Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority

Subject: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 07:14 PM

As I've mentioned a time or two I'm good on the computer only when there are no problems. I've had such good luck with the Mudcat on other small matters that I'm shooting for it again.

I recently got a new Dell and am running Win XP. No problems, other than when I want to print something it is the Fax capability that pops up. That's not a big problem for most printing jobs; it's easy to change the field to Printer.

However, when I want to address an envelope through Tools/Envelopes and Labels, it doesn't give me the option of changing to the Printer.

I'm sure it's a small thing- but how do I do it?

Thank you in advance.

Eb

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 07:20 PM

I don't know XP but it sounds as if fax is set as the default printer. On Win 2K, it is Start/Settings/Printers. Open that and righ click on the printer that you want as default. Make sure set default priner has a tick by it - if not left click it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 07:46 PM

I'm running XP (also on a Dell) and the routine for setting the default printer is exactly the same as Jon describes for Win2K. Only difference is how pretty the "Start" button looks.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 09:32 PM

Thank you, Jon and Poppa! I have now ticked the printer and checked and it's just the way I want it.

(My Start button is is astro-turf green. Can I change that?? 'SOK- I can live with it...)

Thanks again. You're so good.

Eb

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 09:57 PM

Setting the default printer will change what pops up when you click a print button, but you should learn - for your setup - how to do "on the fly" selections.

What pops up when you click print varies with the driver(s) installed for your default printer, and sometimes with what program you're in. For most print functions it will stop for a "confirm click" at least, and most of the "confirm" menus will have either a scroll box near the top showing what "printer" is selected. You can change the printer selection at that point, if the option is present.

Some printers, when set to be your default, will give a confirm box that doesn't have the scroll box, but most of these will have something like a "format" or "page setup" button, and if you click it one of the options should be to select/change the printer you want. You may also run into this kind of setup printing from certain programs, regardless of what printer is your default - especially true for graphics programs that assume you'll want to do a lot of "formatting."

It is, I've heard, possible to set up a "printer" to send without a confirmation, but you'd almost have to do it "on purpose." If you've been "gifted" with this kind of set up, I'd recommend getting rid of it; but use your own preferences. You may find the controls to do so either in the "Properties" for the printer, or more likely in something like a "Preferences" setup in a program you use that "does it to you." Since you seldom do much formatting for FAX, I suppose it would be a likely one for this kind of abuse. I don't use FAX, so haven't looked specifically at a FAX printer setup - or display - in several years.

A few web sites that offer a "print" button may script the "execute" directly into the button so that whatever you print comes out of your default printer immediately, giving you no chance to change the printer selection. I find this rude, but they seem to think it prevents you from copying to file instead of just printing their choice of what's on the page that they want you to have. So they're wrong - and rude.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 10:01 PM

Glad it worked Ebbie.

I presume the letter thing was in Word. I've just had a look at my version of Word and can't see a method of changing a printer from there. It does appear though that if you went File/Print, you can change the printer from there and click cancel. The change is retained and is picked up by the letter option.

Thinking printers and defaults, did you know you can add the same printer more than once? I found that handy when I only had one printer. I had "Epson Black" with settings for fast B/W printing and "Epson Color" with settings for colour printing on photo inkjet paper. I do pretty much the same now except I now have 2 printers - I use a Stylus 880 mostly for much faster and cheaper (compared to my other printer) B/W printing and an R200 for photos, etc.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 10:04 PM

Thanks, John. Just as you described, my printer asks me to confirm a print order. It was only the addressing the envelope feature that didn't give me an alternative.

The funny thing is that in the Printer/Fax frame, neither one was 'ticked'. It is now.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 10:14 PM

Ebbie -

Color schemes are Start - Settings - Control Panel, double-click "Display." Color choices should be on the "Appearance" tab. The "Desktop" tab also has a few things you can play with. Buttons generally are all part of "theme" settings, so changing one changes them all. There are a number of "canned" variations available, and someone probably has just selected something "special" for you. Nearly everything there has a "Restore Defaults" choice, so it's fairly safe to play around with it. If you start having unexplained eye strain and/or headaches, go back and Restore Defaults.

It is possible to change the icon used for a single button or shortcut, but messing with the "standard" icons isn't really recommended. The icons for built-in functions are often embedded in programs, and it's easy to corrupt the program if you mess with them too randomly.

I seem to recall seeing a lot of "green stuff" in one of the "new" defaults, but I use the "Classic Standard" on everything - much easier on the eyes (and mind).

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 10:50 PM

I know my printer drivers can provide a print preview but I don't think I've seen a printer pop up a confirmation dialogue.

