Printing: Tips & Tricks - IV

Default Printer

For Printing, Instead of going to File -> Print, there is also a Print button on the toolbars in most of the applications. Few Applications like Adobe show Printing Dialog Box, while some applications like Microsoft Office directly prints the current document to the Default Printer.

Be careful when using this button, as you may accidentally hit this button without the need of printing, and lots of pages are printed without your knowledge.

There even may be situations where you print the document and print does not come out as per your expectation.

In such cases, you can use the Adobe Printer/Distiller or Microsoft Office Document Image Writer as these printers print the document in a PDF or MDI format which looks exactly as you would get on the hard copy.

To avoid such situations, you can set these Printers as the Default Printer and take the hard copy only when you are really want it.

TO change the default printer, go to Start -> Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes -> Select the Desired Printer -> Right Click and Select Set as Default Printer.

Check your document before hitting that Print button

• Whether the document contains errors, so as to avoid reprinting and wasting a whole bunch of pages.
  
  You can use Proofing Tools (F7) for this.
  
  
• Whether the margins are set correctly, to print exactly how you need it to appear on paper.
  
  You can use Page Setup, Print Preview, Page-Break View (in Excel) OR Print it to PDF/MDI and verify.
  
  
• Whether the part of the document is being printed, is all what you need, or you can do with a small section of it.
  
  You can use Selection property of Print Range, Print Area (in Excel), OR Copy it to Notepad and then Print.
  
  
• Whether the document really needs to be printed.
  
  If it is just few lines, then why can't you write it on your Notepad, instead of Printing?
  
  
• When was the last time when you wrote it down instead of printing?
  
  OR Can't you just use it electronically as it is, I mean the Soft Copy itself.
  
  You can make use of the available functions, like Find, Comment, Highlight.
  
  

For original articles go to the below links;

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/printing-power-tips-171578.php
http://www.softwarepro.com/articles/exl_printing.htm