I have one specific printing job that I use our printer for that requires setting the paper selection to “Manual” for the manual feed tray on the printer. I might use this setting 3-5 times per day, so having to change that setting is a pain in the tuccus. This, BTW, is used printing from Adobe Reader, if that makes any difference.
I was wondering if I can create another copy of my printer “driver” and set the 2nd copy to use the manual feed as its default, instead of the standard tray?
BTW, this is a networked printer, if it makes any difference - a Dell laser printer.
I can’t confirm this right now, but I’ve read you can do it by setting it up as a local printer, and then changing the port data after you’ve set it up. You’ll need the actual setup disk unless the driver came with Windows.
ETA: That last part is why I can’t confirm. I tend to lose disks a lot.
Best practice is to create a second print queue on the print server with the desired settings.
Or am I misunderstanding? Is the printer controlled by another computer, or is it wired directly into the network and everyone prints directly? If the latter, just make another copy of the print queue on your PC.
You probably don’t have the access rights to do it. Speak to your network admin: it’s all of 5 mins work at the bitface. The administravia may take them a little longer.
I know how to install a network printer on my PC, but when I try and “reinstall” this one, it doesn’t add it because it already exists, even though it seems to successfully proceed thru the steps of adding a printer.
Control Panel
Printers and Faxes
Add a Printer
NEXT
Select “A Network Printer”
Select “Connect to this printer” and specify server name, and then select printer from list shown, then hit NEXT
I’m assuming it’s a Windows server. Log into the server as an admin. Set up a new shared print queue on the server. Give it appropriate share permissions (recommended practice is to create a group and assign permissions at the group level and add yourself to the group), and appropriate name, and give it the appropriate settings (manual feed in your case). Then go back to your workstation link to the new print queue and try it out. Go back and forth between server and workstation (RDP helps immensely here) until it’s working perfectly, then log out of the server.
You now have to print queues on the same server pointing to the same printer but with different functionality. You can use this for other purposes, like one monochrome queue and one colour queue. Or one high-priority queue for the boss (and you) and one lower priority queue for the rest.
Ok, I actually went ahead and did this before I got your reply. I thought the previous message had been talking about duplicating things on my local PC, but then when it was mentioned about the server, I decided to do what you suggested and add another server printer queue, and then add that to my PC. Seems to be working fine so far.
This was how I did it. On the version of XP at work, there is no specific mention of queues in any of the options.
The printer in question was already installed on my machine so when it came to the part where you select the driver, XP asks if you want to use it or specify a new one. Choose the existing one unless you have some other grand plan.
In more detail:
Add new printer
Select “local printer”
Do not select “automatically detect”
<Next>
Select “FILE:” as the port.
<Next>
Choose your printer
<Next>
Keep existing driver
<Next>
Printer name and default printer as desired
<Next>
Sharing options to your taste
<Next>
If you chose to share there’s another page of sharing options before the next bit
Print test page? If so there’s another page of info.
<Next>
Summary
<Finish>
Now go to printer properties, select the “Ports” tab and set the port to the actual port your printer uses.
