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Configuring a Printer

This section discusses how to configure a printer - everything from setting a printer as your default to telling it what kind of separator pages to print.

Setting a Printer as Your Default

Your default printer is the one that Windows assumes you want to print to unless you specify another printer. Windows displays a green circle with a white check mark on the default printer in the Printers window and in the Select Printer box in most Print dialog boxes so that you can identify your default printer at a glance. To set a printer as your default, right-click it in the Printers window, and then choose Set as Default Printer from the context menu. To set properties for a printer, display its Properties dialog box by taking either of the following actions:

• Right-click the printer in the Printers window, and then choose Properties from the context menu.

• Select the printer in the Printers window, and then click the Set Printer Properties button on the toolbar. Normally, this button appears on the hidden section of the toolbar, so you’ll need to click the Display Additional Commands button the button with the two chevrons, >>,and then click Set Printer Properties on the drop-down menu.

The following sections discuss the standard options in the Properties dialog box for a printer. Depending on the type of printer you’re using and the printer driver you installed for it, you may see other pages than these. For example, for a color printer you’ll see a Color Management page, on which you can associate color profiles with the printer so that you get approximately the colors you want. For an inkjet printer, you may see a Utilities page or a Maintenance page that offers options such as Nozzle Check and Head Cleaning.

Setting General Page Options

The General page of the Properties dialog box for a printer contains the following options:

Printer Name text box This text box contains the name you entered for the printer during setup or a default name that Windows provided on the basis of the printer driver used. You can change the name by typing in the text box.

Location text box In this text box, you can enter any location information about the printer - for example, the room in which it is located or the computer to which it is attached. This information is more useful when you’re sharing a printer on the network than when the printer is used only by your computer.

Comment text box In this text box, you can enter further information about the printer - for example, which kind of print jobs to use it for and which to avoid. This information too is primarily useful when you’re sharing the printer on the network, but you might also use it to note that the printer is loaded with a special type of paper.

Features list box This list box provides information about the printer’s capabilities, such as whether it can print in color, print double-sided, staple, and so on.

Printing Preferences button Click this button to display the Printing Preferences dialog box, on whose pages you can choose options for layout, paper selection, and print quality. Different settings are available for different printers. The settings are implemented through the printer driver, so updating the driver may make more settings available to you.

Print Test Page button Click this button to print a test page to the printer to make sure it’s handling text and graphics correctly.

Setting Sharing Page Options

The Sharing page of the Properties dialog box for a printer contains options for sharing the printer on the network. Article 27 discusses how to use these options.

Setting Ports Page Options

The Ports page of the Properties dialog box for a printer contains options for creating, deleting, and configuring ports. Normally, you won’t need to change the port the printer uses, but you may want to implement printer pooling if you have two printers.

Creating a Printer Port

Windows automatically provides you with three printer ports LPT1 through LPT3, four serial ports COM1 through COM4, and several other types of ports, so normally you’d add a port only in these circumstances:

• When your printer or other output device requires a specialized port setup. In this case, you need an initialization file a file with an INF extension from the manufacturer of the printer or device.

• When you need to use a TCP/IP port. In this case, you need to know the details of the port you’re creating.

To create a new port, install the device and take the following steps:

1. Click the Add Port button.

2. To create a new local port, select the Local Port item in the Available Port Types list box, and then click the New Port Type button. Windows displays the Installing Print Monitor dialog box, which you use to select the printer initialization file containing the port monitor installation information. Windows then installs the port.

3. To create a new standard TCP/IP port for a network printer, select the Standard TCP/IP Port item in the Available Port Types list box, and then click the New Port button. Windows starts the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard, which walks you through the process of adding a TCP/IP port and then returns you to the Printer Ports dialog box. You will need to know the IP address of the printer.

4. Click the Close button. Windows closes the Printer Ports dialog box, returning you to the Ports page of the Properties dialog box for the printer.

Deleting a Printer Port

Windows doesn’t let you delete any of the system ports that come built in, but you can delete any custom ports that you create. To delete a port, take the following steps:

1. Select the port in the Print to the Following Ports list box.

2. Click the Delete Port button. Windows displays the Delete Port dialog box.

3. Click the Yes button.

Configuring a Printer Port

Windows offers only one configuration setting for a parallel port: the number of seconds allowed to elapse before Windows decides the printer has taken a hike. To set this timeout, follow these steps:

1. Select the port in the Print to the Following Ports list.

2. Click the Configure Port button. Windows displays the Configure LPT Port dialog box, shown here.

3. In the Transmission Retry text box, enter the number of seconds you wish Vista to continue retrying to submit the print job before canceling the print operation.

4. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Configure LPT Port dialog box. For TCP/IP port monitors, Windows offers further configuration options.

Using Bidirectional Support

If the Enable Bidirectional Support check box is available, you can select it to allow the printer to send status information back to the computer. For example, the printer can notify you that it’s running out of ink or paper.

Using Printer Pooling

If you have two or more identical printers, you can pool them to create a single logical printer capable of twice the throughput. Set up the printers as usual, and then select the Enable Printer Pooling check box for each printer. In the Print to the Following Ports list box, select the appropriate ports. You can then print to the printer pool, and Windows will use the first printer that’s available. Printer pooling is widely used in offices, but it tends to be overkill for most home printing.

