Now impossible to print a catalogue for consumers

Discussion in 'Bug Reporting' started by AotrsCommander, Oct 4, 2012.

  1. AotrsCommander
    AotrsCommander Well-Known Member
    I used to be able to, when going to a convention, be able to print off my catalogue from the "my models" page, so that I could tell my potential customers - most of whom have never heard of 3D printing, or certainly not as a viable consumer concept - how much an item costs, so they have some idea. Previously, the costs on "my models" pages were the costs including mark-up, so I could just print them all off and be done with it. Job done, move onto the next job.

    Now, not only are all the costs on my models pages sans mark-up - which, while it makes it easier for me to place an order, it makes finding out what the prices-including-mark-up for consumers much harder - (it would be really useful to be able to toggle between the two for exactly this purpose), but most annoyingly of all, the prices, when the page is printed in grid format, are obscured by an invisible white line that cuts them off half-way through (see attached picture), rendering the excercise pointless (and in list format, taking up far too much space, most of which is just wasted). I can only assume this is some sort function of the price-display script on the webpage that the printers are incapable of dealing with. I have a catalogue of over 150 models now, and going through to manually find all the consumer prices and write them down with a pen is not only a very long and tiresome job, but looks very unprofessional as well.

    Unfortunately, by this point, given bugs and glitches that crop up even on the business end of the website, I do not realistically expect this problem to be addressed; but I do feel it necessary to at the very least, voice my concerns, as once again, like every "improvement" made to the shop-side-interface of Shapeways in the last twelve months, it has made a task that was formerly quick and easy much more time consuming or in some cases, flat-out impossible. It is extremely frustrating to be out trying to promote not just my models, but Shapeways itself and the technology (especially as I get nothing for it), and then to find it more and more tedious and annoying to run my shop, with an often clunky, and distressingly frequently buggy interface, that is frequently functionally inferior to the one used prior to October last year (for minimal to no aesthetic gain).
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    Thanks for the input! We are looking to make the site easier to use for all, so we'll check into a switch to show with markups. A work around would be to log out and then go to your shop so you would see what your customers see.
     
  3. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
  4. AotrsCommander
    AotrsCommander Well-Known Member
    I got as far as that (it's not as ideal as the my models page, because the density of entries is lower, and spacing doesn't print very well); and while somewhat less than ideal, I thought it might do; until I printed the first set out and that was the point I discovered the prices weren't printing properly (as shown in the afore-attached picture).

    In the very immediate short-term (as I have this year's last big show at the weekend), my habit of using old wargames paper as scrap before recycling it paid off, as I was able to find in the scrap-box the catalogue I printed out in June. Not ideal, as it doesn't have the latest stuff, but it's at least something for the moment.