<p>Alright it took me 5 days to figure it out but I finally was able to print preview. For those unfamiliar with the Common App last year let me just give a brief history. On the previous version of the Common App- each page had a button at the top labeled "print preview". You would hit the button and the page would generate to give you an idea of what the actual app looked like when downloaded and viewed by admission staff. Since the previous common app allowed you to continue typing despite there being restrictions on the number of characters in the activities section; print preview was critical to make sure you only the right number of characters (if you saw a two line description you knew you ran out of space) as well as proofing as you go. </p>
<p>Fast forward to the Common App 4 (the current version). There is no longer a button with print preview on the top of each page. You can only preview when the entire common app and all supplements and waivers are completed and green check marks appear in each page. Obviously no one wants to do all the college supplements before they can even proof the main common application. Here are my suggestions to help you get to that stage.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Delete all colleges from your dashboard. Only click on a college that has a no essay requirement and simple questions and is currently available to add to your dashboard. I even suggest you include a college not on your list so in case you accidentally submit there is no harm. In order to get the green checks just answer the questions and add a couple of words to the writing supplement if there is one. This should get you to the green check mark stage for the supplement. </p></li>
<li><p>On the recommender section be careful. If you school uses naviance to deal with recommendations then do not "invite" recommenders because it will screw up your school's ability to use that feature of naviance in conjunction with the common app. These two websites were suppose to interface easily but our high school notified us that was not the case as of yesterday and it gave specific instructions not to inter any info on the recommender page. If you school is in this situation you will see language on the recommender page telling you that you school uses naviance. </p></li>
<li><p>On the assign recommenders page you do have to complete the FERPA Waiver. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>4 Say you don't have your common app essay done and what to see what it looks like so far then simply add 250 words to the essay box and you will get a green check. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>On the common app do what it takes to get the green check mark. For example I just listed one activity and put xx in description. </p></li>
<li><p>If you have done the above you should be able to get to "print preview" so then click on "submission common app" which appear in the left column on the page where the page you are looking at is the only one university you have inserted on your dashbooard/ college. The page will then switch to "application submission". At the button on the bottom click on "start submission" and keep breathing. HERE IS WHERE THE PRINT PREVIEW IS FINALLY DONE. You can print it off and proof it then. Do not hit "continue". instead click "back". Then click on the "common app" tab. </p></li>
<li><p>If you notice error or want to change how things look then click on edit which will return you to the original pages of the common app. You can make any changes. ALSO IF YOU CUT AND PASTED YOUR ESSAY AND HAD PARAGRAPH BREAKS IT LOOKS LIKE THOSE APPEAR IN THE PRINT PREVIEW. COMMON APP HAS SAID THE HELP SECTION WHICH STATES THERE IS ONLY ONE PARAGRAPH BREAK IS WRONG. </p></li>
<li><p>If you have more then one college in the dashboard you cannot preview until all info/questions/essays are completed for each college so just have one on the dashboard to get you to the Common App print preview state. </p></li>
<li><p>Once you submit your common app and at least one college supplement you can then add more colleges and go through the above steps to get to print preview again. I highly recommend you just do one supplement at a time. If you want to find out what a supplement looks like and what the essay is then add it to your dashboard but then delete it until you are in a position to complete it. </p></li>
<li><p>You can make up to 10 versions of the common app (I may be wrong but I do know it is a big number) but you can only revise your common app essay THREE times so keep that in mind. </p></li>
<li><p>When can you print preview a supplement? After you submit the common app to the college then you can click on "submission writing supplement" on the left side of the colleges page which then does the exact same generation of a print preview of the supplement for that college only. </p></li>
<li><p>A quick way of proofing each section of the common app is to enter the information or answer the question for each section. When you click "continue" the information is then "placed" in the form it will appear on the common app. Simply click on that section again and proof it. If you notice any errors or want to make changes then simply click "edit" which appears on the bottom of each page. </p></li>
<li><p>Also for activities put them in reverse order of importance. The first entry moves down the bottom of the page (this is a big difference from the old common app where your first entry was number one.) You can still move things around by clicking the arrows on the right which moves entries up or down based on the direction of the arrows. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I hope this helps everyone. I agree the Common App is frustrating and it really shouldn't have taken me 5 days to get to figuring out how to do print preview.</p>
<p>The big trick to making the above steps work is to just limit the number of colleges to one in your dashboard and complete that supplement. </p>
