Direct Printing

A Microsoft Windows program typically provides the user the following print commands:

  • Page Setup or Print Setup Displays the Page Setup or Print Setup dialog box but doesn't actually print.
  • Print Preview Shows what the printed pages look like on the screen so that you can see the results without printing.
  • Print Displays the Print dialog box and then prints the document.
  • Direct printing Prints a single copy of all the pages of a document to the currently selected printer directly without displaying the Print dialog box.

Direct printing is a valuable feature since it eliminates what is often an unnecessary dialog box. Once the user selects his preferred print settings with the Page Setup dialog box or Print Setup dialog box, the program has all the information it needs to print a document. The Print dialog box allows the user to select the printer, page range, and number of copies, but almost always the user wants to print a single complete copy to the currently selected printer. As a result, the normal response to this dialog box is to click OK.

How do you distinguish between normal printing and direct printing? Microsoft Office and Microsoft Internet Explorer perform normal printing from the menu but direct printing from the toolbar. This is a natural distinction, since the toolbar is intended to be a shortcut and the menu can clearly indicate when more information is required by displaying an ellipsis. Interestingly, Microsoft Visual C++ performs normal printing in both cases.

TIP
If your program has a toolbar, provide direct printing.



Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
ISBN: 0735605866
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 334

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