Using a Network Printer

Using a network printer is much like using a network hard drive: You can print to a network printer from any Windows program by choosing the Print command to call up a Print dialog box from any program and choosing a network printer from the list of available printers. (In Office XP, this command is under the File menu. In Office 2007, you can reach it by clicking the Office button.)

Keep in mind, however, that printing on a network printer isn't exactly the same as printing on a local printer-you have to take turns. When you print on a local printer, you're the only one using it. When you print to a network printer, however, you are (in effect) standing in line behind other network users, waiting to share the printer. This line complicates the situation in several ways:

• If several users print to the network printer at the same time, the network has to keep the print jobs separate from one another. If it didn't, the result would be a jumbled mess, with your 168-page report getting mixed in with the payroll checks. That would be bad. Fortunately, the network takes care of this situation by using the fancy print spooling feature.

• Network printing works on a first-come, first-served basis (unless you know some of the tricks that I discuss in Chapter 3). Invariably, when I get in line at the hardware store, the person in front of me is trying to buy something that doesn't have a product code on it. I end up standing there for hours waiting for someone in Plumbing to pick up the phone for a price check. Network printing can be like that. If someone sends a two-hour print job to the printer before you send your half-page memo, you have to wait.

• You may have access to a local printer and several network printers. Before you were forced to use the network, your computer probably had just one printer attached to it. You may want to print some documents on your cheap (oops, I mean local) inkjet printer but use the network laser printer for important stuff. To do that, you have to find out how to use your programs' functions for switching printers.

Adding a network printer

Before you can print to a network printer, you have to configure your computer to access the network printer that you want to use. From the Start menu, open the Control Panel and then double-click the Printers icon. If your computer is already configured to work with a network printer, an icon for the network printer (see the icon in the margin) appears in the Printers folder. You can tell a network printer from a local printer by the shape of the printer icon. Network printer icons have a pipe attached to the bottom of the printer.

If you don't have a network printer configured for your computer, you can add one by using the Add Printer Wizard. Just follow these steps for Windows Vista:

1. Choose Start Control Panel and then double-click the Printers icon.

2. Click the Add a Printer button on the toolbar.

   This step starts the Add Printer Wizard, as shown in Figure 2-8.

   
   Figure 2-8: The Add Printer Wizard comes to life.

3. Select the Add a Network, Wireless or Bluetooth Printer option.

   The wizard searches the network for available printers and displays a list of the printers it finds, as shown in Figure 2-9.

   
   Figure 2-9: The Add Printer Wizard asks you to pick a printer.

4. Click the printer you want to use.

   Tip 

   If you can't find the printer you want to use, ask your network administrator for the printer's UNC path, which is the name used to identify the printer on the network, or its IP address. Then click The Printer That I Want Isn't Listed and enter the UNC or IP address for the printer when prompted.

5. Click Next to add the printer.

   The wizard copies to your computer the correct printer driver for the network printer. (You may be prompted to confirm that you want to add the driver. If so, click Install Driver to proceed.)

   The Add Printer Wizard displays a screen that shows the printer's name and asks whether you want to designate the printer as your default printer.

6. If you want, designate the printer as your default printer.

7. Click Next to continue.

   A final confirmation dialog box is displayed.

8. Click Finish.

   You're done!

Tip 

Many network printers, especially newer ones, are connected directly to the network by using a built-in Ethernet card. Setting up these printers can be tricky. You may need to ask the network administrator for help in setting up this type of printer. (Some printers that are connected directly to the network have their own Web addresses, such as http://www.Printer.CleaverFamily.com. If that's the case, you can often set up the printer in a click or two: Use your Web browser to go to the printer's Web page and then click a link that lets you install the printer.)

Printing to a network printer

After you install the network printer in Windows, printing to the network printer is a snap. You can print to the network printer from any Windows program by using the Print command to summon the Print dialog box, found under the File menu in Office 2003 or the Office button in Office 2007. For example, Figure 2-10 shows the Print dialog box for WordPad-the free text- editing program that comes with Windows. The available printers are listed near the top of this dialog box. Choose the network printer from this list and then click OK to print your document. That's all there is to it!

Figure 2-10: A typical Print dialog box.

Playing with the print queue

After you send your document to a network printer, you usually don't have to worry about it. You just go to the network printer and-voilà!-your printed document is waiting for you.

That's what happens in the ideal world. In the real world, where you and I live, all sorts of things can happen to your print job between the time you send it to the network printer and the time it prints:

• You discover that someone else already sent a 50-trillion-page report ahead of you that isn't expected to finish printing until the national debt is paid off.

• The price of a framis valve suddenly goes up by $2, rendering foolish the recommendations you made in your report.

• Your boss calls and tells you that his brother-in-law will be attending the meeting, so won't you please print an extra copy of the proposal for him. Oh, and a photocopy won't do. Originals only, please.

• You decide to take lunch, so you don't want the output to print until you get back.

Fortunately, your print job isn't totally beyond your control just because you already sent it to the network printer. You can easily change the status of jobs that you already sent. You can change the order in which jobs print, hold a job so that it doesn't print until you say so, or cancel a job.

You can probably make your network print jobs do other tricks, too-such as shake hands, roll over, and play dead. But the basic tricks-hold, cancel, and change the print order-are enough to get you started.

To play with the printer queue, open the Control Panel (choose Start Control Panel) and click Printers. Then double-click the icon for the printer that you want to manage. A window similar to the one shown in Figure 2-11 appears. You can see the bad news: Some clown named dlowe has just started a 308-page report from Microsoft Word. You have to wait for this report to finish before you can print your little 1-page memo.

Figure 2-11: Managing a print queue.

To manipulate the print jobs that appear in the print queue or in the printer itself, use these tricks:

• To temporarily stop a job from printing: Select the job and choose the Document Pause Printing command. Choose the same command again to release the job from its state of frustration and print it out, already.

• To delete a print job: Select the job and choose the Document Cancel Printing command.

• To stop the printer: Choose the Printer Pause Printing command. To resume, choose the command again.

• To delete all print jobs: Choose the Printer Purge Print Documents command.

• To cut to the front of the line: Drag to the top of the list the print job that you want to print.

All these tips apply to only your own print jobs. Unfortunately, you can't capriciously delete other people's print jobs.

The best thing about Windows printer management is that it shelters you from the details of working with different network operating systems. Whether you print on a NetWare printer, a Windows 2003 network printer, or a shared Windows printer, the Printer window icon manages all print jobs in the same way.