Printing Tips

Expand Your Printer's Allowable Printing Area

Printing the "unprintable"... (no, not forbidden text ;-)

Most printers have an "unprintable" border area for each page printed. Check your printer's manual for its minimum settings and make sure they match the settings listed in Windows under "Unprintable Area."

Click Start > Settings > Printers to open the printer's dialog box. Select your printer, choose File/Properties, then click the Paper tab. If the settings are too high, lower them to increase the printable area. ** Don't lower them past what your printer manual calls for. Experiment to get the printable area you want.

How To Print Only the Part You Need

Here's a tip to help you save on ink and paper...

Want a printed copy of only part of the information on a web page and don't want to copy the entire page or multiple pages? There are a couple of options:

1) Highlight the part of message desired, then copy and paste to a blank email and print it without sending the message. Cancel the email and you have a copy of the desired information.

2) If you are using Internet Explorer: From the web page you are on, highlight the text you want to print. Click on File/Print. In the print dialog window, under "Print range" click on "Selection" and then click the "OK" button at the bottom. Only the text you have highlighted will print.

Paper Orientation -- aka How To Print Sideways or "Legally"

Many printers will allow you to change the paper size or layout for printing.

If you wish to change it for all printing jobs, do the following:

1. Click Start > Settings > Printers.
2. Right-click the icon for the printer you are using, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Paper tab and make your desired changes. You can change this setting again.

To change these settings for just one document, click the File menu in the program you are using, then click Page Setup or Print Setup and make your desired changes. This will affect only the current print job.

Should You Use the Print Spooler, and If So, When?

Here's another way to improve your printing speed:

Windows defaults to spooling print jobs. The Print Spooler is a background program that writes data to temporary files in your C:\Windows\Temp directory. Although this lets you perform other tasks while you print, it does slow printing. On most printers, you can turn off the spooler by going to Start > Settings > Printers. Right-click on the icon of the printer you're using. Click Properties and select the Details tab. Click on the Spool Settings button at the bottom of the dialog box. Select the Print Directly to Printer option. This will tie up your application until the printer has all the data, but your print job should finish more quickly. Printing directly to the printer will also come in handy if your print spooler crashes and you need to print before you reboot your PC.

Print Documents Faster the Second Time Around! (Win 2000/XP only)

Windows 98 and ME deletes your print jobs from the printer spool as soon as they print. So the following won't work for those systems. A little-known and handy setting found only in Windows 2000 and XP allows you to keep your print documents for later and print them faster. For Win 2000, turn on the option in your printer's Properties dialog box. Go to Start > Settings > Printers. In XP, open Control Panel, click on Printers and Other Hardware, and select View Installed Printers. Right-click your printer and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab, check Keep Printed Documents and click OK. To create a shortcut to the printer spool: In the Printers or Printers and Faxes window, either right-click the printer icon and send the shortcut to your desktop or drag & drop the icon to your desktop or your Start menu. To reprint a document, just launch the printer shortcut, right-click the document file and select Restart.

Save Each Favorite Printer Setting by Tricking Your Computer

If you frequently use different printer settings when using your printer, such as black & white drafts versus color documents, you've no doubt found out it is a real hassle to change these settings each time you print. Why not trick Windows into thinking you have two different printers? "Install" the same printer twice, then set the Properties for each to match your most commonly used settings. From then on, the only setting change you'll have to make is selecting the printer you want to use.

Here's how:

To install a second version of your printer, select Start > Settings > Printers and click Add Printer. Be sure to give this "other" printer an appropriate name, such as "ColorPrinter". When the installation is complete, you'll see two different printer icons in the Printers window, and you can adjust their properties accordingly. Then just right-click on the printer icons and create a shortcut to your desktop. **You can also drag and drop documents to be printed onto the shortcut for instant printing!

One Simple Trick To Print Faster AND Cheaper!

Speed up your printer's output and save money! You can trick an inkjet into speeding up, and save a few bucks in the process: Turn off the color. Yep, it's that simple. See, unless color is crucial for your document, you're wasting ink and slowing down the printer if you output in color.

Don't believe us? Test it... Print a color page, then print it again in grayscale. To do this, go to Start > Settings > Printers and right-click on the printer's icon. Go to Properties and find the tab that lets you change from color to grayscale. Now, print the page again. The file I tested took more than 2 minutes to print in color; the grayscale version took only 35 seconds. When you do need color, simply change the settings back.

Cool Tricks for Printing Web Pages (and more!)

Most people know how easy it is to print out a Web page while visiting a site. But Internet Explorer makes it even easier by allowing you to print out the Web pages in your Favorites menu without even visiting the site itself! Just right-click the page from the Favorites menu and select Print from the pop-up menu. Internet Explorer will send the Web page directly to your printer.

If a site uses frames (where sections of the page scroll independently of each other), you can quickly print a single frame. In Internet Explorer, just right-click inside the frame, then select Print.

Save Paper In MS Word 2000

If you want to create a reference copy of a long document, why not print several pages on a single sheet of paper? Here's how: Open the document in Word 2000 and select File > Print, just as you normally do. When the Print dialog box appears, drop down the Pages Per Sheet in the bottom right corner, choose 4 pages, then click OK. Your document will print with four pages on each sheet.

No fax machine? Use Windows XP to send and recieve faxes!

Not everyone has a dedicated fax machine in their home or office. Windows XP includes a fax service that provides you with complete faxing capabilities. Using your computer, you can send, receive, track, and monitor faxes.

The Fax service is NOT installed with XP by default. If you want to use this feature, you have to install it. The process is pretty simple. To install the fax component:

- Click Start and click Control Panel.
- Double click the Add or Remove Programs applet.
- Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
- From the list of Windows Components, click Fax Services.
- Click Next. If prompted, insert the XP CD.
- Click Finish.
- Click Close.

Once you have the Fax service installed, you MUST configure it before you can start using it. To configure the Fax service:

- Click Start, point to All Programs, Accessories, Communications, Fax, and click the Fax Console. (this launches the Fax Configuration Wizard). Click Next.

- Type in the information that you want to appear on the fax cover page. Click Next.

- Select the modem that you want to use for faxing. Click Next.

- Enable Send is selected by default. Select Enable Receive if you want to receive faxes as well. Click Next.

- In the TSID box, type in the Transmitting Subscriber Identification. Click Next.

- In the CSID box, type in the Called Subscriber Identification. Click Next.

Select the Print it on option if you want received faxes to be automatically printed. Select the printer where the faxes will be printed. Click Next. Review the summary and click Finish.