Printing to a line printer

Printers

To print to a line printer, you need to route jobs into the spool from other programs and define a Windows printer to route jobs from the spool to a line printer. Complete the following steps to print to a line printer.

To add a Windows printer, you must be a member of the Administrators group. If you are using Windows 2000, you can also be a member of the Printer Operators or Server Operators group or a Power User on a workstation.

1. Define a Windows printer

2. Configure the Barr ASCII printer driver

3. Enable 'Print directly to the printer'

4. Define a spool printer

See also:

• Receiving line or channel printer jobs into BARR/SPOOL

Defining a Windows printer

Complete the following steps to define a Windows printer.

1. Open the Windows Add Printer Wizard.

2. Select to define a local printer. Click Next.

3. Create a new Windows port based on the printer's physical connection.

4. Enter the Port name. Click OK.

When you name ports, include the port type and number in the name so you can easily identify the ports later. If you want all the Barr ports to be grouped together in the ports list, include Barr as the first word of each port name.

5. After you assign the port name, a dialog box displays so you can configure the port settings. When you are finished configuring the port, click OK to return to the Add Printer Wizard.

6. If it’s not already closed, close the Printer Ports dialog box. The new port displays in the port list. Click Next.

7. From the Manufacturers list, select Barr. From the Printers list, select Barr ASCII - Printer Driver. Click Next.

The first time you select a Barr printer driver or select to replace the existing Barr printer driver, you must browse to the specific driver location. The drivers are located in \\Program Files\Barr\Spooler\Drivers\driver name folder, unless an alternate path was specified during installation.

8. Select Keep existing driver. Click Next.

9. Enter the Printer name as you want it to appear in the Windows Printers folder. Choose whether or not to use this printer as your default printer (for example, printing from other programs or printing sample banners). Click Next.

10. Choose whether or not this printer will be shared with other network users. If this printer will be shared, you will need to type a share name. Click Next.

To set up a printer for sharing, the printer and users who will access it must be in the same domain. You must assign corresponding printer permissions from the Security tab of the shared printer’s Properties dialog box.

11. Choose whether or not to print a test page. Click Finish. The new Windows printer displays in the Printers folder. To define another printer, open the Printers folder and select Add Printers.

Configuring the Barr ASCII printer driver

Complete the following steps to configure the document defaults for the Barr ASCII printer driver.

1. From the Printers folder, right-click the printer you just defined using the Barr ASCII printer driver and select Properties.

2. From the Advanced tab, click Printing Defaults.

3. Expand the Document Options tree and set Top Margin to Off. This setting affects the extra blank line automatically sent by the GDI Acronym for Graphical Device Interface. In Windows, a graphics display system used by programs to display or print bitmapped text (TrueType fonts), images, and other graphical elements. within Windows. See the Troubleshooting printers topic for more information.

4. If you want to ignore all of the page breaks in the data, job, or FCB definition, set Page Breaks to Off.

5. Click OK.

Defining a spool printer

The options you specify for a spool printer affect all documents you send to it.

1. Open the Configuration Utility.

2. From the Spool Printers tab, click Add. The Printer Properties dialog box displays.

   

3. Enter the printer Name. The printer name cannot contain a backslash '\'. This name displays in the Spool Window’s printer list and is called the spool printer.

4. Under Physical printer, select Existing. From the list of defined Windows printers, select the Windows printer to associate with the spool printer. The spool documents will be routed to this physical device.

5. Click Banners to select the header and trailer files and how they will be applied to print jobs (optional). The Banner Options dialog box displays.

6. Click Overlays to setup overlays and configure how they will be applied to print jobs (optional). The Overlay Options dialog box displays.

7. Click Advanced to select advanced printer options. The Advanced Printer Options dialog box displays. Review the following table to select the required and desired options.

   

8. Close the Configuration Utility.