How to Clear or Unfreeze Your Printer Spool

As referenced in our Blog Posting of Printer Terms on August 3, 2012.

Sometimes when you are printing - there can be an error and nothing will print.  You may or may not see an error message, but when there is an error, documents in the queue (in line) for printing will freeze and nothing will print. You may think that something is wrong with the printer, but the problem is caused by the Print Spooler. The problem can be solved rather easily and removing the jam in the printer will only take a few seconds.

Right-click on "Computer" or "My Computer" and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on "Manage."

Click on "Services and Applications" and then click on "Services" to view all the services on your computer.

Scroll down to "Print Spooler" and right-click on it. A drop-down menu will appear, on which you will click on "Stop" to temporarily halt the service.

Shrink the window and click on "Computer" or "My Computer."

Click on the primary hard drive on the computer, which is normally the "(C:)" drive.

Click on the "Windows" folder.

Click on the "System32" folder.

Click on the "Spool" folder and the "Printers" folder inside it to view the print jobs you want to clear.

Press the "Ctrl" and "A" key simultaneously to select everything and press the "Delete" key to clear the Print Spooler. Close the window.

Restore the "Services" window, right-click on "Print Spooler" and click on "Start" so your printer can schedule print jobs again.

Glossary Of Printer Terms (Part 2 of 2):

This is Part 2 of the blog posting we began on Sunday, July 29^th, 2012.

Printing Media - What the printer prints on, i.e. paper, transparencies, film and CD/DVD surfaces. The media type that a printer can support differs by printer type and model.

MFC Printer - A MultiFunction (MFC)/All-In-One printer can perform a rich variety of task including printing, scanning, copying and even faxing. With an MFC/All-In-One printer, you do not need to invest in separate copiers, scanners or fax machines (unless you have special requirements). In general, an MFC/All-In-One printer makes installation easier and saves valuable office space.

Non-impact Printing  - Non-impact printing allows printing an image without striking the printing media. Both inkjet and laser printers are non-impact printers.

OCR – OCR stands for ”Optical Character Recognition” and is a computerized process that enables us to convert a paper document into a computer file that you can edit or manipulate using a program such as Microsoft Word or Word Perfect..OCR used to be an expensive technology, but today is found on many of the All in One/MCF printer/copiers…  All OCR systems work in conjunction with your printer/scanner so that when we put the document face down on the scanner glass, it takes a picture of the document, but stores the
picture” in the form of a bitmap file/also known as an image file – and the OCR software then examines the patterns of dots in the image file and create a file that contains text that is represented as fonts and ASCII codes (once this is done most OCR system discard/delete the image/bitmap file)

PPM - Pages per minute, used to measure printing speed. A printer’s printing speed varies depending on print quality settings, print media, and page size.

SPOOL/SPOOLING: Basically, spooling is the process of placing data in a temporary working area for another program to process. Today, most of us here this term in reference to document s sent from our computer to our printer – known as print spooling.  This means that documents formatted for printing are stored usually in an area on a disk on our printers and retrieved and printed at the rate determined by that printer..  Printers typically can print only a single document at a time and require seconds or minutes to do so. With spooling, multiple processes can write documents to a print queue without waiting. As soon as a process has written its document to the spool device, the process can perform other tasks, while a separate printing process operates the printer

On a stand-alone computer, spooling is handled by the operating system. On a network computer, documents are sent to a print server, where they are spooled before being sent to the designated printer

(We will address how to clear you printer spooling if it freezes or gets jammed in next weeks blog on August 10th)

Two Sided Printing - A technology allowing printing on both sides of the paper (sometimes referred to as duplex printing).

USB - The USB (Universal Serial Bus) port is a popular I/O interface used for connecting computers and peripherals or other devices – USB connections are the most popular interface today for all printers and most other peripheral devices.

Glossary Of Printer Terms (Part 1 of 2):

ALL-IN-ONE Printer – These are Multi Function (MFC)/All-In-One printers which means they  can perform a variety of task including printing, scanning, copying and faxing, so that we don’t have to purchase individuals pieces of equipment.

Borderless Printing - Borderless printing allows a printer to output photos with no borders. This is extremely helpful for edge-to-edge printing.