<p>Just to get some experience in working with this new common app I suggest you create a “dummy” common application account not using the email address you will use for your “real” common app. I am a parent so I set up an account different from my child. We “played” around with my account to figure out how the common app works since the previously published “how to guides” are no longer available. We worked in this fashion since we were fearful of accidentally submitting the common app to a college. It helped relieve our frustration and stress. Of course Common App likes to make claims as to how many people have created account but I bet many other parents have done the same thing.</p>
<p>"2. On the recommender section be careful. If you school uses naviance to deal with recommendations then do not “invite” recommenders because it will screw up your school’s ability to use that feature of naviance in conjunction with the common app. These two websites were suppose to interface easily but our high school notified us that was not the case as of yesterday and it gave specific instructions not to inter any info on the recommender page. If you school is in this situation you will see language on the recommender page telling you that you school uses naviance. "</p>
<p>So if our hs uses naviance, and the above happens, does this mean that we really cannot submit our common app until school starts and our hs says we can? How are we going to be able to recommend them? Will we have to use paper recos? We were hoping to get this done before school starts!</p>
<p>Yesway77-it depends on the extent to which your high school uses naviance in the college admissions process. DD’s high school uses it alot to send transcripts and recommendations electronically. The high school discovered this problem and is in contact with the common app to make sure the two systems can work together. According to our counselor yesterday- if a student sends an invitation to a teacher via common app; it prevents the school from using naviance for sending things electronically for that student. I can answer your question more fully in a couple of weeks when we met again with the counselor. I suggest you contact your high school for more info. </p>
<p>p.s. sorry for all the errors in my original post. I was trying to multitask.</p>
<p>Thank you, itsv, for your response and all this info! There are 2 colleges that do not transmit electronically, so we’ll do those and contact the high school regarding naviance. Her g counselor is on vacation now.</p>
<p>Bumping this up since it already fell to page 2, what with all the ?'s and concerns everyone is having with this whole mess.</p>
<p>The solution to the ‘print preview’ problems should be the CA correcting their design mistake and going back to how is was on the last version. Maybe if enough of us contact them, they will consider it??</p>
<p>I also created a dummy account that we can use to experiment with; thanks for the tips!</p>
<p>I created a dummy account and added/invited several “fake” teachers as recommenders using family email addresses. After completing the rest of the app (just filling in spaces without regard to content), I can now get to the print preview stage. </p>
<p>Our D’s draft essay and honors/activities descriptions are saved in a separate Word document. I let her copy and past them into the dummy account. That allows her to avoid inviting recommenders in her own account for now and still preview her app.</p>
<p>Dear itsv/niceday, I did just as you suggested – created a dummy account and eventually got to the preview/print page. Thank you! But when I printed the whole app out, I noticed two things:
The whole essay was displayed, but the font for the last paragraph was smaller. I have no clue why.
The printed-out “Additional Information" section was a mess with two lines squeezed together. I did not even reach the maximum word limit in this part.
Do you have similar experience? Thanks again!</p>
<p>I have heard the additional information section is a mess and doing the same formatting issues for others. I suggest you write to the help center at common app with your concerns. It seems since the time of the Aug. 1 launch; common app goes through and fixes things according to people’s comments in the help center. If you look at common app’s facebook page you will see them posting everyday comments such as “we have now fixed the following issue…” </p>
<p>My essay was in all the same font. Try reformatting it in word and then cut and pasting it over again. </p>
<p>At least you can now print preview it and have some idea what the application looks like. I still long for the old common app. Right now one of my battles is that under contacts at a particular school it does not list the way my daughter contacted the school. we can’t put it in the additional info section because other colleges would then see it so I think she is going to have to send in an additional document which of course defeats the whole purpose of why they had to redo the common app. </p>
<p>Any update? Son is having the same problem with common app changing font sizes. Even is word count works, do they do it to make it fit? Is it something that can be fixed? He re-typed it directly into the box, and the issue still exists. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>– In-Progress: In rare instances, applicants have encountered errors with the “Print Preview” PDF of their application such as text running into the footer or a change in font format.</p>
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<p>When I try to submit my daughter’s application, instead of the PDF, I just get a blank screen with the message “A PDF viewer is not available” I have adobe reader 11.0.6 installed, as well as IE 9. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>My daughter got her common application and school writing supplement all ready to submit . This is her first time to submit her application. When she printed the preview and found that the PDF package doesn’t have school writing supplement. There are total 7 pages, the first 6 pages are about the common application, the last page is about the school she is applying but only has a very little information. She wrote two supplement essays and answered some questions, but none of them in the PDF preview file. Is anybody has the same problem? How many PDF Preview files will the CA generate during the whole submitting process? Thanks!</p>