This article comprises the About Desktop Printing Document for System 7.5, Version 7.5.3.

About Desktop Printing

Your new software comes with Desktop PrintMonitor version 1.0.3. You use desktop printmonitor to create printer icons (or "desktop printers") on your Macintosh operating system (Mac OS) desktop. You can print a document by simply dragging it to a desktop printer icon. Desktop printers also give you more control over printing, including setting printing priorities and choosing specific times for printing.

Creating Desktop Printers

You Create Desktop Printers By Selecting A Printer In The Chooser. A Desktop Printer Icon Appears On Your Desktop When You Close The Chooser.

You Can Drag This Icon To Any Position You Want On Your Desktop. You Cannot Move It Off The Desktop.
If You Want, You Can Select Other Printers In The Chooser And Create Other Desktop Printers For Easy Access. You Must Close The Chooser Each Time To Create A Desktop Printer.

The Last Desktop Printer Created Becomes The Default Printer. Your Documents Will Automatically Be Printed On The Default Printer.

Printing With Desktop Printers

You Can Print Documents Within Your Applications As You Normally Do. You Can Also Print Documents Without Leaving The Finder, Using One Of The Two Methods Described Here. These Methods Are Particularly Efficient When You Have A Number Of Documents You Want To Print At Once.

• Drag The Icons Of The Documents You Want To Print To The Desktop Icon Of The Printer You Want To Use.
• Select The Icons Of The Documents You Want To Print And Choose The Print Command From The File Menu.

After A Few Moments, The Document Starts To Print. If Background Printing Is Turned On, You Can Continue Working While The Document Is Printing.

Selecting A Default Printer

If You Have More Than One Printer Available, You Can Select Which You Want To Use. The Printer You Select Is Called The "default Printer." All Your Documents Will Be Printed On The Default Printer Until You Select A New One.

To Change The Default Printer, Use One Of These Three Methods:

• Drag The Document You Want To Print To A Desktop Printer Icon, And It Will Automatically Become The Default Printer.
• Select The Desktop Printer Icon And Use The Printing Menu To Set The Printer As The Default.
• Select A New Printer Using The Chooser.

Working With Desktop Printer Icons

Desktop Printer Icons Change To Indicate Printing Status:

• Plain icon indicates a printer that is not currently chosen for printing.
• Default icon indicates the printer you have currently chosen to print on.
• Printing icon indicates a document is printing on this printer.
• Stopped icon indicates you have stopped the print queue.
• Error icon indicates there is an error on this printer. double-click the icon to see a message.
• Disabled icon indicates this desktop printer is not available.

• Throw Away The Icon. Drag The Icon To The Trash. You Can't Throw Away A Desktop Printer Icon While The Printer Is Printing A Document. (You Can Create Another Desktop Printer Icon For That Printer Whenever You Like.)

  Note : You Must Always Have At Least One Printer Icon On Your Desktop. If You Throw Away The Last Icon, It Will Immediately Be Created Again.

• Rename The Icon. Rename The Icon As You Would Any Other Finder Icon. Click The Name To Highlight It, Then Type The New Name. This Changes The Name Of The Icon, Not The Name Of The Printer.
• Move The Icon. You May Drag The Icon Anywhere You Like On The Desktop. However, You May Not Move It Off The Desktop.
• Create An Alias For The Icon. You May Create An Alias For The Icon As You Would Any Finder Icon, By Selecting The Icon And Choosing The Make Alias Command From The File Menu. The Alias May Be Moved Anywhere On Or Off The Desktop.

If You Are Using Background Printing, You Can Use The Desktop Printer Features To Monitor And Control The Documents That Are Waiting To Print. To Learn How To Turn Background Printing On And Off, See Your Printer Manual.

To Monitor The Printing Of Documents:

1) Double-click The Desktop Printer Icon You're Interested In.

A Window Opens Listing The Documents That Are Printing Or Waiting To Print.

Watching The Status Messages Can Be Helpful When Troubleshooting Printing Problems. When More Than One Job Is Waiting To Be Printed, A List Of Print Jobs Appears In The Waiting List, Showing The Order In Which They Will Be Printed (when Sorted By Print Time.)

2) Choose What You'd Like To Do.

• To Cancel A Print Request, Select It By Clicking Its Icon And Click The Remove Button.

  You Can Only Select The Currently Printing Document By Clicking Its Icon. (You Can Select More Than One Item At A Time By Holding Down The Shift Key While Clicking.) You Can Also Drag The Icon For The Print Request To The Trash. Note That These Methods Delete Only The Print Request (also Referred To As A Spool File), Not The Document Itself.

• To Put A Print Request On Hold, Select It And Click The Hold Button.

  The Print Request Will Stay On Hold Until You Select It Again And Click The Resume Button. You Can Also Put The Document That's Currently Printing On Hold By Dragging It To The List Of Documents Waiting To Print (lower Part Of The Window).

• To Indicate That A Print Request Is Urgent, Select It And Choose Set Print Time From The Printing Menu. In The Dialog Box That Opens, Click Urgent.
• To Indicate That A Print Request Should Not Print Until A Future Time, Select It And Choose Set Print Time From The Printing Menu. In The Dialog Box That Opens, Click At Time, Then Set The Time You Want.
• To Change The Order Of The Items Waiting To Print, Move Their Place In The List By Dragging Their Titles Up Or Down In The List.
• To Sort The List Of Documents Waiting To Print, Click The Title Of The Column You Want To Sort By.

