Most of today's color and LaserJet printers come with a dizzying array of options to choose from when you print: paper types, print quality, duplex, and booklet printing to name just a few. If you are like me you set up your printer using the settings that cover most of your printing needs and use the other more exotic options only occasionally as needed. Trouble is I often forget exactly which options work the best together, how to configure them, or I change the options for one print job then forget what settings I started with. Problems are compounded when my wife or one of my children wishes to use different print settings. It's like sliding into your car seat only to find someone else has readjusted the seat. Unsettling to say the least. However, using this technique will save you both time and aggravation.
First things first. I have two printers on my main machine, a NEC SuperScript 870 laser printer on LPT1 and an HP DeskJet 970Cse plugged into a USB port. Both printers allow duplex printing (printing on both sides of the page) and various levels of print quality. In addition the NEC lets me put watermarks like "Confidential" or "Draft" on my printed output and print booklets.
To keep up with the options and make it easy to switch between them I simply set up multiple copies of each printer in the Windows "Printers" folder and give them distinct names that remind me of their settings. To do this first open your Printers folder (Start / Settings / Printers). Find the Add Printer icon and double-click it. Create a second copy of your printer by following the prompts in the Add Printer Wizard. After the Wizard has created a new printer entry select the new printer, right- click on it and choose Rename from the pop-up menu options. Give the printer a name that makes sense for the settings you will using. Examples of some of the names I use for different versions of the same printer on my main system are:
NEC - Standard jobs
NEC - 2 sided printing
NEC - Confidential
After you've given the printer a descriptive name, right-click on it again and choose Properties. Set the various options, such as paper type, trays to use, duplex printing, resolution, etc., that you want to use in this instance then click OK.
Repeat the previous steps for each configuration you want to have for a given printer. The next time you print from your favorite application, changing settings is as easy as selecting the printer that's preconfigured for the options you want from the printer list.
My final tip here is to make sure and write down the settings you've chosen for your various printer instances. Should disaster strike you'll be able to recreate all of your custom work in short order.
More information on the excellent Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 970Cse
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/301/tr.cgi?amazon3-us
