Transparent fill in Visio shape is printed with solid fill in Office 2000 programs

When you print a file from a Microsoft Office 2000 program, and the file contains a Microsoft Visio drawing, shapes that contain transparent fill may be printed with solid fill.

This behavior may occur when all the following conditions are true:

• You create a Microsoft Excel 2000 workbook, a Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 presentation, or a Microsoft Word 2000 document.
• You paste a Visio drawing with a shape that is formatted with transparent fill in your Excel 2000 file, in your PowerPoint 2000 file, or in your Word 2000 file.
• You print the Excel 2000 file, the PowerPoint 2000 file, or the Word 2000 file to a PostScript printer.

When you paste a Visio drawing in an Excel 2000 file, in a PowerPoint 2000 file, or in a Word 2000 file, the drawing is pasted as a Windows Metafile (WMF). This behavior is a limitation of Windows Metafiles when you print to a PostScript printer.

To work around this behavior, use one or more of the following methods, as appropriate for your situation.

Method 1: Use Paste Special

Paste your Visio drawing as a Device-Independent bitmap. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Visio, and then open your drawing.
2. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
3. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
4. Start your Office 2000 program (Excel, PowerPoint, or Word), and then open your file.
5. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
6. In the Paste Special dialog box, click Device Independent Bitmap, and then click OK.

Method 2: Use a Later Version of Office

Paste your Visio drawing in a file from a version of Microsoft Office that is later than Office 2000. For example, use a Microsoft Office 2002 version of Excel, of PowerPoint, or of Word.

Note If you are using Office 2003, and the PostScript Passthrough option is disabled in your PostScript Printer driver options, the transparent fill in the Visio shape may be printed as a solid fill. Enable the PostScript Passthrough to determine whether it resolves the issue.

The PostScript Passthrough option is not available in all PostScript printer drivers. To see whether the printer supports this option, check the documentation of the printer. Alternatively, check with the manufacturer to see whether this option is available on the printer that you are using.

To check the value of the PostScript Passthrough option in the HP Universal Printing PS driver, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Printers and Faxes.
2. Right-click the printer that is using the HP Universal Printing PS driver, and then click Properties.
3. Click Device Settings.
4. If PostScript Passthrough is set to Disabled in Installable Options, change the setting to Enabled.

Method 3: Save the Visio Drawing As a Graphic File (Picture)

Save your Visio drawing as a picture, and then insert the picture in your Excel 2000 file, in your PowerPoint 2000 file, or in your Word 2000 file.

Method 4: Print to a Non-PostScript Printer

Print your file that contains the Visio drawing to a non-PostScript printer or to a Printer Control Language (PCL) printer.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: