[Flex] NSF Fastlane Printing Issue

[Helen Gordon]

Dear Gang:

We have all been stumped by what/how something has changed in Fastlane's 
PDF creation of the whole proposal and even of proposal pieces. While we 
do not have definitive answers from NSF about Why, we do know What and 
How to Work Around!

When we upload documents, PDF or otherwise, and then go to print either 
pieces or the entire proposal, NSF has a routine it runs to take all the 
individual pieces and make them be one big PDF file. Our browsers use 
Acrobat as the plugin to view the resulting PDF.

Something undetermined as of yet that is going on at NSF is making the 
code in the NSF generated PDF files blow up when sent to PostScript 
printers from Adobe Acrobat.

So...
Please do the following:

1. you can print to a non-Postscript printer from Acrobat and usually be 
fine. Disadvantage: Slow and Costly as far as ink & paper. Doesn't work 
for Mac Users. Not everyone has a NonPostScript Printer available.

2. (RECOMMENDED METHOD!): when you click the the View/Print button on 
Fastlane, and the PDF file opens in your browser,
  a. Save file to your hard disk and give it a meaningful name (sample: 
PO11234.00Beardsley.pdf)
  b. Open Ghostview (You will find it under Ghostscript or Ghostgum on 
your Start-Programs-All Programs list)
  c. In Ghostview, File-Open select the PDF file you need to print.
  d. Print as normal to your zippy highspeed double sided  (or other) 
PostScript Printer.


MAC Users: Jason has found that Preview works instead of Acrobat for 
printing these NSF generated PDFs.

Thanks for your patience during this. We will continue to communicate 
with NSF about this issue.

Helen