Word 97 for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

ASCII characters are represented by the values 0 to 127; ANSI includes ASCII but adds characters 128 through 255. In all languages, the ASCII characters are exactly the same, but characters 128-255 are used for characters specific to a language, based on the code page associated with the language. This approach handles the character differences for most languages in the world.

Some languages (specifically, East Asian languages such as Japanese Kanji, several dialects of Chinese, and Korean) cannot be represented with only 256 characters. The written characters in these languages are entire words rather than individual letters, so there are typically over 6000 different characters.

Unicode was introduced to handle these languages. Unicode uses two bytes per character, instead of the standard one byte per character.

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q159471
   TITLE     : Word 97: How to Install the Far East Support Files

   ARTICLE-ID: Q99884
   TITLE     : Unicode and Microsoft Windows NT

   ARTICLE-ID: Q130052
   TITLE     : Ideas to Remember as You Convert from ASCII or ANSI to
               Unicode

DeskJet 1600C, LaserJet 4, and Color LaserJet 5 are manufactured by Hewlett-Packard, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

For additional information on how to obtain technical support for Microsoft products if you are outside the United States, contact the Microsoft subsidiary for your area.

To locate your subsidiary, see the Microsoft World Wide Offices Web site at:

   http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/default.htm.

Or, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

     ARTICLE ID: Q49868
     TITLE: Microsoft International Subsidiary Technical Support

Last Reviewed: January 22, 1999