How to Print USPS Shipping Labels in Snow Leopard 10.6
I remember having a similar problem when Leopard came out… trying to print a label from usps.com would look like it’s working but the print dialog box would never appear.
There soon came a workaround, clicking the bottom left corner of the screen (a hidden button, basically) would allow the label to be opened in Preview.
With 10.6, this no longer seems to work. And, I couldn’t find any workaround using Safari or Firefox, it seems neither work correctly (probably because of usps’s javascript).
The solution is to use the web browser Opera. I’ve never needed or used Opera before because Safari or Firefox worked for every website. But now with 10.6, I’ll be keeping Opera around in case a situation like this happens again.
You can download the latest version of Opera 10 here.
Popularity: 3% [?]
I was also having this problem and found the USPS site with Opera is throwing JS warning on every page that “You are using opera and should use netscape or ie”. To end this warning go to the USPS site and do the following:
1. Ctrl+click on the page.
2. Edit Site Preferences
3. Click on the “Network” tab.
4. Change the bottom to “Mask as Firefox”.
Then the USPS site thinks you’re in Firefox and doesn’t kick you out the warning.
sweet – good find jesse!
thanks!
Another workaround…
Use Firefox and it’ll download a file named com.usps.cns….yadda yadda.
If you rename that file as a .pdf, it’ll open in preview. Works great.
I found a workaround!
If you add this as a bookmark (**had to add line break so the line would fit in page**ADMIN):
javascript:window.open(document.getElementById
(“iframeTable”).getElementsByTagName(“iframe”)[0].src); it will open a new window with the PDF file. YAY!
Well, I was just testing Rodger’s javascript and I think the USPS actually fixed the problem themselves. Without opening the java bookmark, my label popped right up in Preview. Could be because I already opened the label once from firefox (using bracken’s tip), but I kinda doubt it’s related. Next time I make a brand new label I’ll report back (unless someone else beats me to it).
positive fix for my snow leopard problem with USPS. TOTAL SOLUTION! :)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050422040229515
I picked it up from an author “StephenM” on Apples discussion board, here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2153794
The Post Office has a faq that addresses the problem:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yzxdwd8