Running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

What Windows calls a printer is more precisely a constellation of settings applied to an output device, referred to as the printing device. That device can be a traditional printer, a fax modem, a disk file, or perhaps something else altogether. Each combination of settings and output device constitutes a logical printer. Each logical printer is treated as a separate device and is displayed as a separate icon in your Printers folder. You can install as many logical printers as you like, and you can install multiple logical printers for the same physical printing device.

The settings that make up a logical printer include the following:

• The name of the printer
• A share name, if the printer is available to other network users
• For shared printers, a description that network users will see when they browse My Network Places in search of a printer (if they use Details view)
• The port to which the printing device is connected
• The driver—a software component that enables Windows to translate output into the language used by the printing device
• Various properties, including the amount of memory in the printing device, any font cartridges or soft fonts in use, and so on; the available properties vary from printer to printer
• Certain other defaults, such as the paper tray to be used, page orientation, and printing resolution
• The name of a separator-page file, if one is to be used

You might find it useful to set up several logical printers for a single printing device if you frequently switch among groups of settings. If you often switch between portrait and landscape orientations, upper and lower paper trays, or duplex and single-sided printing, for example, you can set up a logical printer for each. This way, you can simply select a different "printer" to change settings.

Adding a Local Printer

To add a local printer—one that's directly attached to your computer, either by cable or by an infrared link—begin by setting up the physical printing device and attaching its cables. If the printing device you want to install conforms to the Plug and Play standard, Windows should recognize it and know automatically what kind of printing device it is, how much memory it has, what font cartridges are installed, what paper tray it's set up to use, and possibly other details.

If you connect a Plug and Play printing device to your computer while Windows isn't running, at the beginning of your next Windows session, Plug and Play detects the device and installs the requisite driver. Depending on the device, the Add Printer Wizard may appear and ask you a few questions.

NOTE

To begin installing a non-Plug and Play printing device, or to create a new logical printer using a printing device that's already installed:

1. Open the Start menu, point to Settings, and choose Printers to open the Printers folder.
2. Open Add Printer to launch the Add Printer Wizard.
3. On the wizard's Welcome page, click Next.

This brings you to the Local Or Network Printer page.

4. If the printing device you're installing is physically connected to your own computer, select the Local Printer option.

NOTE

5. Select the Automatically Detect And Install My Plug And Play Printer check box and click Next.

If Windows detects your printing device, you can skip most of the remaining steps in the following sections. And if it doesn't, you'll see a page informing you that Windows was unable to detect any Plug and Play printers. In that case, continue to the next section.

Specifying Printer Ports

If Windows is unable to detect a Plug and Play printer in step 5 above, click Next. The wizard then displays the page shown in Figure 24-3, where you tell Windows which port to use. (The port provides the physical link between your computer and your printing device.)

Figure 24-3. The wizard needs to know which port your printing device is connected to.

The ports most commonly used for printing are LPT1 (or LPT with some other number) for a printing device that uses a parallel cable, and COM1 (or COM with some other number) for a printing device that uses a serial cable.

Printing to a Disk File

To send your output to a disk file, select FILE as your printer port. Windows will prompt for a filename whenever you print. You can copy the resulting disk file to a physical printer later. For example, if you have a printing device attached to LPT1, you can copy a print file to the printing device by opening the Start menu and choosing Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. Then, in the command prompt window, type

where filename is the name of the file you want to print. The print-to-file option is also useful if the printing device on which you ultimately intend to print isn't attached to your network—for example, if you plan to use a service bureau to generate high-resolution PostScript output.

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Adding a Port

In certain instances, you'll need to connect a printer to a port that doesn't yet appear in the wizard's list. For example, some printing devices have ports that allow them to be connected directly to the network instead of connecting them to a computer. These are called network-interface printers. Even printing devices that don't have a built-in network interface can be connected to an external device, such as a Hewlett-Packard JetDirect network interface, that allows a printing device to be placed anywhere on the network without being tethered to a computer.

If you're going to use your computer to manage such a printer, you must add a driver that lets your computer communicate with the printer. Doing so adds an entry to the list of available ports on your computer.

NOTE

The first step in adding a port is to select Create A New Port on the Select A Printer Port page of the Add Printer Wizard. Beyond that, the details depend on the type of network-interface printer you have. You'll need to refer to the documentation for the printer or the network-interface device.