There are of course exception but most programs I use call up the Windows Print Dialog function which is part of the Common Dialog Libary to obtain details such as whether to print, number of copies, call up the printer drivers own properties page(s), etc. The program then acts on the return value of the dialog function which is set by the user clicking OK or Cancel.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 11:12 PM

In some older versions of Word, you could pick printer in Word and click a "make default" box; and it would apply to all Office programs. That option seems to have gone away in XP, in favor of the somewhat simpler setup via Start - Settings - Printers. (That's "simpler" as compared to going all the way into Control Panel to get to printers, as you did in some older versions.)

The "new Word" Envelopes and Labels are one of those places where you don't get an option to switch printers, and I suspect that some of the Mail Merge and Form Letter choices may be similar, but I haven't looked. I don't often use the "standard" setup, even for envelopes, because I often like to "add graphics." It could probably be done simply enough in the "canned" methods, but I haven't bothered. Just make a picture and print to "envelope size paper." And I don't send enough mail to need "automation."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 11:16 PM

Guest Jon -

Doesn't the "Print Dialogue Function" ask you to "Confirm Print" choices?

Everything has a formal name, but I didn't think it necessary for the subject at hand. Sorry if my "colloquialism" was misunderstood.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 06:57 AM

Sorry John, you did have me confused.

As for "necessary for the subject at hand", I wouldn't have gone into that depth but when statements like " What pops up when you click print varies with the driver(s) installed for your default printer..." are made, I think the level of the conversation has reached the point where people do need to understand what does what especially the need to distinguish between built in functions of Windows (or of the application) and those of a printer driver. What pops up initially when you do something like go file/print is usually nothing to do with a print driver.

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 07:03 PM

Jon -

Sometimes it's a fine line between trying to speak directly to the person who asked the question, in terms they'll pick up, and avoiding confusion for others, who see things differently, or see a different problem.

Since you answered the original question in your first post, perhaps I did wander a bit.

You're quite correct, of course, that when you make the first step to print it's usually the program you're in that produces the first dialogue screen, and a screen that offers options about format, page layout, or size probably originates in the program. The formatting and resizing needs to be done by the program, within the program, before anything is passed to the printer - or before you are handed on to a true "printer dialogue" that's directly based on the print driver.

Many programs, though, do vary the options offered in the "program's print dialogue" based on the default printer you have set up, and in fact the printer selection, and properties from the print driver, can be passed back into program dialogues in quite a lot of places.

A classic example of "printer properties" obtained from the "printer driver" being "passed back" to the program was in very old Word versions, where selecting a font while entering text was affected by the default printer choice. You would be offered only those fonts the default printer could print. Change the default printer, and you might get different typefaces to choose from. The program obtained, from the print driver, information on what fonts the default printer could handle, and offered only those fonts on internal program dialogue screens. It was very important that you compose your document for the specific printer you intended to use, if exact appearance of the print was important.

Note for those with "very old Word" who haven't seen this: Drivers currently available for even very old printers now provide "aliasing" to allow all printers to print nearly all fonts, so the effect of this "feature" is pretty much invisible on most reasonably current machines. Updates to the old Office programs may also have expanded the font handling capabilities as well. Even if the feature is still "functional," it only appears if you have mixed font kinds, Adobe (Type 2), TrueType, Bitstream, etc., installed.

Some programs give you places to put in, in the dialogue that comes directly from the program, information that you will have a chance to change when you get to the "printer dialogue," since the program "knows" - from the default printer driver - how the information can be passed on at the next step where you speak directly to the "printer." The program may need to know what the later "printer" settings will be in order to complete formatting, before you're sent to the printer dialogue. The selection of a default printer and the driver installed for that printer may affect what options appear in the program's print setup dialogue, as well as "inside" the program in places one wouldn't expect.

For most uses, it doesn't matter whether you're talking to the program, or to the print spool, or to the printer itself. It's all just "Printing." It does matter that you select a default printer appropriate for the intended end use, because the program itself may get information about the intended end use from the driver for the printer set as default while the "page" is being created, formatted, and printed. Features available in the program can, and often do, depend on what default printer is selected.

Most recent Office programs are capable of handling features even a fairly "sophisticated" printer might use. In many cases, the newer Office programs will let you use some features the default printer doesn't know about, since the ability to send the page, with those extra features ignored, in printer-appropriate form, is part of the newer programs and print drivers - and you might want to send the page to someone with a better printer that recognizes the features. Other programs, some quite sophisticated, and older Office programs, may not be this flexible, and will only allow you to use features that the default printer can read - because the "default driver" tells them what they can let you use with the default printer.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Printer vs Fax Priority
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 09:05 PM

Well done JiK...

Life is not black and white, but shades of grey.....   :-)