Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition

Chris Fehily

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Printing Documents

After your printer is up and running, printing a document is simple.

To print a document:

1. Open the document that you want to print.

2. Choose File > Print (or press Ctrl+P).

3. In the Print dialog box (Figure 7.20), select the printer and print options.

Figure 7.20. Print dialog boxes vary by program and printer model, but you'll find some common settings. Here are Print dialog boxes for Notepad (top), Microsoft Word (middle), and Microsoft Streets & Trips (bottom).

This dialog box varies by printer model and program, but the basic settings are:

Select Printer. Choose a local or network printer from the list or scrolling panel. If you've created several icons for different modes of the same printer, choose among them here.

Preferences/Properties. Click this to open the Preferences or Properties dialog box (Figure 7.21).

Figure 7.21. This dialog box, which varies by printer, lets you specify paper size (for multitray printers), orientation (landscape or portrait), print quality (dots per inch), and so on. These settings apply to the current printout, not to the printer in general.

Page Range. Specify which pages of the document to print. The Selection option is dimmed if you didn't highlight any text before you opened the Print dialog box.

Copies. Specify the number of copies to print. You'll usually want to turn on collation for multiple copies.

Program-specific settings. Any program can add extra features to the Print dialog box. Right-click an option; then click What's This? for pop-up help.

4. Click Print or OK (or press Enter).

Tips

During printing, a status icon appears in the notification area (Figure 7.22).

Figure 7.22. Point to this icon (without clicking) to see how many print jobs are pending.

To bypass the Print dialog box and use the default printer and settings to print, click the Print button on a toolbar (Figure 7.23).

Figure 7.23. The standard Print toolbar button (shown here in Microsoft Office) looks like this. The pop-up tip displays the destination printer.

Internet Explorer's Print dialog box lets you print a web page's frames and links (Figure 7.24).

Figure 7.24. Click the Options tab in IE's Print dialog box. If a web page is divided into independent rectangular sections (frames ), you can print them selectively. You also can print all the linked pages and a table at the end of the printout that lists all the page's links.

You can print a document right from Windows Explorer or the desktop without opening it; right-click the document's icon and choose Print. Or drag a document's icon to a printer icon in the Printers and Faxes window, to a print spooler window, or to a desktop printer shortcut.

Most programs have additional print commands in the File menu or a toolbar. Page Setup sets margins, orientation, and other layout options. Print Preview shows how a document will look when you print it.

If you have a color printer, see the discussion of color management in "Configuring the Monitor" in Chapter 4.

If you're a domain member, the Print dialog box has a Find Printer button that you can click to search the network for a particular printer.