Specifying a Driver

After you select a port and click Next, the Add Printer Wizard displays a page similar to the one shown in Figure 24-4, where you indicate the make and model of your printing device so that Windows can install the appropriate driver for it.

Figure 24-4. Windows supports hundreds of printers. Odds are, you'll find your make and model in these two list boxes.

After you've made your selections in the list boxes shown in Figure 24-4, Windows might prompt you to insert the Windows CD so that it can copy the necessary files to your system. If the required driver is already present on your hard disk, the wizard asks your permission to use it. (Knowing that your intention might be to install an updated version of the driver, the wizard doesn't assume it should use the existing driver.)

What to Do If Your Printer Isn't on the List

If your printing device isn't on the list of supported printers shown in Figure 24-4, you can click Windows Update (which connects to Microsoft's Windows Update Web site) to see whether a printer driver for Windows 2000 is available. If you received a driver disk with your printer or can obtain one from your printer vendor (check their Web site), click Have Disk and follow the prompts to direct the Add Printer Wizard to your driver file.

If no driver is available, check your printer documentation to see whether your printing device emulates another printer make and model—one for which a Windows 2000 driver is available. If your printing device can emulate a supported printing device, use the emulation mode and select the supported driver on the wizard page shown in Figure 24-4.

Naming the Printer

After you specify a driver and click Next, the wizard asks you to name your new printer, as shown in Figure 24-5. The name you choose here will appear under the printer icon in your Printers folder, as well as in your programs' Print dialog boxes.

Figure 24-5. The Add Printer Wizard proposes to use the driver name as the printer name—but you can change it to something more meaningful.

The Name Your Printer page also lets you set this printer as your default printer—the one that Windows uses unless you specify another. For more information about the default printer, see "Selecting a Printer."

You can easily revise the choices you make on this page at any time. To rename a printer, simply right-click it in the Printers folder and choose Rename. To make a printer the default, right-click it and choose Set As Default.

Sharing the Printer

After naming your new printer and clicking Next, you arrive at the Add Printer Wizard's Printer Sharing page.

To share your printer with other users on the network, select Share As and then type a share name.

The share name is the name that other users will see when they connect to your printer. If you choose to share your printer, the wizard's next page asks you to supply a descriptive comment and identify the location of the printer. Users can read the comment and location information by inspecting the printer properties on their systems.

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Printing a Test Page and Finishing the Installation

As the final step in the installation process, the Add Printer Wizard offers to send a test page to your new printer. This is a good idea. If you've made any incorrect choices on the wizard's pages (such as choosing the wrong port), it's better to find out now rather than when you're trying to generate some real output under a deadline.

When you've completed the test page, click Next. The final page of the Add Printer Wizard presents a summary of the options you've chosen. If any are incorrect, use the Back button to return to the relevant page of the wizard and make necessary changes. When they're correct, click Finish and the printer will be installed and will appear in your Printers folder as the wizard closes.

Inspecting and Setting Printer Properties

The most crucial questions regarding printer setup—the printer driver and the port to be used—get resolved at the time the printer is installed. The decisions you make in these matters are recorded in your printer's properties dialog box, which you can inspect by right-clicking the printer's icon in your Printers folder and choosing Properties. They're also recorded in the Windows registry so the information is available to inquiring programs.

The properties dialog box stores many additional choices, however, that affect the behavior of your printer. You should visit the properties dialog box after installing a new printer to make sure all options are set as you want them. You might also have occasion to change properties as you work.

Property options vary from printer to printer. In the next several pages, we survey some of the most important options you're likely to find in your printer's properties dialog box.

NOTE

In Windows 95 and Windows 98, the properties dialog box includes settings for selecting the default paper tray, orientation, and other document-related options. In Windows 2000 (as in Windows NT), the default document settings aren't part of the printer's properties dialog box; instead, you set those options in a separate dialog box. To get to that dialog box, right-click the printer icon and choose Printing Preferences. (You can also get there from the General tab of the printer's properties dialog box: click the Printing Preferences button.) For information about document defaults, see "Setting Printing Preferences."

Providing a Comment

On the General tab in most printer properties dialog boxes, you can enter a comment describing the printer. This information appears in the Print dialog box and in the Printers folder (in Details view). Figure 24-6 shows an example of the General tab.