Setting Advanced Page Options

The Advanced page of the Properties dialog box for a printer contains a slew of options for everything from setting availability times for printers to adding separator pages between print jobs.

Setting Availability Options

By default, Windows sets the printer to be always available, selecting the Always Available option button. This setting is useful for many home or office situations, but you may want to limit availability in some situations. For example, you might want to prevent people from printing at night if that might disturb the household. To limit availability, select the Available From option button, and then use the “two time” text boxes to specify the range of time the printer should be available.

Setting the Priority

You need set the priority for the printer only when you’re using multiple printer entries - software entities that represent the printer. Printer entries are a way of managing the printer. See “Creating Multiple Entries for the Same Printer,” later in this article. To set the priority for the printer, adjust the setting in the Priority text box. You can set priorities from 1 the lowest priority to 99 the highest priority. Each job printed by this printer entry gets the same priority, so by setting one printer entry to a higher priority than another, you can give priority to the computers or jobs that use that printer entry.

Changing the Driver

You can change the printer driver to another currently installed printer driver by using the Driver drop-down list. To install a new printer driver, click the New Driver button. Windows starts the Add Printer Driver Wizard, which walks you through the process of installing the driver.

Choosing Spooling Options

As you’ll remember from the section “How Does a Print Job Get Printed?” earlier in this article, the print driver saves information to the hard disk and from there sends it along to the printer. This process, spooling, lets you continue your work without having to wait while the program you’re working in sends every byte of the print job down the cable to the printer. By default, Windows selects the Spool Print Documents so Program Finishes Printing Faster option button and its suboption, the Start Printing Immediately option button. If starting printing

warned that printing this way can be very slow. Even if the printer is connected to your computer via a highspeed USB connection, the printer’s memory buffer may not be able to hold an entire print job at once.

Choosing Other Options

The next four options defy easy grouping:

Hold Mismatched Documents Select this check box if you want Windows to make sure the spooled document matches the printer setup before sending the document to the printer. If the document doesn’t match the printer setup, Windows holds the document in the print queue.

Print Spooled Documents First Select this check box if you want spooled documents to print before partially spooled documents that carry a higher priority. This setting improves printer efficiency but is relevant only if you use printer priorities.

Keep Printed Documents Select this check box if you want to keep the spooled files on disk so that you can resend them to the printer from the print queue if necessary. Use this option only if you’re having difficulty printing documents correctly - for example, if you’re reconfiguring your printer and don’t want to waste time and effort by resending the print job from the program. The spooled files consume disk space, so you won’t normally want to keep them.

Enable Advanced Printing Features Clear this check box if you want to disable advanced printing features such as booklet printing in order to troubleshoot printing problems.

Setting Printing Defaults

To set default properties for the printer, click the Printing Defaults button and choose options in the resulting Printing Defaults dialog box. For example, you might want to change the printer from printing in portrait orientation to printing in landscape orientation, or make it print in back-to-front order instead of in front-to-back order.

Changing the Print Processor

To use a different print processor or a different data type, click the Print Processor button, and then choose settings in the resulting Print Processor dialog box. Don’t mess with this setting unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing.

Using Separator Pages

To make Windows print a separator page between print jobs, click the Separator Page button. Windows displays the Separator Page dialog box, as shown here. Click the Browse button, use the resulting Separator Page dialog box a common Open dialog box to locate the separator page file, and then click the OK button. Windows closes the Separator Page dialog box. Windows includes several separator page files, which have the SEP extension. You can also create custom separator files of your own by using a text editor such as Notepad.

Device Settings Page Options

The Device Settings page of the Properties dialog box contains settings specific to your printer. For example, for many printers you can change the paper assigned to the paper trays or choose options for manual feed.

Color Management Page Options

If your printer supports color printing, its Properties dialog box should include a Color Management page. This page contains a Color Management button that you can click to open Windows Vista’s Color Management application. Color management lets you adjust the way that colors look on different devices. For example, you may find that colors in photos look different on screen than they look when they print. If that bothers you and many people either don’t notice or don’t care, or simply curse the printer, you can use color management to try to make the colors match. The basic color management adjustment is to make a different color profile the default profile for a device for example, for a printer. To do so, take the following steps:

1. On the Color Management page of the printer’s Properties dialog box, click the Color Management button. Windows displays the Color Management application.

2. On the Devices page , select the printer in the Device drop-down list.

3. Select the Use My Settings for this Device check box.

4.In the Profile Selection drop-down list, choose the Manual item.

5. In the Profiles Associated with This Device list box, click the profile you want to use, and then click the Set as Default Profile button.

6. Click the Close button. Windows closes the Color Management dialog box and returns you to the Properties dialog box for the printer.

Removing a Printer

To remove a printer, take the following steps:

1. In the Printers window, right-click the printer, and then choose Delete from the context menu. Alternatively, click the printer, and then click the Delete this Printer button on the toolbar or, if necessary, click the Display Additional Commands button, and then click Delete this Printer on the drop-down menu. Windows displays a Printers dialog box asking if you’re sure, as shown here.

2. Click the Yes button. Windows closes the Printers dialog box and removes the printer, but it leaves the printer driver on your computer so that you can create the printer again easily if you need to.