Lesson 15 - Printing
Most of the time you will print from within a program and how you would print depends on the program you are using. In most programs, you would go to the File command on the Menu Bar and select Print or you would click on the print icon which looks like this:
Sometimes a program will have a Print command on the menu bar.
Most print commands will give you options to print the entire file or to print selected text. In most programs you can also view your printer set-up and your page set-up. Some programs have a Print Preview so you can actually see the what your pages will look like. This is really handy. If your file is 3 pages long but page 3 is only one line, you can change things around on the other 2 pages and possibly eliminate page 3.
In Windows 98* you can go to Start/Settings/ and choose Printer folder. It will display an icon for each printer you have and an icon for "Add a Printer." If you right click on the icon for the printer you are using and then choose Properties, you will find all the information you might ever want about your printer. (Windows 95* has a Print Manager. Use it the same way.)
There is a tab there called Features in which you can choose printing style, two-sided printing, banner, etc and the flip horizontal command for printing heat transfer sheets. Most printers can be set up to print on different size paper, index cards, envelopes, etc.
And software is abundant to use for printing darn near anything from transfer sheets for T-shirts to your own business cards, greeting cards, CD-Rom labels, etc.
Some of the terms used in printing are:
- Orientation: landscape or portrait
- Most sheets of paper are 8 1/2" wide x 11"long. That is portrait orientation. The sheet is longer than it is wide. If you turn the paper around so that the sheet is wider right to left than it is long, that is landscape orientation.
- Paper options: Cut sheet or banner
- Cut sheet is individual sheets. Banner uses sheets which are joined together, the old style fan-folded computer paper without the perforated edges.
- Print quality: Best, Normal or Econofast
- For rough drafts you can choose econofast for faster printing. For final drafts or for graphics, select Best.
- Two-sided printing: None, Book, or Tablet.
- If you select book, the printer will print all the odd-numbered pages first, then you turn the paper around as directed by your printer, and print the even numbered pages on the backs.
- If you select tablet, the printer will print one half of your pages, ie from 1 to 5 of a 10 page file. Then you will turn the paper around and the printer will print the next 5 pages on the backs of the first 5.
Page Set-up will allow you to set margins, designate a header, decide if you want your pages numbered and if so where you want the numbers to appear, etc.
Your printer may or may not have all the features mentioned above and the manufacturer may use different terms to describe the same feature. Read the booklet which comes with your printer or look up the manufacturer on-line to get more information.
While you are printing, the printer icon will show up on the bottom of your screen as a button, just like the names of files when you minimize the screen. You can right-click on that icon and view your print queue...the line-up of documents waiting to print. Or you can go to Start/Settings/Print and change the order, cancel print jobs, etc.
The Keyboard Commands you can use for printing is Ctrl + P.
End of Lesson #15.
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*Windows* refers to Microsoft Windows 95® or Microsoft Windows 98®.
