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HP PageWide Printing Problem [UPDATED]

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UPDATE Nov 1, 2021: A recent firmware update for the HP PageWide 477 appears to have fixed the printing problem. The firmware is version MAVEDWPP1N001.2142A.00, and it is dated 2021-10-13.

Are you a Mac user who is experiencing a bug when printing from Microsoft Office applications to your HP PageWide printer? Even when you save from Office as a PDF and then try to print that PDF?

You are probably getting boxed question marks instead of text characters.

If so, the this might help.

A Laborious Workaround, But It Works.

This allows me to print without uninstalling my PageWide print drivers. I still need my printer’s scanning functionality, so replacing my PageWide drivers with a simple PostScript driver is not an option.

  1. With an Office document open, click the File pull-down menu and click Print.
  2. In the Print dialog box, find and click the PDF drop-down menu in the lower left.
  3. From that menu, click Save as PostScript.
  4. In the Save dialog box, provide a name for this file (maintain the .ps extension), and save it to a temporary location (perhaps the Desktop).
  5. Once the file saves, find it and right-click it.
  6. Hover over Open With, the click Preview.

The Preview app will open that PostScript file and convert it to a PDF. Print from the Preview app. Important: This conversion process from PostScript to PDF will allow the Office document to print to your PageWide printer. Printing to PDF from the Office app will still print the boxed question marks.

After you’re done printing, you can delete that PostScript file.

My 2 Cents

Dear HP: Shame on you for preventing customers of your expensive printers from printing Office documents. It’s completely unacceptable.

Security is Probably Why: A couple of months back, Microsoft had to completely overhaul it’s print mechanism due to a significant security threat. I suspect this could be the root reason why we poor Mac users are dealing with this nasty print bug. I could be totally wrong, though. But the coincidence seems suspicious.

Fix a Slow Spotlight on Your Mac

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I updated my 2018 Mac mini to macOS Big Sur, and then Spotlight’s performance tanked. If you’re in the same boat I was, here is your answer.

Attached to my Mac is an external drive that I use for Time Machine backups. When this drive is attached, Spotlight slogs through most of my inquiries, especially inquiries for definitions and weather. I would wait 10 to 15 seconds for Spotlight to render its answers. When I ejected that external drive, then Spotlight returned to its spry self with nearly instant responses.

So the Time Machine drive is the culprit, but we still need backups.

Thankfully, the fix is fairly simple. Just prevent Spotlight from looking at the Time Machine drive.

  1. Go to System Preferences/Spotlight.
  2. Click the Privacy tab.
  3. Click the + button.
  4. Navigate to the Time Machine drive and select it.
    (Be sure to select the top-level drive and not any of its folders or subfolders.)
  5. Click Choose.

macOS will reindex briefly, and then Spotlight performance should be significantly improved.

Fix: macOS Mail Disconnects from Gmail

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I use macOS Mail in Catalina, and I noticed a frequent issue with my Gmail account disconnecting and not updating messages for that account. This would occur at least daily.

My research suggests that this repeated disconnection could be related to the fact that I did not have the Google Calendar synchronizing (I actually use iCloud Calendar for better Siri integration). After I configured my Mac to sync the Google Calendar, the connection issue with Gmail seems to have been resolved.

But what if you don’t want the Google Calendar entries cluttering your macOS Calendar? Thankfully, that’s a fairly easy fix, too.

Sync Your Google Calendar

  1. On your Mac, open System Preferences.
  2. Click Internet Accounts.
  3. Click Gmail.
  4. Verify that Calendars are set to synchronize. If needed, click to add that checkmark.

Hide Google Calendar Entries

  1. On your Mac, open macOS Calendar.
  2. In the upper left, find and click the Calendars button.
  3. In the list, uncheck all the boxes under the Gmail section.

Hope this works for you!

Use AppCleaner to Really Uninstall an App

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Price: FREE
Developer Website

Removing apps from a Mac is very simple. You just move it to the Trash.

But what about all the supporting data and settings your computer uses with that app? Surprisingly, these little tidbits are usually left behind. And after a while, these little tidbits add up and can create performance or storage issues. And manually removing these small files requires rooting around in a set of very unintuitive folder structures that are actually hidden by default.

AppCleaner makes all this drudgery unnecessary.

Open AppCleaner. Open the Application folder in Finder. Then just drag and drop the app you want to remove onto the AppCleaner window.

AppCleaner will generate a report that includes the app and its supporting elements. Oftentimes, AppCleaner will not include the supporting elements that hold your custom personal settings. These elements would be beneficial if you were to install the app again later. If you don’t plan to install again, you can just check those remaining items to be included in the removal process.

Click Remove. Provide your Mac password if prompted. And you’re done, and it’s gone.

I’m getting rid of an outdated installation of Reeder

Identify Suspicious Email Messages

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I have family members who are sharing concerns with me about alarming email messages they receive from time to time. They’ve even admitted interest in messages that congratulate them for winning unexpected prizes.

