Thursday, January 22, 2009



I had an issue lately where a user was unable to print from an email in her Inbox. She would open up the email she wanted to print, select file, then print. The print option would not open. It was if she did not hit the print button at all. All the other applications would print ok. It was just inside an open email that would not print.

Below are steps I used to attempt to resolve the issue. I will state right now that she had other OS issues going on so her problem was not resolved. However I did find some good articles and steps to take which may prove more fortunate to others.

First and foremost, I found that I was unable to select different printers in the print option of the email. All the printers were greyed out. It was only after I selected ‘Table mode’ that I was able to switch between other printers. I did not want to print the email in table mode though. I needed the memo mode.

Next I attempted simple techniques. I attempted reinstalling the printer, I tried right clicking the email in the list and selecting print. It was if the memo option for printing did not exist. I did find an obscure Microsoft KB [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;821297] indicating that there was a known bug for the issue.

I was not about to give up there. I found an Experts-Exchange post which included steps in repairing what seemed to be the exact issue I was having.

Try starting Outlook once with the /cleanviews command line switch.

It could be a problem with your outlprnt file, which you can rebuild:
1. Close Outlook.
2. Click Start > Search.
3. Select All files and folders.
4. In the All or part of the file name box type “Outlprnt” (without the quotes) and then click Search.
5. When the search process is complete, right-click Outlprnt, and then click Rename.
6. Type Outlprnt.old, and then press ENTER.
7. Close the Search window.
8. Restart Outlook 2003.
9. On the File menu, point to Page Setup, and then click Print Styles.
10. Click the Memo style, and then click Close.

If those don’t work, I’d have to suggest a repair/reinstall.

The suggestion from Experts Exchange seemed like it was going to work, however when I attempted a search, I found that the search function on this user’s PC was corrupt and missing. That’s when I decided to reinstall the PC all together.

Although I did not resolve my issue, I hope the steps above will help others with the same problem. I think the ‘Outlprnt’ may have been the issue, however I was unable to verify that problem on my end.