The ‘Shrink to fit’ option can cause some troubles for Outlook.
If you’ve been having trouble printing messages from Outlook then Microsoft has slipped a fix into place, in the guise of a security update.
Some people have reported the email header not printing or the entire message printing in tiny type.
Both these problems are caused by a faulty ‘Shrink to Fit’ printing option. Since Outlook (before Outlook 2007) uses Internet Explorer to display emails, a problem in IE flows through to Outlook.
Microsoft has released a ‘hotfix’ meaning an interim fix which has not been fully tested. You should only apply a hotfix to a computer with the specific problem. In the past, getting hotfixes was often a case of calling Microsoft, going a few rounds with tech support before being given access to the interim patch.
The May 2007 security update includes various hotfixes in the downloaded file. Despite some of the headings on KB articles, these problems can apply to several versions of Outlook – not just Outlook 2003. Outlook 2007 is NOT affected, because it doesn’t use Internet Explorer to display messages.
However the patches are not installed automatically, you have to manually apply the hotfix using the less than helpful instructions.
I know that these are interim fixes and not for general use – but this is the 21st Century. Microsoft can and should do better than instructions like this:
“Install a hotfix that updates any of the files that are included in the update package or cumulative security update package. Then, install the update package or the cumulative security update package for Internet Explorer 6. After you install the hotfix, the update installer or the cumulative security update installer will detect the hotfix file and install the hotfix version of the files in the package. “
See Also
- Printing a selection in Office
- December 2008 security patches for Office
- May 2007 security patches for Office – reference list
