Printing Offline

If you’re working offline, or if you want to queue up a number of print jobs and let them all run at once, put the printer offline. To do so, right-click the printer in the Printers window, and then choose Use Printer Offline from the context menu. You can then print to the printer as if your computer were connected to it, but instead of sending the data to the printer, Windows holds it in the print queue and saves it to disk. When you’ve reconnected to the printer or when you want to print, if you didn’t disconnect, right-click the printer in the Printers window, and then choose Use Printer Online. Windows starts sending the print jobs to the printer. The printer must be a local printer - you can’t print offline to a network printer.

Creating Multiple Entries for the Same Printer

If you want to use the same printer regularly in different ways, you can create two or more entries for it in the Printers window, and then set different properties for each entry. For example, you might set one printer entry to have a higher priority than the other, and then use that printer entry yourself while assigning the lower-priority printer entry to other users. To create a new entry for the printer, install it again using the technique described earlier in this article. When you install the printer again like this, the Add Printer Wizard displays the Which Version of the Driver Do You Want to Use? screen, which offers you a Use the Driver That Is Currently Installed option button and a Replace the Current Driver option button. Given that the driver is the same, leave the Use the Driver That Is Currently Installed option button selected, and then click the Next button. On the Type a Printer Name page, assign the printer a name that reflects the role you plan for it. For example, if you create a new entry for a printer so that you can use it to print to a file, include that information in the printer’s name and perhaps add it to the printer’s Location and Comment fields as well. After installing the printer, set properties for it to play the role you intend.

Printing to a File

Sometimes you may want to print a document to a file that you can send to someone else for printing or that you can use in another program. For example, if you need to have a document printed on a high-resolution device in your local print shop, you can print the document to a file, put the file on a portable medium, and take it along to the print shop. That way, the print shop doesn’t need to have a copy of the program that created the document, the way it needs one if you copy the document onto a removable disk or recordable CD and take that along to the print shop instead. You can print to a file in any of three ways:

Select the Print to File check box in the Print dialog box When you print from a

program, you can select the Print to File check box in the Print dialog box to print a particular job to a file rather than to a printer.

Configure a printer to always print to a file By configuring a printer always to print to a file, you can turn every job you send to that printer into a print file.

Print to XML Paper Specification By printing to Windows’ XPS format, you can create a file that will look the same on any computer with an XPS viewer. All versions of Windows Vista include an XPS viewer.

Another Means of Printing to a File: Portable Document Format PDF

If you often need to print to a file, or if you need to make read-only versions of documents and retain their layout, another option is to buy Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat produces documents in Portable Document Format PDF, which you can view on most computer operating systems using the free Acrobat Reader, which is available from the Adobe website. Acrobat is more expensive than printing to a file, but in many cases it produces better results with service bureaus than simply printing to a file.

If you have Microsoft Office 2007, you can download from Microsoft’s web site a component that allows the Office 2007 programs to create PDF files.

Printing to a File from the Print Dialog Box

To print to a file from the Print dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Issue a regular Print command as usual. For example, choose File Print or press Ctrl+P. Windows displays the Print dialog box.

2. Select the Print to File check box.

3. Choose any other appropriate printing options as usual for the program.

4. Click the OK button or the Print button, depending on the program. Windows displays the Print to File dialog box, as shown here.

5.Type the filename for the print file. If you want to specify the folder in which the print file is saved, enter the path to the folder before the filename. Otherwise, Windows saves the print file in the program’s current folder.

6. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Print to File dialog box and the Print dialog box and prints the document to the file. Windows gives the file the .prn extension.

Setting a Printer to Always Print to a File

You can also set up a printer so that it prints to a file every time and doesn’t let the user print to a physical printer. This capability is useful when you always need to create print files on a particular printer and don’t want to risk actually printing a document by forgetting to select the Print to File check box in the Print dialog box, or if the printer in question is never available from your computer. To make a printer always print to a file, select the FILE port in the Print to the Following Ports list box on the Ports page of the Properties dialog box for the printer. Windows clears any other port selected for the printer unless you’ve selected the Enable Printer Pooling check box. When you click the OK button and Windows closes the Properties dialog box, Windows displays a disk on the printer icon to indicate that the printer is set up for printing to a file.

Setting “Print to File” as Your Default Printer

If you spend a lot of time on the road or in your local coffee shop, out of reach of any printer, you may want to set “Print to File” as your default printer. If you do, give the virtual printer an easy-to-remember name so that you don’t have to guess whether you’re printing to a real printer or not.

Printing to an XPS File

To print to an XPS file, follow these steps:

1. Issue a regular Print command as usual. For example, choose File Print or press Ctrl+P. Windows displays the Print dialog box.

2. In the list box or drop-down list for selecting the printer, choose the Microsoft XPS Document Writer item.

3. Choose any other appropriate printing options as usual for the program.

4. Click the OK button or the Print button, depending on the program. Windows displays the Save As dialog box.

5. Choose the folder in which to save the XPS file, and assign it a filename.

6. Click the Save button. Windows creates the XPS file.