Managing printers includes assigning forms to paper trays and setting a separator page. In addition, you can pause, resume, and cancel a document if a problem occurs on a printer. If a printer is faulty or you add printers to your network, you might need to redirect documents to a different printer. In addition, you might need to change which users have administrative responsibility for printers, which involves changing ownership.
If a printer has multiple trays that regularly hold different paper sizes, you can assign a form to a specific tray. A form defines a paper size. Users can then select the paper size from within their application. When the user prints, Windows XP Professional automatically routes the print job to the paper tray that holds the correct form. Examples of forms include the following: Legal, A4, Envelopes #10, and Letter Small.
To assign a form to a paper tray, complete the following steps:
Figure 7.3 Setting forms for a printer
After you have set up a paper tray, users specify the paper size from within applications. Windows XP Professional knows in which paper tray the form is located.
A separator page is a file that contains print device commands. Separator pages have two functions:
Windows XP Professional includes four separator page files, which are located in the %systemroot%\System32 folder. Table 7.2 lists the filename and describes the function for each of the included separator page files.
Table 7.2 Separator Page Files
Filename | Function |
---|---|
SYSPRINT.SEP | Prints a page before each document; compatible with PostScript print devices |
PCL.SEP | Switches the print mode to PCL for HP-series print devices and prints a page before each document |
PSCRIPT.SEP | Switches the print mode to PostScript for HP-series print devices but does not print a page before each document |
SYSPRTJ.SEP | A version of SYSPRINT.SEP that uses Japanese characters |
When you have decided to use a separator page and have chosen an appropriate one, use the Advanced tab in the printer's Properties dialog box to have the separator page printed at the beginning of each print job.
To set up a separator page, complete the following steps:
Figure 7.4 The Advanced tab for a printer's Properties dialog box
To browse for a separator file, click Browse.
Pausing and resuming a printer or canceling all documents on a printer might be necessary if there is a printing problem.
To pause or cancel all documents, right-click the icon for the printer in the Printers And Faxes window, and then click the appropriate command. To resume printing on a printer, right-click the printer and click Resume Printing.
Table 7.3 describes the tasks that you might perform when you manage printers, how to perform the tasks, and examples of situations in which you might perform these tasks.
Table 7.3 Managing Printers Tasks
Task | Action | Example |
---|---|---|
To pause printing | Click Pause Printing. The Pause Printing command changes to Resume Printing. | Pause the printer if there is a problem with the printer until you fix the problem. |
To resume printing | Click Resume Printing. The Resume Printing command changes to Pause Printing. | Resume printing after you fix a problem with a printer. |
To cancel all documents | Click Cancel All Documents. All documents are deleted from the printer. | Cancel all documents when you need to clear a print queue after old documents that no longer need to print have accumulated. |
You can also pause a printer by taking the printer offline. To take a printer offline, open the printer window, and on the Printer menu, click Use Printer Offline.
You can redirect documents to a different printer. For example, if a printer is not working, you should redirect the documents so that users do not need to resubmit them. You can redirect all print jobs for a printer, but you cannot redirect specific documents. The new printer must use the same printer driver as the current printer.
To redirect documents to a different printer, complete the following steps:
Figure 7.5 Redirecting documents to another printer
If another printer is available for the current print server, you can redirect the documents to that printer. To redirect documents to another local or network printer that uses the same printer driver, select the appropriate port on the print server and cancel the selection of the current port.
There might be times when the owner of a printer can no longer manage that printer and you need to take ownership. Taking ownership of a printer enables you to change administrative responsibility for it. By default, the user who installed the printer owns it. If that user can no longer administer the printer, you should take ownership of it-for example, if the current owner leaves the company.
The following users can take ownership of a printer:
To take ownership of a printer, complete the following steps:
Figure 7.6 Taking ownership of a printer
In this practice you perform three tasks that are part of managing printers. In the first exercise, you assign forms to paper trays. In the second exercise, you set up a separator page. In the third exercise you learn how to take ownership of a printer.
In this exercise, you assign a paper type (form) to a paper tray so that when users print to a specified form, the print job is automatically routed to and adjusted for the correct tray.
If you do not have a printer installed, see Exercise 1: Adding and Sharing a Printer in Chapter 6, "Setting Up, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Common Setup and Configuration Problems for Network Printers."
Some of the selections might be labeled Not Available because they depend on options that are not installed.
Whenever a user prints on legal size paper, Windows XP Professional instructs the printer to use paper from Tray 2.
In this exercise, you set up a separator page to print between documents. You use the SYSPRINT.SEP separator page that ships with Windows XP Professional. This separator page includes the user's name and the date and time that the document was printed.
Windows XP Professional displays a Separator Page dialog box that lists the contents of the System32 folder, which contains the separator pages that ship with Windows XP Professional. This dialog box also allows you to search in additional folders.
Windows XP Professional displays the Separator Page dialog box with the full path to the SYSPRINT.SEP separator page specified.
Windows XP Professional is now set to print a separator page between print jobs.
In this exercise, you practice taking ownership of a printer.
The Advanced Security Settings For HP Color LaserJet 4550 dialog box is displayed.
The following questions will help you determine whether you have learned enough to move on to the next lesson. If you have difficulty answering these questions, review the material in this lesson before beginning the next lesson. The answers for these questions are in Appendix A, "Questions and Answers."