Oh, boy…

I’m hoping this post can help people examine these messages and avoid negative consequences. Please share or discuss this matter with your friends and loved ones who could be vulnerable to these sorts of exploits.

As a seasoned email user, I can usually spot a suspicious message quickly. Poor grammar. Choppy sentence structure. And poor quality images of company logos.

Recently, I received a phishing message that impressed me with its design. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t the usual mess, either.

Let’s examine impressive parts of the message:

  1. The message begins with a decent PayPal logo image.
  2. The overall design layout looks professional. The white message body and gray footer area are typical of professional designs.
  3. Most of the text reads fairly well, especially if you are skimming because you’re alarmed.
  4. The last paragraph encourages the reader to seek assistance by clicking Contact on PayPal web pages. This is subtle. You might drop your guard if the message clearly states you can seek assistance in a way other than clicking links inside the message.

Let’s look at the suspicious parts of the message:

  1. The “Your Payment Processed Has Been Declined” is the first indication of a bogus message.
  2. I am addressed as “Dear Client”. This is not immediately suspicious, but if you look at the footer, you’ll see that my correct email was used. If PayPal had my email, then they probably know my name and would use in the message greeting.
  3. The first paragraph has odd sentence structure.
  4. The second paragraph includes a capitalized “Please” in the middle of a sentence.
  5. The blue button reads “Review Your’s Accounts”. And it is not properly vertically centered between the paragraphs.
  6. The third and fourth paragraphs do not have white space between them like that between the first and second paragraphs.
  7. The salutation “Sincerely” seems more personal than professional given the message’s subject matter.
  8. Here’s the biggest clue for me: I don’t actually have a PayPal account.

Don’t fall for this stuff. Think twice or even three times before you take an action on a message designed to frighten you.

HP PageWide Printer Error

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I recently purchased a Hewlett Packard PageWide 477dw printer. This product offers interesting new, more efficient printing technology with output every bit as good as a LaserJet.

But concerns emerged literally right out of the box. I plugged it in, and it immediately displayed an error message.

Perhaps “Hide” Should Read As “Run & Hide”

Printing functionality is disabled. Please contact HP.
Error code: 0xc6fd0802

[You might also be interested in a solution for Mac users experiencing boxed questions marks when printing Office documents.]

I researched a found only a single abandoned HP Support forum thread. So I unplugged and replugged, and that seemed to fix the issue.

Or so I thought.

I kept coming back about every 10 to 15 days. Solving always required unplugging and replugging. And web searches only ever found that one abandoned thread I mentioned earlier.

Cringingly, I called HP Support. And I was pleasantly surprised. They gave me a few pointers that I knew wouldn’t work (I suspect they felt the same way). But at the end of the call, they did not close my support ticket. They promised to call back after a few days. And they did. On that call, I confirmed the error had not returned, and I asked them to keep the case open. And they did. A week later, they called, I said there had been no error, and they asked if they could close the case. Hesitantly, I agreed.

The next day, the error returned! Figures.

I called HP Support, gave them the closed case number … and they immediately agreed to send a replacement.

I am impressed. HP came through for me.

I hope anyone suffering through this problem can find this page and get to a similar satisfactory resolution.

Keyboard and Mouse Utilities For macOS That Windows Users Will Love

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Finger at Keyboard

A year ago, I decided to move from Windows to Mac. As an iPhone user, this made sense. My mobile and desktop computing resources integrated very well and solved a lot of workarounds and incompatibilities that plagued me as a Windows user. And to be brutally honest, I got tired of fixing my Windows machine. Macs are not perfect (by a LONG shot), but they’re predictable which makes them more dependable.

Problem

Being a long-time Windows user, I brought a lot of muscle memory problems and habits with me as I started the Mac. Since I must use Windows for work, I have a KVM to share keyboard, mouse, and monitors. So I use a Windows keyboard and PC mouse with my Mac.

Here were my biggest problems:

  1. I like using the Forward and Back buttons on my mouse, especially for navigating websites. (On Macs, these mouse buttons are dead.)
  2. I prefer natural scrolling on the MacBook trackpad and directional scrolling on the mouse wheel. (On Macs, you are prevented from configuring these differently. It’s bewildering.)
  3. I like to press the Home and End keys to go to the beginning and end of a text line, respectively. (On Macs, these actions take the cursor to the top or bottom of the message body.)
  4. Closely related to the above, I like to press Shift+Home and Shift+End to select (aka, highlight) text to the beginning and end of a text string respectively. (On Macs, these actions take the text selection to the top or bottom of the message body.)

As any Windows user will tell you, Macs don’t work that way.

Solutions

I tried to get used to it. I really did. But in the end muscle memory won, and Mac lost. But not without some help.

Scroll Reverser

Scroll Reverser Preferences Panel

This utility is simple, and it’s free.