Figure 24-6. On the General tab in a printer's properties dialog box, you can describe the printer and print a test page.

Changing the Port

Should you ever need to change the port for a printer, you can do that on the Ports tab in the printer's properties dialog box. (See Figure 24-7.) Simply select a different port. If you want to add a new port (such as a network port), click Add Port.

Setting Up a Printer Pool

If you have more than one printer of the same make and model attached to your computer, you can join them in a printer pool. Output is then directed to the first selected port that has an available printer. To set up a printer pool:

1. On the Ports tab of the printer's properties dialog box, select the Enable Printer Pooling check box.
2. Select each port that is connected to a printer of the type you're pooling.

Figure 24-7. The Ports tab in a printer's properties dialog box lets you change ports and set up printer pools.

Changing Drivers

If by any chance you've installed the wrong driver for your printer, you can fix the problem by going to the Advanced tab of the printer's properties dialog box. The Driver list includes all the drivers currently installed on your system; simply select one in the list to begin using it. If the one you want isn't on the Driver list, click the New Driver button. Windows displays the introductory page of the Add Printer Wizard and, after you click Next, displays the page listing printer manufacturers and models, as shown in Figure 24-4.

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Configuring Printer Sharing

The Sharing tab in a printer's properties dialog box lets you make a printer available to other network users. Simply select Shared As and provide a share name. Although Windows 2000 permits spaces and other characters in printer names, to ensure that users who are running another operating system can connect to your printer, you should be less flamboyant in your choice of a share name:

• Use only letters and numbers; don't use spaces, punctuation, or special characters.
• The entire universal naming convention (UNC) name, including the requisite backslashes and your computer name, should be 31 or fewer characters. For example, if your computer name is EVERGLADES, the share name should be 18 characters or less, which results in a UNC name something like \\EVERGLADES\HPLASERJET4000.
• If any MS-DOS users will connect to the printer, the share name must be no longer than 8 characters.

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NOTE

If some of the other users on your network aren't using Windows 2000, click Additional Drivers to display the dialog box shown in Figure 24-8. Select the check box for each operating system in use by the others who will use your printer. When you do this, Windows installs appropriate drivers for the other operating systems on your computer; when another user connects to your printer for the first time, Windows provides the appropriate driver to that person's computer.

If your computer is part of a Windows 2000 domain that uses Active Directory, select List In The Directory to publish the printer in the directory, which makes it easier for others to find your printer.

NOTE

Figure 24-8. The Sharing tab lets you share your printer with other network users and include drivers for users who don't have Windows 2000.

Setting Printer Permissions

When you set up a printer, initially all users are allowed access to the printer and can manage their own documents in the print queue. (This includes users who log on to your computer as well as network users who connect to a printer you have shared.) Users who have been granted additional permissions by the system administrator can manage all documents in a queue as well as change a printer's properties. Table 24-1 shows the permissions that Windows 2000 provides for printers and their associated privileges.

SEE ALSO

Table 24-1. Printer Permissions and Privileges

A user account that doesn't have any of these permissions can't connect to the printer, print to it locally, or view its queue.

By default, all users have Print permission for documents they create, and members of the Administrators and Power Users groups also have Manage Printers and Manage Documents permission.

If you have Manage Printers permission for a printer, you can change other users' permissions for that printer. To do so, right-click the printer in your Printers folder, choose Properties from the shortcut menu, and click the Security tab, shown in Figure 24-9.

Figure 24-9. The Security tab lets you control access to your printer.

To add another user or group to the list, click Add. After you select the users or groups you want in the Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box, return to the printer's properties dialog box. Then select each new user or group, and assign permissions by clicking Allow, Deny, or neither. (If you select neither, permissions are determined by the user's group membership.)

Setting Device-Specific Options

Settings that are specific to a printer—such as the presence or absence of an envelope feeder, the amount of memory installed, and the presence of font cartridges—are recorded on the Device Settings tab of the printer's properties dialog box. Figure 24-10 shows an example, although your own printer's properties dialog box will probably differ somewhat from this one.

To see which options are available for a particular setting, click the underlined text, which allows you to set its value. Some settings accept numbers for their value; others display a list from which you can select a new value when you click the arrow.

Figure 24-10. The Device Settings tab lets you set up paper tray assignments and specify which optional equipment your printer has.