Gerry wrote:

> 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!
>

The macros that should be checked are those being enabled in Office
2000. While there is a Winfax macro that facilitates the faxing of a
word document, Word macros, in many instances, will modify the global
features through the normal.dot template. If this is allowed, then it
is conceivable that selecting the Winfax print driver can make it the
new default printer. Perhaps best not to put the Winfax macro into
Office and rely on the manual method of (a) choosing the default
printer in the Printers applet, (b) selecting whatever printer to print
the document through the File>>Print route, and (c) saving the document
and exiting Word.