Printing a form

The conventional way of printing a form is as follows:

1. Issue a Print command from the program that created the form or from a program designed to handle its file type.

2. Choose any relevant options which pages to print, or the resolution to use in the Print dialog box.

3. Click the Print button or the OK button.

Windows also lets you print directly to the printer from Explorer. You can print a document from Explorer by dragging it and dropping it on the printer in the Printers window or on a shortcut to the printer. Windows prints the document with default settings, so you don’t get to choose any of the usual printing options. But usually you won’t have the printer or a shortcut to it handy enough for this technique to be useful, although you can create shortcuts to a printer wherever you need them, such as on the Desktop. For this technique to work, the file must include the extension linked to the appropriate file type and program; otherwise, Windows doesn’t know which program to use to print the file. Many programs support printing directly from Explorer and so include a Print command on the context menu for the document. To print a form, right-click it, and then choose Print from the context menu.

Managing Your Print Jobs

Once you’ve sent a form to the printer, you can just wait for Windows to print it. If you’re the only person using this printer, and if there’s no problem with the printer such as being out of paper, ink, or toner, it should print more or less right away. But if you’re printing many documents, or if you’re sharing one or more printers with people who are printing many documents, you may find yourself needing to manage print jobs. This section discusses how to do so.

Dealing with a Print Job Gone Wrong

It’s much easier, neater, and cleaner to cancel a job before it starts printing than after it starts printing - but often you’ll only realize that you need to cancel a particular print job when the printer starts spewing out garbage - sheets of paper with only a single column of letters, or with mangled graphics, or page after page of PostScript codes instead of the layout of ink they’re supposed to represent.

When you cancel a print job that’s being printed, the printer may get confused. Give it a minute or two depending on the printer’s speed to clear its memory of the interrupted job. If that doesn’t work, you may need to reset the printer, by pressing a hardware reset button, by issuing a software reset command supported by the printer’s custom software, or by turning the printer off and then back on again.

Pausing and Resuming Printing

To pause printing of all documents on the printer, right-click the printer in the Printers window, and then choose Pause Printing from the context menu. Alternatively, click the printer, and then click the Pause Printing button on the toolbar. To resume printing, right-click the printer and choose Resume Printing from the context menu. Alternatively, click the printer, and then click the Resume Printing button on the toolbar. On a network printer, you have only the privileges of a Guest user on that computer. This means that you can pause, restart, and delete only your own print jobs; you can’t affect other people’s print jobs.

Managing Print Jobs by Using the Print Queue

To cancel print jobs, or rearrange the order in which they print, use the print queue. To open the print queue by using one of the following methods:

• If the notification area is displaying a printer icon for the printer, double-click the icon.

• Double-click the printer in the Printers window, or click the printer, and then click the See What’s Printing button on the toolbar.

From the print queue, you can take the following actions:

Cancel a print job Right-click the job in the print queue and choose Cancel from the context menu. Alternatively, choose form Cancel.

Pause a print job Right-click the job in the print queue and choose Pause from the context menu. Alternatively, choose form Pause.

Resume a paused print job Right-click the paused job in the print queue and choose Resume from the context menu. Alternatively, choose form Resume.

Restart a paused or failed print job Right-click the paused or failed job in the print queue and choose Restart from the context menu. Alternatively, choose form Restart.

Change priorities or time restrictions for a print job Right-click the job and choose Properties from the context menu. Windows displays the Document Properties dialog box for the print job. On the General page , drag the Priority slider to set the priority for the job, or use the controls in the Schedule text box to set or remove time scheduling. Click the OK button. Windows closes the form Properties dialog box.

Troubleshooting Printing Problems

This section presents a general approach to troubleshooting printing problems. Given that there are about as many types of printers as there are types of cars, and that the drivers for those printers vary in quality even more widely than the drivers you’ll encounter in a trip the length of Interstate 40, the information in this section is just a start - but if you persevere, you should find it can help you solve many problems.

Check Which Printer You’re Printing To

If your computer is configured to connect to more than one printer, make sure that you’re printing to the printer you think you’re printing to. Few things are more irritating than wasting time troubleshooting an innocent and fully functional printer only to find that you’ve printed out five copies of the same secret form on another printer - and your colleagues have found them. Given that the Print dialog box shows you which printer you’re using, this problem is most likely to occur when you issue a Print command that starts the print job without displaying the Print dialog box.

Make Sure the Printer Is Working

Next, make sure the printer is working. Check that it’s

• Powered on. • Not set to be offline or paused. • Loaded with ink and paper, and not jammed. • Connected to the computer, print server, or network. If another computer or a print server is involved, check that it’s powered on and functional.

Check the Program You’re Printing From

If all is well with the printer, make sure you’re not doing something wrong in the program from which you’re trying to print. In particular, check that you’re trying to print the right part of the document. For example, in a spreadsheet, make sure you haven’t defined a print area that has the wrong contents. In a multipage form, check that you’re trying to print the correct pages.

