Force-change the default printer in a Pages '08 file

Oct 10, '08 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: jehrler

When printing a Pages '08 document, it kept reverting to an older printer that was the one I used when I originally created the file. This kept happening even though I'd set my new printer set as the default in the Print & Fax System Preference panel. Grrr. I then tried changing the Format For: Printer in the Page Setup dialog and saving the changes. That worked if the file stayed open, but if I closed and reopened the document, it would go back to the old, original printer. Grrrr again.

I finally got so frustrated I created a copy of the file. Then I selected the copy, Control-clicked on it, and chose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. I found, among others, the following file: index.xml.gz. I opened this file in TextWrangler and searched for the brand of the old printer (Konica). This is the only entry I found:

<sl:printer sfa:ID="NSPrinter-0" sl:type="KONICA MINOLTA magicolor 2430 DL"/>
I created a new document with the new printer I now wanted it to default to. Saved that file, opened its bundle, searched its index.xml.gz for my new printer, and found this:
<sl:printer sfa:ID="NSPrinter-0" sl:type="Brother HL-5250DN series CUPS"/>
I copied the Brother entry and used it to replace the Konica entry in the index.xml.gz from the copy of the original file. I saved the changes and then double-clicked on that Pages document. After it opened, I chose Print and, voila, my new printer was now the default.

[robg adds: I recall having issues with Pages remembering the proper printer, but I never dug into it to try to find a fix. I haven't tested this fix, because I haven't seen this problem here lately.]

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