PRINTER / ACCPAC PLUS
Why does all your other programs print but ACCPAC Plus
will not? It may be that "all those over programs" are windows programs. Windows
and Dos programs access the printers in different ways. In windows, we select the printers
by name. In Dos the printer is selected by port. So what is a port? Most computers have a
place to plug a printer into, this "port" is normally LPT1 and on older systems
we could have up to three of these ports (LPT1 LPT2 LPT3) on one computer. We now can have
up to nine, but I have never seen that.
Network Printers: Today there are three main networks: Novell, NT and Windows.
Novell is basically Dos, and the print jobs are sent to print queues
through the assignment of printer ports using the capture command. If you are in Novell,
CAPTURE /SH will show you what printer ports Novell has assigned to you. This assignment
can be part of your login script, so your port assignment is unique to you.
- NT and Windows is basically the same. They do not like Dos or printer ports! When a
printer is "setup" it is given a name and Windows applications refer to that
name. Setup will ask if you want to use the printer in Dos and if so asks you to assign it
to a printer port (LPT1 LPT9). Both Windows and NT have been known to forget this
assignment on occasions. The assignment can be setup in a login script. If the assignment
is dropped, it may be easier to delete the printer and set it up again but do not delete
the printer drivers.
I have been to client sites with three printers, one printer physically attached to the
work station (a local printer), one connected to the Novel file server through a login
capture script and the third one connected to a second work station and connected through
windows. The two workstation would have their own printer as LPT1, the Novell printer as
LPT2 and the other workstation's printer as LPT3. Some planning should be done, before
setting up printers and sharing them.
ACCPAC Plus:
As Plus only knows about LPT1 … LPT9, we can really have some fun.
In the System Manager (F3) under Printer Setup, Printers, we can setup the printers. When
you want to print a report out to a printer, you must select the printer from this printer
list. It is important that everyone use the same set of printer names. If you wish to
print invoices to an "Invoice printer", then everyone should have a printer
called "Invoice printer" in their printer list. Each person can assign the
"Invoice printer" to a different printer port and to a different printer.
Remember that printer port can be assigned by Novell, NT, Windows or by hardware, and the
setting could be different for every person.
Cannot Stop the Printing:
Novell will print the report to the file server's hard drive and when the printer is
available, will print it out. If you are using Windows or NT, you can spool the print file
to the hard drive before sending it to the printer. Queuing or spooling the print, often
speeds up the processing of the report, and allows more than one person access to a
printer. If the print job is not printing, you must check the print queue in Novell or the
spooler in NT and Windows. I have seen people setup access to a Novell printer in Windows
and have it spooled in Windows and then have Novell queue it on the file server. If you
want to stop the printing of a print job, turn off the printer and delete or purge the job
from the spool or the queue, then turn the printer back on and check that it is on-line.
Remember that most printers today have a print buffer built in and the printer will keep
printing until that buffer is empty.
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