The Hard Copy

This week, a few tips about printers.

[A] Adding a printer to your user account is easy. Here’s how you do it:

1. Click Start and select “Printers and Faxes”.
2. Select “Add a printer” from the left side of the window.
3. Click “Next”, then click “Next” again.
4. You want to “Find a printer in the directory”, which should be the default.
5. Click “Next”.
6. Now we’re going to search for a printer, but we’re not
going to enter in any search criteria, so click “Find Now”.
7. A list will appear that contains most of our network
printers. Double-click on the printer you want to add.
8. It will now ask you if you want this to be your “default
printer”. Select “Yes” or “No” as appropriate and click “Next”.
9. Click “Finish” and you’re done!

[B] Preview before you print!

Far too many people leave stacks and stacks of wasted printouts in print trays every single day. Not only is this practice environmentally-inconsiderate, but it wastes thousands of dollars every year. Consider this: printing on a color laser printer costs about 10 cents per page. Printing on a color inkjet printer can cost anywhere from 4 cents per page (text-only) all the way up to a full dollar per page when printing photos.

If you're unsure how your printout will look, don't print! Go to File/Print Preview in whatever application you're running. You'll get a graphic of exactly the way your printout will look. Once you've finally got things looking exactly right, then hit "Print".

[C] Inkjet ink...ignore the warnings!

If you're using an inkjet printer, you'll eventually get warnings that certain ink tanks/ink cartridges are "running low" and that you "need to replace" these cartridges. IGNORE THESE WARNINGS. They're most likely an attempt by the manufacturer to get you to purchase ink tanks/cartridges more often! You can continue to print normally for weeks after you first receive these messages. Only replace an inkjet cartridge when the printer states that the cartridge is totally empty and won't continue until you replace it. Your printouts will not suffer in quality during this period.

Also, once the ink tank for a particular color is empty, please just pull that one ink tank for replacement...not all 6 of them. The odds of all 6 ink tanks drying up at the exact same time are slim, yet people frequently try to replace all ink cartridges at the same time. Consider replacing them one at a time.