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How to create new, customized copies of
your favorite printer choices
Controlling the tray source (in other
software programs), ink color, and other features of your printer from
File, Print
(Includes macros to
help change to your new printer selections)
See also -
Print your letterhead page from one printer
tray, and second and subsequent pages from another tray ("two-tray printing")
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Purpose
An alternative -- or a companion -- to using
WordPerfect's File, Page Setup to define specific printer trays (or
"sources") is to create customized copies of the installed printer
driver -- the item you choose when you click File, Print,
Name:<list> before printing the document.
Extra copies of an existing printer driver are
very easy to create and they can perform several functions, depending
on your printer.
For example, one copy could (if the feature is
supported by your printer) add a COPY or DRAFT watermark on every page,
just by selecting that driver at print time.
Another copy could print the
document in monochrome on a color printer to save expensive color ink.
Once they are set up, all you need to do is select the appropriate
custom printer driver in the File, Print drop list.
Added benefits
The custom printer selections will be
available in other Windows programs, not just in WordPerfect.
You could also set up printer drivers to
select the tray source, which should work in most other Windows
programs (but not WordPerfect: see Footnote).
Background
When you first install a printer, Windows
creates an icon for it – actually, the icon is a "virtual printer" or
"printer driver" -- in the Devices and Printers folder (Windows 7) or in the Printers and Faxes folder (the name given to
it in Windows XP).
If you right click that icon and choose Printing Preferences and/or Printer Properties (Windows 7) or Properties (Windows XP),
you can access various printer settings and create custom
configurations for the physical printer.
The printer driver's name also shows up in
File, Print, along with any other printers you might have installed on
your computer or network. Simply use your mouse to select it from the
list, choose any desired print options the program itself offers, click Print, and Windows takes
over, sending your current print job to the physical printer specified
by the virtual printer icon.
How to do it
Now for the interesting part -- creating and
customizing one or more copies of an existing printer driver.
Since you (or whoever set up your computer or
network) will have already installed the physical printer and a printer
driver for it, you simply install the printer driver again -- but in an
abbreviated way: no need this time for a CD or internet connection --
using the Add Printer wizard in Devices and Printers (Windows 7) or Printers and Faxes (Windows XP).
Then you customize the copy/copies with a few minutes' work.
Windows 7
- Click on “Devices and Printers” in the Windows Start menu.
- Click on “Add a printer”. Tell Windows what type (local, network, etc.), then click Next.
- Select the printer Name you wish to duplicate, and click Next.
- In a window “Which version of the driver do you want to use” select
(tick) “Use the driver that is currently installed (recommended)” and
click “Next”.
- In the next window give the new item a name -- perhaps the same name with a descriptive suffix such as "(MONO)". Click Next.
- Subsequent windows should be self-explanatory (sharing, set as default, etc.)
- In Devices and Printers, right-click on the new icon and choose Printing
Preferences and/or Printer Properties to set your preferences. [Note
that setting up printing to different trays is still a WordPerfect setting, not a Windows setting. See http://wptoolbox.com/tips/2Trays.html.]
- Done. You should see the new name in the Devices and Printers window, as well as in all Print dialogs in Windows programs.
- You can use the drivers "as is" by simply
choosing the one you want in File, Print. WordPerfect will save the
choice in that document when you save it. A somewhat more sophisticated
way to use them is to incorporate them as part of one or more macros.
For example, macros can be used to select the new printer driver(s),
print all or part of a document, then restore the printer selection
back to your current printer selection. (See samples below.)
Windows XP (should be similar for earlier Windows versions)
- Click Start, Settings, Control Panel and
double click Printers and Faxes (or Printers and Other Hardware).
- First, take a quick note of the "port" to
which your printer is currently connected: Right-click the printer's
icon, choose Properties, then click the Ports tab. Make a note of the
port that is checkmarked. Click Cancel to return to the Printers and
Faxes window.
