General Information:

Whenever something is printing, a small printer icon will appear on the taskbar next to the time-of-day.

If you hover the mouse over the printer icon for a few seconds, it will tell you how many documents you have pending. To view printing status, right-click on the printer icon. For more details about the documents printing on your printer, double-click the printer icon.

When all documents are finished printing, the printer icon disappears.

Installing Printers:

To avoid problems, always follow the manufacturers instructions. If the instructions say to hook up the printer before turning on the computer, then do so.

Some manufacturers will provide a Setup program that needs to be run. Usually, you'll insert the CD-ROM or the floppy disk in the drive, click the "Start" button, click "Run...", type "A:SETUP" or "D:SETUP", and click "OK". Then, follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Some manufacturers will have you run the "Add Printer Wizard". To do this, you would click the "Start" button, point to "Settings", click on "Printers", and then double-click "Add Printer". At this point, follow the prompts.

Creating a Shortcut on the Desktop:

To create a shortcut to your printer on the Desktop, click on the "Start" button, point to "Settings", and click on "Printers". Click once on your printer to highlight it. Click on the "File" menu and then click on "Create Shortcut". A message will be displayed asking if you want to create the shortcut on your desktop. Click "Yes".

Now that you have the shortcut on your desktop, you can double-click it at any time to see what documents are printing. You can do much more by using the right mouse button. See the next section.

Using Context Menus

Context Menus are displayed whenever you right-click on an icon. The menu will be different depending on what icon you right-click on. For example, the context menu when you right-click on "My Computer" is different than the one when you click on "Recycle Bin".

If you right-click on your printer shortcut, you will be able to pause printing, resume printing, and set the printer as the default printer (if you have more than one printer). You can also cancel all printing documents by selecting "Purge Print Jobs".

Changing Printer Settings

Follow these steps to change printer properties such as print quality:

• When you are ready to print a document, instead of just clicking the printer icon on the toolbar, click on the "File" menu and select "Print". This will allow you more control on how your document will print. You can change things like what pages to print, and how many copies.
• Click on the "Properties" button. Different printers may have different tabs listed, but most printers have a "Paper" tab and a "Graphics" tab.
• On the "Paper" tab, you can change things like print quality. If you want to save ink and print something in draft mode, you can make the change on this tab. On my Canon printer, there is a box that says "Media Type". I can select from "Plain - High Speed" (i.e. "draft"), "Plain - High Quality" (medium quality), and "Plain - Enhanced Black" (best quality). I can also select "Coated - Enhanced Black" which gives an even higher quality, even when I'm not printing on coated paper.
• On the "Graphics" tab, you can change the quality of how graphics will print. On my Canon printer, I can choose how detailed the graphics are. I can also lighten or darken them. If I click the "Color" button, I can choose to print in black and white, or in various degrees of color.
• Some printers allow you to set up different printing profiles and save them. You could set up a profile for draft printing, one for printing black and white text, and one for high-quality color printing.

You can also get to the printer properties from your desktop. If you created a printer icon on the desktop, double-click on it. Otherwise, click on the "Start" button, point to "Settings", click on "Printers", and double-click on your printer. From the "Printer" menu, select "Properties".

Troubleshooting

If your document doesn't print, there are several things you can check:

• Make sure there is paper in the printer and that there are no error lights on. Also, make sure the printer is "On Line". Sometimes there is an "On-Line" or "Pause" button that needs to be pressed.
• Make sure the printer is on and that the printer cable is still plugged in. Both the power cable and the data cable need to be plugged in.
• Has the printer run out of toner or ink? If so, install a new toner cartridge, ink cartridge, or ribbon.
• Have you ever been able to print to this printer? If not, maybe you need to reinstall the printer driver. It's probably best to delete the printer first before reinstalling it. To delete a printer, open up the "Printers" folder by clicking the "Start" button, pointing to "Settings", and clicking on "Printers". Click once on the printer to highlight it. Then, press the "Delete" key on your keyboard. After deleting the printer, reinstall it per the manufacturer's instructions.
• If you're still having problems, check your hard disk space. You need at least 2MB or more to print a document. Larger documents need even more. To check your free space, double-click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Click once on the hard disk icon, click the "File" menu, and then click "Properties". If you don't have enough space, empty your recycle bin, delete unnecessary files, or uninstall programs you don't use anymore.

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