[Solved] Page Preview

[DaveOR]

For some reason page preview is always grayed out - What is the fix?

I am also experiencing this with OOo.org.
It happened a while back and then mysteriously cured itself.
It has just happened again. The symptoms are:
One or more sheets can be seen but some are greyed out and nothing I do will let me see them.
This last occasion the following happened:
I have a main sheet which contains all my data, which displays OK.
I then created a second sheet from the first by copying some of the cells - this one will not display in preview.
Very frustrating.
DaveOR
Worse still I now find I can't print any of the greyed out preview pages either

Edit: Split from initial topic that was about Writer. Hagar (moderator).

[DaveOR]

I think I've solved the problem.
If you start a spreadsheet and simply go to preview it will display OK.
If however you define a print range (Formay/Print Range/Define) which has no cells with any contents, then the display will be greyed out.
I think this can happen automatically if you import a file from another sheet or program.
Therefore in order to preview your sheet you must define an appropriate cell area on the target sheet.
This is different from the way Microsoft XL works - it displays a blank page, which is much more sensible!
DaveOR

[acknak]

Hey, great catch, Dave! Thanks for posting your solution.

... [Excel] displays a blank page, which is much more sensible!

Maybe more sensible, but it still doesn't seem very helpful. Neither behavior really gives you any clue what the problem is. Maybe Calc could include some sort of hint on the preview page: "The configured print range is empty."

In any case, you can register with the OOo issue tracker and file an enhancement request: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions

[djenner]

This problem occurs in both LibreOffice and OpenOffice and has to do, I suspect, with some Win7 update.

[palamino]

well the answers did not work for me as I do not have that define print range option under format. I stumbled upon the answer of the greyed out page preview so I had to join the forum just to tell you. Under view in my version, if you have web layout selected the page preview is greyed out. If you select instead print layout under the View menu, then the page preview is available