- Double click the Add Printer icon. The Add
Printer Wizard appears. Click Next.
- You are now asked if the printer is local
or on a network: Answer as appropriate. (There is no need to check the
box, "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer,"
because its driver was already installed on your system! You are simply
making a new copy of that driver.) Click Next.
- Select the port the printer uses from the
"Use the following port:" list. Normally this is LPT1 (Windows provides
three printer ports, LPT1-LPT3, and four serial ports, COM1-COM4) but
it could be a USB card, an IEEE hub or some other device. As noted
above, you should use the same port checked in the original driver.
(Don't worry: if you make a mistake you can always delete the new
printer driver and repeat these installation steps, choosing an
alternative if the current choice of port doesn't work.) Click Next.
- You should now see the Install Printer
Software dialog. Since the original printer driver was installed when
the printer was first hooked up, simply scroll down in the left-hand
Manufacturer pane, choose the printer's manufacturer (e.g., HP, or
perhaps Hewlett-Packard; try both), and you should immediately see the
installed printer driver(s) for that printer in the Printers pane.
Select the appropriate driver and click Next. (Again, if you make a
mistake you can always start over after deleting this copy of the
driver.)
- In the next dialog, be sure that "Keep
existing driver" is enabled, then click Next.
- You can now name your new printer driver.
(You can also rename it later in the Printers and Faxes window.) For
example, I made a copy of my previously installed HP LaserJet 1300
driver and simply named it "HP LaserJet 1300 (DRAFT)" to indicate that
the pages will contain a diagonal DRAFT watermark stamp on them – a
nice little feature that is created directly by my HP LaserJet 1300
printer. Notice that a radio button lets you select the current printer
as the default printer; if this is what you want, choose it by clicking
the button. Click Next when finished.
- Tips: If Windows asks if you want to share the printer you can
answer No, since it's probably easier to set up and customize the
printer drivers first, and then set them up as computer or network
shares later as explained below. Also, the next dialog lets you print a
test page, which might be a good idea to do at least once to ensure the
copy of the printer driver is working properly.
- Click Next, then Finish to complete the new
driver creation process and exit the wizard. You will see a new icon in
Printers and Faxes.
- Repeat the above steps for as many
additional custom printer drivers as you need, for the current printer
or any other printer for which you might want to have customized
settings.
- Now you need to customize the copies of the
printer driver(s). If you haven't already named them in during the
steps above, they will be named "<name> (Copy x)" where
<name> is the original driver name and "x" is a sequential number.
- Right click each new copy of the printer
driver, and choose Properties. Rename the driver if you desire it.
Under Properties you will also see Location and Comments fields, which
may be useful in identifying the printer drivers on a network.
- You then need to find the page where
various custom settings are kept for your particular printer. (On my
LaserJet they are under the Advanced tab, and accessed with a button,
"Printing Defaults.") Set up your custom configuration. Remember that
you are now working with a copy of the original printer driver, so you
should not be impacting the original in any way. You can also set up
these drivers as "shares" on a computer or network, if desired.
- Click OK when done until you are back at
the Printers and Faxes window. Done!
- You can use the drivers "as is" by
simply choosing the one you want in File, Print. WordPerfect will save the choice in that document when you save it. A somewhat more
sophisticated way to use them is to incorporate them as part of one or
more macros. For example, macros can be used to select the new printer
driver(s), print all or part of a document, then restore the printer
selection back to your current printer selection. (See samples below.)
Macros to
change printer selections
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BELOW ARE SAMPLE MACROS THAT CAN -
(1) print the full document using the
new printer driver (e.g., all pages marked with a DRAFT watermark),
then return the printer setting back to the original setting; or
(2) print just the first page (e.g., a
letterhead page in color) of the document using the new printer driver,
then return the printer setting back to the original setting
(monochrome).