Dot Matrix Printer - A dot matrix printer works by striking an ink ribbon to print tiny and closely spaced dots onto paper to form certain characters and simple images and is excellent for invoices, address labels and carbon copy invoices.

DPI - Dots per inch, used to indicate printing resolutions that are measured both horizontally and vertically. For example, a resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi means 4800 dots across and 1200 dots down so that there are 5,760,000 dots per square inch in total.

Duplex Printing - A technology allowing printing on both sides of the paper (sometimes referred to as two-sided printing).

Impact Printing - Impact printing creates images and text by striking the print media/paper. Dot matrix printers adopt impact printing technology.

Inkjet Printer - Inkjet printers spray extremely tiny and precise ink droplets to create characters and graphics. Based on color mixing principles, inkjet printers utilize several ink cartridges containing different colors to produce vivid color images, which is why inkjet printers are often applied in picture-intensive printing.

Laser Printer - A laser printer is also non-impact and uses laser to adhere solid toner (typically black powder) instead of spraying liquid ink onto paper to create images. In a laser printer, the drum (looks like a cylinder), laser unit, toner cartridge and fuser are important components for printing.

LPT/ Parallel Port - LPT, also known as Parallel Port, is a type of archived port used in the past by printers; today almost all printers use USB connections.


Part 2 of this Blog will be posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012.

How to Disable Background Printing in Word and in the Internet..

If you have applied background to your Word document but you do not want to show that in the printed copy of document – then disable the commands before you print.  And remember background printing uses additional system memory so to speed up printing, clear the Background printing check box.

To Disable background print in Word 97-2003

·         Go to Menu Bar, Tools, then click Options

·         Now click the Print Tab

·         Under printing options, select or clear the Background printing check box

·         When Background printing is on, you can continue to work in Word while you print,

To Disable background print in Word 2007

·         Click “Office” button > “Word Options”

·         Select “Advanced” tab

·         Then in right panel deselect check box for the option “Print in background” under Print section

·         Now click “OK”

To Disable background print in Word 2010

·         Click the File Tab, then choose options

·         Click on “Advanced” from left panel

·         Then in right panel deselect the check box followed by “Print in background” option under Print section and click “OK”

When you are on the Internet many websites have background colors or images that you might not want to print.  So, as with word, you may want  to disable the background printing..

To Disable background print when printing from a website on the Internet:

How to print from the Internet without backgrounds or images

·         Open a website that you to want to print out

·         In the Menu Bar go to Tools, then choose Internet Option

·         The Internet Options Dialog Box will now open

·         Click the advanced tab

·         Scroll Down and Find Printing section

·         Uncheck “Print background colors and images box

·         Hit OK or Apply button

·         Go to File, Print, Click Print (or simply use the Print icon on the toolbar)

Printing Tips – Extend your cartridge life

Printer Cartridges are expensive - so here are a few tips we've discussed in class to help you save money by conserving your ink and toner..

Print in draft mode – Draft Mode is what I typically use in all class handouts – which helps save money by using less ink. To do this you want to change the default printing mode in your printer’s “preferences” – Go to start, printer/faxes, and when you choose your printer – choose “preferences” and then find the option list for printing preferences which vary on every printer. Yours might say: “draft mode” , or “economde or “ink/toner-saving mode”.. Don’t use Grayscale-it uses colored ink.

Use a thin “sans-serif” font – Set your default font, to a clean style such as Arial, Calibri or Comic Sans, versus “serif” fonts, such as Times New Roman, Baskerville, Bookman


Use your color ink sparingly – I firmly believe that almost everything we print works just as well in black & white, vs. color…So be sure to set your default setting for black and white – vs. automatic which will print whatever color is on the page you are printing..


Send photos out – It is much less expensive (and quality is so much better) when you have your photos printed by a retailer and you can upload them from home for one hour or 3 day delivery, to hundreds of retailers such as Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart, Snapfish, Shutterlfy, AAA, AARP, etc…


InkJet or laser – No question for anyone who prints a lot – laser is less expensive in the long run…


Shake That Cartridge – When you think your ink is running low – take the cartridge out and give it a good shake, and do this until you can’t print… Remember most cartridges will warn you the ink is low when they are still 30-35% full, so don’t replace it until you have to!!

