Windows XP Pro The Missing Manual [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

13.3 Controlling Printouts

Between the moment when you click OK in the Print dialog box and the arrival of the first page in the printer's tray, there's a delay. When printing a complex document with lots of graphics, the delay can be considerable.

Fortunately, the waiting doesn't necessarily make you less productive, since you can return to work on your PC, or even quit the application and go watch TV. An invisible program called the print spooler supervises this background printing process. The spooler collects the document that's being sent to the printer, along with all the codes the printer expects to receive, and then sends this information, little by little, to the printer.

Figure 13-8. (Documents in the list print in top-to-bottom order.)

You can manipulate documents in a print queue in any of the following ways during printing:

Put one on hold. To pause a document (put it on hold), right-click its name and choose Pause from the shortcut menu. When you're ready to let the paused document continue to print, right-click its listing and reselect Pause to turn off the checkmark.

Put them all on hold. To pause the printer, choose PrinterPause Printing from the printer window menu bar. You might do this when, for example, you need to change the paper in the printer's tray. (Choose PrinterPause Printing again when you want the printing to pick up from where it left off.)

Figure 13-4.)

NOTE

A page or so may still print after you've paused or canceled a printout. The explanation: Your printer has its own memory (the buffer), which stores the printout as it's sent from your PC. If you pause or cancel printing, you're only stopping the spooler from sending more data to the printer.

Rearrange them. If you're used to, say, Windows Me, it may take you a momentor an afternoonto figure out why you can't simply drag documents up or down in the list of waiting printouts to rearrange their printing order. In Windows XP, the procedure is slightly more involved.

Start by right-clicking the name of one of the printouts-in-waiting; from the shortcut menu, choose Properties. On the General tab, drag the Priority slider left or right (documents with higher priorities print first).