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING THE MACROS:
First, in place of the word NEWPRINTER below,
type the EXACT name (case sensitive!) you gave to the new printer
driver(s) as shown in File, Print, Name:<list> but be sure to
retain the double quote marks. [For example, I use this newly named and
configured printer driver that automatically places a draft watermark
stamp on each page: "hp Laserjet 1300 PCL 5e (DRAFT)". All I did was
use the same name as the original and add "(DRAFT)" to it, but you can
name it anything you like.]
Second, open a new blank document for
each macro and click Tools, Macro, Macro Toolbar. Press the right arrow
once or twice to place the cursor after all codes. Then come back here
and carefully select the macro of your choice below, copy it to the
clipboard (Ctrl+C), then go to the new document and paste it there with
Edit, Paste Special, Unformatted text. (This removes extraneous codes
when you copy from an internet source.)
Save it with the Save & Compile
button on the macro toolbar, naming it something memorable. The macros
can be saved to your default (or supplemental) macro folder as shown in
Tools, Settings, Files, Merge/Macro and assigned to either a menu,
toolbar button, or keystroke combination as explained at EasyPlay.
- - -
// Macro #1 begins -
// (For WordPerfect version 8+)
vPRN1:="NEWPRINTER"
vPrinterName:=PrinterSelectByName (vPRN1)
PrintCopies (NumberOfCopies: 1)
Print (FullDocument!)
// The next line resets driver back to your preferred default -
PrinterSelectByName (vPrinterName)
// Macro ends
- - -
// Macro #2 begins -
// (For WordPerfect version 8+)
// Prints just the first page to the new printer
vPRN1:="NEWPRINTER"
vPrinterName:=PrinterSelectByName (vPRN1)
PrintRangeFrom (Page: 1)
PrintRangeTo (Page: 1)
PrintCopies (1)
PrintAction (MultiplePages!)
Print ()
// The next line resets driver back to your preferred default -
PrinterSelectByName (vPrinterName)
// Macro ends
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Footnote
If your printer has multiple trays that
support various paper type or sizes you should set up separate page
definitions for them with File,
Page Setup (or Format, Page, Page Setup) and use
the codes thus produced at the top of the appropriate pages of your
document to "pull" paper from the proper trays, as explained in more
detail at 2Trays.
From Charles Rossiter, Corel C_Tech (found
on Corel's WPOffice2002-other newgroup, 06/02/03):
"WordPerfect does not use the tray specified
in the printer settings; if it did, it would lose its ability to mix
any number of page size/types within a single document, as almost all
programs relying on the Windows printer driver are limited to one or,
at most two, paper size/types in a single print job.
To set paper selection in WP, you have to
use Format, Page Setup, switch to showing Printer Page Types, and
define a paper size/type for each paper source. For example, if
you have letterhead that pulls from tray 1 and bond that pulls from
tray 3, you would create two different paper size/types such as
"Letter" and "Bond", with almost-identical definitions except for the
paper source.
This means you can mix Letter, Bond,
landscape forms, A4, etc. etc. within a single document and not have to
set anything on the printer properties itself.
In fact, on those printers having an "NT
Forms" tab in the printer properties, HP specifically says to not use
that feature with software that is capable of pulling mixed forms, as
it interferes with the software working properly."
Note that you can delay a new page
definition (e.g., from page 1) to a later page (e.g., to page 2) this
way:
- Go to the top of the document and click
Format, Page, Delay Codes, 1, OK.
- Click the Page Size button on the property
bar (or click Format, Page, Page Setup). Choose the new second page
definition. Click on Apply, then OK.
- Back in the Define Delay Codes window, you
can make other formatting changes that will take effect on the second
and subsequent pages of the document, such as changing margins or
changing or adding headers or footers.
- (Users of WP10 and later: To set all
margins back to 1.0" in the Define Delay Codes window, set at least one
margin to some other value, then change the margins back to 1.0". This
is a workaround for a small bug in these versions.)
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Barry MacDonnell's