Printing from Windows Applications


When you print from 16-bit or 32-bit Windows applications, the internal Print Manager kicks in and spools the print job for you, adding it to the queue for the selected printer. The spooler then feeds the file to the assigned printer(s), coordinating the flow of data and keeping you informed of the progress. Jobs are queued up and listed in the given printer's window, from which their status can be observed; they can be rearranged, deleted, and so forth. All the rights and privileges assigned to you, as the user, are applicable, potentially allowing you to alter the queue (as discussed later in this chapter), rearranging, deleting, pausing, or restarting print jobs.

If the application doesn't provide a way to select a specific printer (typically through a Print Setup dialog box), then the default printer is used. You can select the default printer from the Printers and Faxes folder by right-clicking a printer and choosing Set as Default Printer.

Pre-Printing Checklist

To print from Windows applications, follow these steps:

1.

Check to see that the printer and page settings are correct and the right printer is chosen for your output. Some applications provide a Printer Setup or other option on their File menu for this task. Recall that settings you make from such a box override the default settings made from the printer's Properties sheet. If the application has a Print Preview command, use it to check that the formatting of the document is acceptable.

2.

Select File, Print from the application's window, and fill in whatever information is asked of you. Figure 6.5 shows the Print dialog for WordPad. (Print dialogs for other applications may differ.) Notice that you can just click a printer's icon to choose it. When you do, its printer driver kicks in, changing the options on the tabs. You can also find a printer on the LAN or print to a file, using their respective buttons. Two other tabs, Layout and Paper/Quality, could be useful. For advanced options such as halftoning and color matching, select the Layout tab and click Advanced.

3.

Click OK (or otherwise confirm printing). The data is sent to the spooler, which writes it in a file and then begins printing it. If an error occursa port conflict, the printer is out of paper, or whateverWindows will display a message indicating what the problem is, as shown in Figure 6.6.

Figure 6.6. Typical error message resulting from a printer problem.


You can attempt to fix the problem by checking the cable connection, the paper supply, and so forth. Then click Retry. If you run into more serious trouble, you can run the Troubleshooting Wizard from the Help menu.

For most users, following these steps is all you'll ever need to do to print. The remainder of this chapter deals mostly with how to work with the printer queues of your own workstation printer or of network printers, and how to alter, pause, delete, or restart print jobs.

If you receive printer errors when attempting to print a document,

If nothing happens when you send a print job to the printer, Printing by Dragging Files into the Print Manager

As a shortcut to printing a document, you can simply drag the icon of the document you want to print either onto an icon of a printer or into the printer's open window (from the Printers and Faxes folder). You can drag the file from Explorer right onto the chosen printer's icon or open window to see it added to the print queue for that printer.

When you drop the document, Windows realizes you want to print it, and the file is loaded into the source application, the Print command is automatically executed, and the file is spooled to the Print Manager. Figure 6.7 shows an example of dropping a Word document on a PostScript printer.

Figure 6.7. You can print a document or a number of documents by dragging them onto a destination printer in the Printers and Faxes folder. The files must have application associations.


TIP

Documents must have associations linking the filename extension (for example, .doc or .bmp) to the application that handles that file type; otherwise, printing by dragging them to Print Manager doesn't work. Also, you obviously don't have the option of setting printing options when you print this way. All the defaults are used.


For more information about file associations, p. 891.


If youre having trouble printing, you're getting "garbage" printouts, or you're getting only partial pages, see "Printer Produces Garbled Text" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.


If only half of the page prints correctly before the printer starts printing garbage text, Printing Offline

If your printer is disconnected, you can still queue up documents for printing. You might want to do this while traveling, for instance, if you have a laptop and don't want to drag a 50-pound laser printer along in your carry-on luggage.

If you try this, however, you'll quickly find that the Print Manager will beep, pop up messages to tell you about the missing printer, and otherwise make your life miserable. You can silence it by right-clicking the printer's icon in the Printers and Faxes folder and selecting Use Printer Offline.

Windows will now quietly and compliantly queue up anything you "print." (Just don't forget that you've done this or nothing will print even when you've reconnected your printer. You'll end up yelling at your unresponsive printer, when it's only doing what it was told).

When you've reconnected the printer, uncheck Use Printer Offline (with the same steps used above) and the output will flow forth. It's a nifty feature, but only available for local printers, not networked printers.



Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0789732807
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 450

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