Scroll Reverser breaks the connection between the mouse scroll setting and the trackpad scroll setting. It allows me to have directional scrolling when I use mouse, and natural scrolling when I use the trackpad. Perfect!

Learn more about Scroll Reverser.

BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool Configuration Panel

This utility is a fairly simple power user’s tool, and it costs $4.99 (or more if you wish) with a 45-day trial period.

BetterTouchTool (BTT) allows you to override default actions on your keyboard, mouse (including Magic Mouse), trackpad, MacBook Pro TouchBar, and even the Siri Remote. I leverage the keyboard and mouse functionality. My mouse navigation buttons work in any application with a navigation history (web browsers, Finder, etc.). My keyboard brings familiar behavior to the Home and End keys. What a relief!

Quick Tip: Like any power user tool, the interface could be confusing to some. When adding a new shortcut or key sequence, click into the text fields and then press the keys. BTT will record the key or key combination. As you click into the text fields, you are also offered commands in a pop-up list. At first, I thought those listed commands were the only ones available.

Learn more about BetterTouchTool.

Degraded Sound Quality on CarPlay When Using Waze

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Waze, a Sad Face Emoji, CarPlay, and Music

Waze recently updated its app with several new features including a nice new feature where you can get the app’s attention by saying “Okay, Waze.” But it might have a downside.

I have a car stereo with Apple CarPlay, but I still prefer to use Waze rather than Apple Maps. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow third-party apps to draw graphics on the stereo’s screen via CarPlay. So I have a setup that allows me to see Waze on my phone while playing music or podcasts over CarPlay.

One day, I noticed that when I switched the phone to Waze, the music sound quality tanked. If I switched back to any CarPlay-enabled app, the sound became noticeably better. Finally, it occurred to me that I had updated Waze and enabled it to listen for “Okay, Waze.”

I turned off that feature, and the sound degradation issue ceased. I could switch to and from Waze without the sound quality suffering.

Granted, this is a fairly unique circumstance, but it might save someone somewhere a frustrating headache.

Allow Certain Contacts to Reach You During Do Not Disturb

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Do Not Disturb icon above a starry night sky with the Phone app icon in a thought bubble

You probably want a some people to reach you even when your iPhone’s Do Not Disturb is on. You can easily set your Phone app’s Favorites to have this privilege, but it might not be the most efficient method. Each entry in your Favorites can hold only one phone number. So if one person has two numbers (for example, a mobile and land line), then you need two entries in your Favorites. This can quickly clutter your Favorites list.

There is a better way: Create a Contact Group and then allow calls from the group.

Doing this allows any phone number from that contact to call through. No more separate entries from cell and land line numbers. And adding a new contact to the group at any time means that contact can reach you even when Do Not Disturb is on.

The only catch here is that you cannot create Contact Groups on your iPhone. Sigh!

The setup process is not too difficult. You can use the Contacts app on your Mac or you can use the web-based iCloud.

Using Your Mac

  1. Open the Contacts app.
  2. Click the File pull-down menu from the Task Bar.
  3. Click New Group.
  4. Type the name of your new group. I chose to use “DND Allow”.
  5. Drag and drop individual contacts from All Contacts to your new group.

Contacts on Mac

Using iCloud

  1. Log into your iCloud.com account using your web browser.
  2. Click or tap into the Contacts app.
  3. Click the plus (+) symbol at the bottom of the left pane.
  4. Click New Group.
  5. Type the name of your new Contact Group. I chose to use “DND Allow”.
  6. Drag and drop individual contacts from All Contacts to your new group.

Contacts on iCloud

Remember: You will need to maintain the Contacts in this group using iCloud.com or your Mac.

Configure Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Swipe down and tap on Do Not Disturb.
  3. Swipe down to Phone and tap Allow Calls From.
  4. Under Groups find your new Contact Group and tap it. A checkmark should appear to the right.

Do Not Disturb on iPhone

That should do it. Best of luck!

Freeware: Scroll Reverser

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Scroll Reverser Logo

There’s a difference when you want to use your mouse scroll wheel and your MacBook’s trackpad. I use my MacBook Pro as my main computer, connected to dual monitors and external keyboard and mouse. When I disconnect from all that, I use its keyboard and trackpad. And I want to use the trackpad different(ly).

When I spin the mouse’s scroll wheel down, I prefer the window contents to go downward. When I use two fingertips and swipe upward, I prefer the window contents to also go downward. It’s just natural to me, and it keeps my muscle memory in line with my required usage of Windows.

Apple disagrees. If you set the trackpad for natural scrolling, it also sets it for your mouse. You know, for convenience… In other words, macOS prevents you from mixing these settings even though they are separate settings. Grrr.

Scroll Reverser Settings

Scroll Reverser is the solution. The settings are simple. Then use your mouse the way you want, and then use your trackpad the way you want.

And Scroll Reverser is free.