When you can't cancel a print job..

From time to time there will be print jobs that just won’t seem to delete no matter how we try to cancel or delete the print job - whether we try to cancel:

• By using the cancel on the printer OR

• From the Printer in the Start Menu OR

• Using the Printer Icon & Menu from the system try (bottom right corner of the monitor above the clock)

Don’t panic – try the following – which usually corrects the problem …

In Windows XP

• Go to Control Panel

• Select Administrative Tools

• Double-click on Services (Icon is usually 2 gears)

• When the list of services appear, scroll down until you find one called "Print Spooler"

• Highlight this service option – and on the left column choose "Restart"

• The "deleted" jobs will disappear and any queued jobs in your print queue will print

In Windows Vista

• Go to Control Panel

• Select System and Maintenance

• Select Administrative Tools

• Double-click on Services

• When the service list appears, scroll down until you find one called "Print Spooler"

• Right-click on "Print Spooler" and select "Restart"

Success - the "deleted" jobs will disappear and any jobs waiting in your print queue will now print

Printing Tips

TO PRINT A PORTION OF AN INTERNET ARTICLE OR EMAIL RECEIVED:

• Highlight the portion of the article or email you want to print
• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Bar and choose “Print”
• When the Print Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “selection”
• On the right side, choose the number of copies you want
• Choose OK and that is what will print..

TO ENLARGE THE PRINT SIZE OF A PORTION OF AN INTERNET ARTICLE OR EMAIL RECEIVED OR TO SAVE EITHER IN A FILE ON YOUR COMPUTER..

• Highlight what you want to copy & enlarge
• Give the command to copy (Go to Edit – choose Copy, Right Click on what you’ve highlighted & choose copy, or use the action key on your keyboard and choose copy)
• Open your Word processing program: Word, Word Perfect, Word Pad, Note Pad
• Put your cursor on the blank document when your WP program opens
• Activate paste (Go to Edit –choose Paste; Right Click on the document and choose Paste, or use the action bar on your keyboard and choose paste)
• What you copied is now on the document
• Highlight what you want to enlarge (to do the entire text – use the CTRL Key + A or go to Edit & choose “Select All”
• Once text is highlighted, change font size & text
• To print, Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Print”
• When the Print Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “selection”
• On the right side, choose the number of copies you want
• Choose OK and that is what will print....

TO SAVE THIS NEW DOCUMENT ON YOUR COMPUTER IN A FOLDER:

• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Save As”
• When the Save As Dialog Box Appears, on the left side choose “My Doucments/Documnets”
• Choose or create the folder you want the document saved in
• Name the document at the bottom of the dialog box
• Choose OK and that is what will print....

TO PRINT TWO OR MORE PAGES OF A DOCUMENT ON ONE SHEET OF PAPER
PAGES:

• Go to the Menu Bar or Office Button and choose “Print”
• Under Zoom, click 2 OR more pages in the Pages per sheet box
• Choose OK and that is what will print

Printing Options-What to print

When you are in any of the office types of software programs (Word, Excel, Power Point etc), the quickest way to print what you are working on is to use the Printer Icon on your toolbar, BUT when you do this, you will print the entire document, spreadsheet or presentation.

Often we want to print just a paragraph/selection, or just the current page, slide or worksheet we are working on – or possibly several different pages or slides, such as page 2, 7-11, and 27.. You can do either of these very easily – you control what is going to be printed…

To control what you are printing when your work is open:
Go to the Menu Bar > File > Print OR in the newer versions of Office (2007, 2010) open the Office Button > Print
The Print Dialog Box opens > In the bottom left side, you can now choose:

• All
• Current Page
• Pages
• Selection (this is only a choice when you have highlighted something such as a paragraph)

On the right side, you can choose:

• Whether you want it collated or not
• How many copies
• In Word, you can choose how many pages you want printed on a page

PRINTING FROM THE INTERNET Part 2 of 2

The first two options we reviewed in Part 1, are for quick-easy printing directly from the internet. But, many times we want to be able to change/enlarge the Print style or size of what we are printing from the Internet to make it easier to read, especially with articles, directions, and other important information. So that is when this option works well…

Option 3:

