So this past week I tried my hand at the coupon printing problem on a Mac computer. It was all new to me. Being a video game type of guy, I use a Windows operating system due to how compatiable it is to the game programs verses Mac’s. Before working on it I did some research as well. I found that this has been a very common problem with various coupon printer programs.

So here are a few things I learned, and hopefully it might help out some other. If you have a Mac and know how to fix this, or if you too can confirm these same issues then please leave a comment.

Firefox – well the only thing I was able to print was Smartsource.com coupons. About every other time the spinning “S” meaning it was thinking, would continue to spin for ever. So if I hit the back button one time then it seemed to fix its little hiccup.

Safari – I was able to print from RedPlum, Coupons.com, Betty Crocker.com, and Pillsbury.com. Every now and then there would be a hiccup, and the back button press one time seemed to work. Our friend, who’s computer it was, said that sometimes the computer would freeze up all together and the only way to reset it was to unplug from the wall.

I do know that back in the spring this year (2010) that Coupons.com did have a pretty big issue with printing coupons from a Mac. I never really saw that it was actually fixed or not.

Supposedly here are the requirements of your Mac computer to print (but that still doesn’t mean there are no hiccups)

Coupons.com – Coupon printing is currently supported on Macintosh OSX 10.3 or higher when used with Safari 2+ and FireFox 2+.

RedPlum.com - Coupon printing is also supported on Macintosh when using Safari under OS X 10.3 and higher

SmartSource.com - Macs running OSX 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard)

One of our readers sent us these great THRIFTY COUPON PRINTING Tips!

Thanks Maryhelen! With Sarah out sick, this helps and is great advice.

Printing coupons can take a toll on both your paper supply and your ink. But there are ways to make printing more “thrifty” and here are a few that have saved us significantly:

1. Use the backs of other papers to print your coupons. This can be your child’s schoolwork, papers from their teachers, misprints from other projects ~ anything that has printing on one side, but not the other. I’ve gone through and cleaned out old binders and old files and now have a large stack of paper that is for coupons only. Perhaps your office has a recycle bin for misprints or pages that are no longer needed. Check with your employer to see if you can use those pages for coupons (after all, you’re recycling!). Of course you want to be cautious as to what you print on the back of ~ make sure your personal or any sensitive information is not going to end up on the back of your coupon.
2. Adjust your printer to print at a “fast normal” quality. You can also select only a “grayscale” print, which means that the printer will print your coupons in black and white. Both of these cut the amount of ink used and makes your ink go farther. Stores used to be particular about taking black and white printed coupons, but these days the bar codes are better, scan more easily and are tougher to forge. This has expanded the acceptance policies and has made it easier for all of us.
3. There are a number of companies out there who sell their ink for less. We took a chance in January and are so glad we did! We bought 18 cartridges of ink for $65. These were both black and color cartridges. They have been great! Our printer (a Brother) has been happy, and the quality just the same as if we’d bought the ink at a higher price. And because we take our empty cartridges back to Staples for a $3 “rebate”, in the end, we’ll have only paid $17 for 18 cartridges! THAT brings a smile to my face!

Since saving is the idea, we can better complete the circle by keeping every aspect of couponing a thrifty endeavor!

Trouble Printing Coupons? We have had a couple emails asking about issues with printing. So I thought it was time to repost this.

There are multiple ways to be able to fix this your self. Now I still need to be told when we place a link to something it doesn’t even send you anywhere. But the trouble here is when you go to print coupons and it sends you to a screen that says something like “waiting to print”. This is a coding problem. When someone puts a coupon-brick (what the printing coupon is called) out on their website they do it in the browser they are currently using. When they use that particular browser to place a post to a coupon it puts two letters in the web address code up in the internet browser.
Now when some one wants to print that coupon and they are in a different browser then what was originally used to post, that is when you get the screen that says “waiting to print” and nothing ever happens.

For Example:
I am using FireFox, and I am posting a coupon on the blog for “steak”. I publish my post so you can see it.
The next day you get on the internet using Internet Explorer and want to print it. You click on the link and up in the address bar you see: “www.bricks.coupons.com……..whatever”
you click the “Print now” button and it takes you to a white page that says “waiting to print coupons”
OR
it ask you to install the printer application, although you have already installed and used it before. And it does this over and over and over, and still nothing.

2 Things can be done to fix this.

First what we do at A Thrifty Mom is:
Copy the link address. The “www.bricks.coupons.com…..whatever”.
And then Switch browsers! There are really only 3 to worry about.

FireFox
Internet Explorer
Google Chrome – not used much, so usually it’s the top two.

Paste the code in the opposite browser and print away.