Running the Printing Troubleshooter

If the previous approach doesn’t lead you to fix the problem, you can run Windows’s Printing Troubleshooter and have it walk you through the steps of troubleshooting the problem:

1. Choose Start Help And Support. Windows displays a Windows Help and Support window.

2. Type troubleshoot printer problems in the Search box, and then press Enter. Windows displays a list of results.

3. Click the Troubleshoot Printer Problems link, and then follow its suggestions.

Configuring Your Print Server

Apart from the printer, which you saw how to configure earlier in this article, you can also configure the Windows print server - the software that controls the printers attached to your computer. In most cases, the default print server settings work fine, but you can improve your computer’s performance and the printing experience of your print server’s clients by setting the appropriate options. In particular, you may want to move the print server spool folder to a different location than its default location.

Opening the Print Server Properties Dialog Box

To set print server properties, open the Printers window, right-click in open space in the form area where the printers are listed, right-click open space rather than one of the printers, choose Run as Administrator Server Properties from the context menu, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. You can also simply choose Server Properties if you want to view the properties without having permission to set all of them. Windows displays the Print Server Properties dialog box, which contains four pages: Forms, Ports, Drivers, and Advanced.

Creating Custom Forms on the Forms Page

The Forms page of the Print Server Properties dialog box lets you create a new form. Take the following steps:

1. In the Forms On list box, select the existing form on which you want to base the new form.

2. Select the Create a New Form check box.

3. Type the name for the form in the Form Name text box.

4. Use the fields in the Form Description group box to specify the dimensions of the form, its margins, and the measurement units to use Metric or English.

5. Click the Save Form button. Windows saves the form and adds it to the Forms On list box. To delete a form you’ve added, select it in the Forms On list box, and then click the Delete button. Windows doesn’t allow you to delete the built-in forms.

Configuring Ports on the Ports Page

On the Ports page of the Print Server Properties dialog box , you can add new ports, configure existing ports, and delete ports you don’t need anymore. The port configuration options available depend on the type of port involved - printer port, serial port, COM port, print server port, and so on. See the section “Setting Ports Page Options,” earlier in this article, for a discussion of the different port types and the options you can set.

Working with Printer Drivers

The Drivers page of the Print Server Properties dialog box lets you add new drivers, check the properties of existing drivers, replace existing drivers, or delete existing drivers. Normally, if you’ve set up one or more printers for printing on your computer, and they’re printing correctly, you shouldn’t need to make changes here. But you may need to make changes if:

• You share printers on the network with other computers that use different processor types or operating systems - for example, Itanium processors or 64-bit versions of Windows.

• You’ve removed a printer from your computer. Windows leaves the driver on your computer in case you need it again. If you don’t, you can remove it using the Drivers page.

Adding a Driver for Another Processor Type or Operating System

To add a driver, follow these steps:

1. On the Drivers page of the Print Server Properties dialog box, click the Add button. Windows launches the Add Printer Driver Wizard, which displays its Welcome screen.

2. Click the Next button. The wizard displays the Printer and Operating System Selection screen .

3. Select the check box for each processor type or operating system used by a computer on your network that will print using a printer on this computer.

4. Click the Next button. The wizard displays the Printer Driver Selection screen. This screen has the same controls and works in the same way as the Install the Printer Driver screen of the Add Printer Wizard, earlier in this article.

5. Select the printer’s manufacturer in the Manufacturer list, and then select the model in the Printers list. You can also click the Have Disk button to supply a driver that you have on a disk.

6.Click the Next button. The wizard displays the Completing the Add Printer Driver Wizard screen.

7. Click the Finish button. The wizard installs the driver and closes itself.

Removing a Driver

To remove a driver, take the following steps:

1. Select the driver in the Installed Printer Drivers list box on the Drivers page of the Print Server Properties dialog box.

2. Click the Remove button. Windows displays the Remove Driver and Package dialog box, shown here.

3. Select the Remove Driver Only option button if you want to remove only the driver. If you want to remove the driver and its package, select the Remove Driver and Driver Package option button.

4. Click the OK button. Windows displays a confirmation dialog box, as shown here.

5.Click the Yes button. If you’re removing the driver package as well as the driver, Windows displays the Remove Driver Package dialog box, shown here.

6. Click the Delete button. Windows removes the item or items.

7. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Remove Driver Package dialog box.

Choosing Advanced Print Server Options

The Advanced page of the Print Server Properties dialog box contains the following settings:

Spool Folder text box The spool folder is a folder on your hard drive in which Windows stores the spool files for print jobs as they’re being printed. Windows spools the data so that it can return control more quickly to the program that sent the print job. Spool files can be large, particularly for graphical documents, so you may want to move the spool folder to a drive that has plenty of space. The default location for the spool folder is on the partition that contains the Windows system files, but Windows will perform better if you move the spool folder to a different partition.

Log Spooler Error Events Select this check box to make Windows write printer error events to the System log. This behavior is usually helpful.

Log Spooler Warning Events Select this check box to make Windows write printer warning events to the System log. This behavior too is usually helpful.

Log Spooler Information Events Select this check box to make Windows write printer information events to the System log. You probably don’t need printer information such as details on each form that was printed successfully cluttering the System log.

Beep on Errors of Remote Documents Select this check box to make the print server beep when an error occurs when printing a form from another computer.

Show Informational Notifications for Local Printers Select this check box to make Windows display notification-area information pop-ups when the computer is printing to a local printer or a stand-alone network printer. If the printer is attached to the computer, these notifications usually don’t help the user.

Show Informational Notifications for Network Printers Select this check box to make Windows display notification-area information pop-ups when the computer is printing to a printer attached to another computer. This behavior is usually useful.