  For Example, To Sort By The Name Of The Document, Click "Document Name." (You Can Also Sort By Choosing The Commands In The View Menu.) The Column Title You Sorted By Is Underlined. Sorting The Items Does Not Change The Order In Which They Will Print. To See That Order, Sort By Print Time.

• To Temporarily Stop All Documents From Printing On This Printer, Choose Stop Print Queue From The Printing Menu.
• To Resume Using The Printer, Choose Start Print Queue From The Printing Menu. If The Desktop PrintMonitor Window Is Open, You Can Begin Printing The Document From The First Page By Option-clicking The Resume Button (holding Down The Option Key While Clicking The Resume Button).

  Shortcut: The Printing Menu For Starting And Stopping The Print Queue Is Available Without Opening The Window For The Printer, As Long As The Printer's Icon Is Selected On The Desktop.

• To Move A Print Request From One Printer To Another Printer Of The Same Type (for Example, From A LaserWriter 4/600 PS To A LaserWriter 16/600 PS), Drag The Icon For The Print Request To The Icon Of The Printer Where You Want To Move It.

  You Can Only Move A Print Request From A PostScript Printer To Another PostScript Printer. The Printing Software Won't Let You Move A Print Request To An Incompatible Printer. For Example, You Can't Move A Request From A LaserWriter Printer To A StyleWriter Printer.

The Desktop PrintMonitor Is Set Up To Notify You About Manually Feeding Paper The Same Way Your PrintMonitor Was Set. For Example, If You Turned Off Notification For Manual Feeding In Your PrintMonitor, The Desktop PrintMonitor Will Also Have Manual Feed Notification Turned Off.

If You Want To Change How The Desktop PrintMonitor Notifies You About Manual Feeding, Follow This Procedure:

1. Hold Down The Shift Key And Restart Your Computer, Keeping The Shift Key Depressed Until The Message "Extensions Off" Or Your Normal Desktop Appears.

2. Open Your System Folder And Then Open Your Extensions Folder.

3. Double-click The PrintMonitor Application.

4. Choose Preferences From The File Menu.

5. Select Your Manual Feed Option And Click OK.

6. Close The PrintMonitor.

7. Restart Your Computer.

Removing A Desktop Printer Icon

You Can Remove An Individual Desktop Printer Icon By Dragging It To The Trash. If You Have Only One Desktop Printer, You Can't Get Rid Of The Icon By Dragging It To The Trash. (The Icon Will Reappear If You Do.) To Get Rid Of The Desktop Printer, You Must First Select A Different Desktop Printer As The Default Printer And Then Drag The Desktop Printer Icon To The Trash. If You Don't Want To Use Desktop Printer Icons, See "Turning Off The Desktop PrintMonitor" Or "Removing Desktop Printing Software" For Information About How To Remove The Desktop Printer Software.

Turning Off The Desktop PrintMonitor

If You Don't Want To Use Desktop Printers, You Can Turn Off The Desktop PrintMonitor Using The Extensions Manager (available On Macintosh System 7.5, The Current Version Of The Mac OS).

To Turn Off The Desktop PrintMonitor:

1. Open The Extensions Manager Control Panel In The Control Panels Folder.

2. Click To Deselect (uncheck) The Desktop PrintMonitor, Desktop Printer Extension, And Desktop Printer Spooler Extensions In The Panel.

3. Click The Close Box To Close The Control Panel.

4. Restart Your Computer.

The Desktop Printing Software Uses Both The Desktop PrintMonitor And The PrintMonitor Software. The Desktop PrintMonitor Requires 200-400K Bytes More Free System Memory In Addition To The Memory Required By The PrintMonitor. If You Don't Want To Use The Desktop Printing Software, You Can Remove It.

To Remove Desktop Printing Software:

1. Restart Your Computer With The Extensions Off By Holding Down The Shift Key And Choosing Restart From The Special Menu. Hold The Shift Key Down Until The Message "Extensions Off" Appears Or Until Your Normal Desktop Appears.

2. Drag The Following Files From The Extensions Folder To The Trash:

Desktop PrintMonitor 1.0.3
Desktop Printer Spooler 1.0.3
Desktop Printer Extension 1.0.3

3. Restart Your Computer.

When You Choose Save Or Open In Your Application Programs, You Will See Your Desktop Printers Listed As If They Were Folders, But You Should Not Save Or Open Any Documents In Them. If You Do, You Will Not Be Able To Access Your Documents.

Having More Than Five Desktop Printers

If You Want To Have More Than Five Or Six Desktop Printers, You Must Increase The Desktop PrintMonitor Memory Allocation By 12K For Each Additional Desktop Printer You Want. To Do So, Select Its Icon (it's In The Extensions Folder Inside The System Folder), Choose Get Info, Type A Larger Number In The Preferred Size Box, Then Close The Get Info Window.

About Creating Duplicate Desktop Printer Icons

If You Use Different Versions Of The LaserWriter 8 Software And Print Using The Desktop PrintMonitor, You May Create Duplicate Desktop Printer Icons For The Same Printer. For Example, Say You Use The LaserWriter 8.3 Driver For Printing And Also Use The LaserWriter 8.2.2f Driver For Faxing. If You Select Your Printer In The Chooser Using The LaserWriter 8.3 Driver, And Select It Later Using The LaserWriter 8.2.2f Driver, Two Desktop Printer Icons Will Appear For That Printer. To Avoid Creating Confusing Duplicate Printer Icons, Primarily Use One Version Of Your Printer Software Driver, Or Rename The Icons With Distinguishing Names.