• “Highlight” the portion of the Internet item you want to print & change (to copy to Word)
• Be sure pointer is on what’s highlighted then "Right click" on what you have highlighted and an action menu appears - choose/left click on "copy"
• Minimize email/internet; Open Word, NotePad, Works, whatever WP program you use
• Right click again (be sure pointer is on the blank page Word, etc), Left click "paste"
• Now in Word, NotePad or Works, make your print/font style, size changes
• To print, either left click on the printer icon on the toolbar OR
• Left click on "file" on the toolbar, then left click on "print"
• Left click “selection or current page" in page range section & "number of copies you want"
• Left click "OK" and it will now print with all your changes

To Save what you have now worked on, left click on "File", then "Save As", then be sure you are in "C" Drive, then "My Documents" or find your Flash Drive/Memory Stick and choose that - then choose the folder you want to put it in and left click on Save

TIP: try not to use the printer icon on your internet toolbar, because when you print using this ICON, you will print everything on your monitor including the ads, etc..

PRINTING FROM THE INTERNET – Part 1 of 2

When you are reading something on the “Internet” - your email, a newspaper article or something else on a website, you may want to print it for someone else or for your own future reference. There are a few options on how you can do this quickly & easily...

OPTION 1:

• Almost all email and other media websites today show a “Print” icon or “Print view” – formerly known as Printer Friendly Version) usually at the top or sometimes at the bottom of what we are reading.
• When you click on this Print icon, the website will copy what you have chosen, but eliminates almost all unnecessary info/ads from the page so that you only print the article or email – saves a lot of ink and paper.
• Now the print dialog box will appear, choose/left click "selection" in page range section (one of the "print range" choices)
• Then left click "number of copies you want"
• Then left click "OK" and what you have chosen prints without all the unnecessary ads etc.

OPTION 2:

• Another option is to “Highlight” just the portion of the email/article that you want to print
• Left click on "file" on the toolbar, then left click on "print"
• The print dialog box will appear, choose/left click "selection" in page range section (one of the "print range" choices)
• Then left click "number of copies you want"
• Then left click "OK" and "what you highlighted" will now print

TIP: try not to use the printer icon on your Internet toolbar, because when you print using this ICON, you will print everything on your monitor including the ads, etc..

TROUBLESHOOT COMMON PRINTER PROBLEMS:

Here are a variety of common printer problems and their solutions to make your printing life easier. If nothing has changed on your printer or in your printer settings on your computer then chances are that the problem is quite straightforward. QUICK & EASY:

• Check the printer cable first off.
• Check power. This sounds stupid but it happens.
• Check and make sure printer is online.
• Check paper, toner, ink. These are common to go out and need replacement.
• Try a print test page. There may be a button on the printer itself that will do a test page for you. If the page prints out you know that the problem isn't the printer itself.
• Look at your printer settings. Make sure you are sending to the proper printer. Is the right one installed?
• Be sure that your USB cable is securely connected - if you have an older printer, check the parallel switchers and inspect the cable itself; new printer cables can be faulty (but this is very rare)
• Visit your manufacturer's website-they will have specific troubleshooting advice for each specific printer - simply put in your model # and it will walk you through a troubleshooting wizard

ALTHOUGH YOU MAY THINK YOU HAVE TO USE PAPER FROM THE PRINTER MANUFACTURER, this simply isn’t true. Try various brands until you find one that you are happy with; I’ve used Wal-Mart’s “MultipPurpose” (Georgia Pacific) 20# for many years. The packaging is purple & black - it is inexpensive & works great on any printer I've used it on..

CANCEL PRINT JOB

CANCEL PRINTING REQUESTS
Many printers have a cancel button allowing you to cancel a print job OR

When you give the command to print - the printer icon will appear in the bottom right hand corner in the "system tray" and remain there until your document is about 85% printed.
While the icon is there, you can cancel your print job.

• Double-click the printer icon in the "system tray"
• Choose Open Active Printer to see & cancel documents in que/line.

If you're printing a short document and background printing is turned on, the printer icon may not appear on the status bar long enough for you to click it to cancel printing

If you share a printer you can only cancel a job from the computer that sent the command (so you can't override someone else's print command - unless you are the administrator)