(Simultaneously posted to the MacTalk and Mac-N-DOS lists) I've been trying to help Gretchen Summers with her cross-platform printing problems (including referring her to the Mac-n-DOS list, which got her part way there), but she has continued to be stymied with the issue of printing from her Mac to their Wintel machine.
Last night, I stumbled on to some insights reading a copy of the March 2004 "PC Today" in the grocery store. Because it had some other stuff I was also interested in, I spent the *choke* $7.99 USD for the mag and spoke with Gretchen this morning. At least she no longer feels alone. In the section "Share A PC's Printer With A Mac", the first sentence is "Using a Windows shared printer from OS X is the most complicated form of cross-platform networking." 'nuff said. It didn't say anything like that under "Share A Mac Printer With A PC", so chalk one up for the Mac side. I read the three key paragraphs to her, and she'd tried all of that. She'd been doing a workaround by "sneakernetting" the printer over to her Mac (which I consider more like "forkliftnetting"). There is another way to do it if you're going to sneakernet, which I suggested to Gretchen. I suggested that instead she print her document to a file using the Canon drivers, sneakernet it (using some kind of removable media) to the Wintel machine, and send it to the Windows print queue using a freeware utility called PrintFile (it's sure easier than opening a Command Prompt window and entering "copy /b filename.prn prn /b"!). Below you'll find the message I sent to Gretchen; I trust she'll post a followup on how it worked. ---------------------------------------- I had no trouble finding the PrintFile site; the URL is <http://www.lerup.com/printfile/>; it's Windows freeware, and has worked well for me in the past. What you need to do is (if you haven't already) set up the Canon printer driver in your Mac, with output set to FILE (however that works out in OS X). When you generate a print file, just send it over to the PC via sneakernet, email or Windows File Sharing. From the PC, run PrintFile (I'm presuming you'll have already installed it at this point), select your file and send it to the printer. PrintFile will put it in the Windows print queue and kick it on out. I've never tried printing a file that wasn't generated by a PC with PrintFile, but the only problem I can imagine is if your Mac generates the file in some kind of Postscript format and the Canon doesn't recognize Postscript output unless you've set it to do that (like a regular/Postscript toggle). If there's such a toggle, it *should* be documented in your Canon printer manual. FYI, I tried to go to <http://www.pctoday.com/> to see if the article was online. It was, but only a teaser (the first paragraphs) for non-subscribers. So if you want to get the article for yourself, your choices are 1) buy the March 2004 issue of PC Today (it's not cheap--$7.99!) or 2) I can photocopy the article and either snail mail it to you or drop it by your husband's office for you. Let me know. Hope this at least gives you a decent workaround! At least toting a ZIP disk or CDRW is a lot lighter than toting the whole printer! ---------------------------------------- Hope this helps some of you with similar situations (I know at least one person on Mac-N-DOS was struggling with that issue). -- I'm a MUGWump: My "MUG" is on the Mac side of the fence (since mid-2002), and my "Wump" is on the PC side (since 1989). I've been on the trailing edge of computer technology since 1987 and love it! [P.S.] Due to limitations on this account, please send binaries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and a confirmation note here. -- Mac-N-DOS is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac-N-DOS list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-n-dos.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-n-dos%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