Second – what I think is the more complicated way.
Find the 2 letters and switch to a variety of other 2 letter combination’s.
A FireFox link:
hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri5peuo65798407&bt=wg&o=74976&ci=3&c=GM&p=HyRwaQe
Do you see the “wg” in the code… it’s red. By changing that code to a “vi” or “wi” in Internet Explorer will fix the above issues.
You can swap these codes around till it works in the particular browser you are using. If you don’t want to do what we do.
Now if you are a MAC user, on Safari, you can also replace the “wi”, “vi” or “wg” with a “xs”. Or if you see a “xs” (rare) you can replace with the above 2 letter combo’s.

Well I think just having the other browser already installed is the easiest way, but it’s up to you to choose. Hope this helps.

Update:
Below are browsers. They are the programs you turn on to look and surf through the internet. Most likely you have seen these images before, so that you can put a logo with a term.
Start by figuring out which browser you are currently using. Since you are on the internet now reading this post, look up in the very top left corner. Match what you see with a logo below and skip downloading that one. Next choose either Internet Explorer or FireFox, depending on what you don’t have yet and download that one. Hold off on downloading Chrome if you only want to use it to print coupons, because I haven’t seen it used that often. If you install both of these programs and your printing still wont work then come back here and download Chrome.

Hint: once you download the new browser it will tell you that “it” is not your primary browser and will ask you if you want to make it your primary. Just click no, and if possible check the box that says save for next time.
Download the 3 browsers here

If you use Windows XP, or Vista you probably already have Internet Explorer on you computer
Internet Explorer download here

FireFox is free and is the second most used in printing coupons

FireFox download here

Google Chrome is free, and I have not seen it used that often in printing coupons
Google Chrome download here

Also some manufactures who allow you to print coupons off their site will use a Flash program. Or run a Java script. Don’t worry about trying to figure out what that all means. Just look for a drop down bar that comes down below your address bar on top of your page you are trying to print. Click on that bar and click on what ever it ask you to “allow”. It could be please allow ActiveX, or could be please allow Java script. If its on a site that is a major company you can “probably” trust it. If that still doesn’t work try installing the FREE java program:

Java by Sun microsystems

Ok it’s Matt again (seems I always start my post that way)

Ok it’s Matt again (seems I always start my post that way)

2 Things can be done to fix this.

First what we do at A thrifty Mom is:
Copy the link address. The “www.bricks.coupons.com…..whatever”.
And then Switch browsers! There are really only 3 to worry about.

FireFox
Internet Explorer
Google Chrome – not used much, so usually it’s the top two.

Paste the code in the opposite browser and print away.

Second – what I think is the more complicated way.
Find the 2 letters and switch to a variety of other 2 letter combination’s.
A FireFox link:
hxxp://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=ri5peuo65798407&bt=wg&o=74976&ci=3&c=GM&p=HyRwaQe
Do you see the “wg” in the code… it’s red. By changing that code to a “vi” or “wi” in Internet Explorer will fix the above issues.
You can swap these codes around till it works in the particular browser you are using. If you don’t want to do what we do.
Now if you are a MAC user, on Safari, you can also replace the “wi”, “vi” or “wg” with a “xs”. Or if you see a “xs” (rare) you can replace with the above 2 letter combo’s.

Well I think just having the other browser already installed is the easiest way, but it’s up to you to choose. Hope this helps.

Update:
Below are browsers. They are the programs you turn on to look and surf through the internet. Most likely you have seen these images before, so that you can put a logo with a term.
Start by figuring out which browser you are currently using. Since you are on the internet now reading this post, look up in the very top left corner. Match what you see with a logo below and skip downloading that one. Next choose either Internet Explorer or FireFox, depending on what you don’t have yet and download that one. Hold off on downloading Chrome if you only want to use it to print coupons, because I haven’t seen it used that often. If you install both of these programs and your printing still wont work then come back here and download Chrome.

Hint: once you download the new browser it will tell you that “it” is not your primary browser and will ask you if you want to make it your primary. Just click no, and if possible check the box that says save for next time.
Download the 3 browsers here

If you use Windows XP, or Vista you probably already have Internet Explorer on you computer
Internet Explorer download here

FireFox is free and is the second most used in printing coupons

FireFox download here

Google Chrome is free, and I have not seen it used that often in printing coupons
Google Chrome download here

Also some manufactures who allow you to print coupons off their site will use a Flash program. Or run a Java script. Don’t worry about trying to figure out what that all means. Just look for a drop down bar that comes down below your address bar on top of your page you are trying to print. Click on that bar and click on what ever it ask you to “allow”. It could be please allow ActiveX, or could be please allow Java script. If its on a site that is a major company you can “probably” trust it. If that still doesn’t work try installing the FREE java program:

Java by Sun microsystems