Printing Files in Windows XP

Revised: October 2004.

Printing Files in Windows XP

Your Windows XP login account is automatically linked to your ACS Laser Printing Account, assuming you have one. Typically any laser printing jobs you submit are charged to your own Laser Account. There is a special procedure, however, to submit jobs to another account in cases where someone else is covering the charges.

Free printing is available on the dot matrix printers. However, be advised that the dot matrix printers are typically under heavy use so do not wait until the last minute to print. Adobe Acrobat PDF documents rarely come out legible when printed on dot matrix printers so please set up a laser account if you intend to print PDF files.

To print, first physically locate the printer you wish to print to. The name of the printer (e.g. laser63, color19) is on a label posted on the printer.

Choose "Print" from the Windows XP Application (such as Microsoft Word or Internet Explorer). Below is an example from Microsoft Word:

In the "Printer Name" drop down menu select the name of the printer you have located earlier then select "OK" to print. In the example below, we are selecting "laser19".

Setting a Default Printer

After you have logged in, click on the "Start" button in lower left hand corner of the screen. Select "Printers and Faxes" then locate the printer you wish to set as the default. Right click on the printer and choose "Set as default printer."

Charge to a Different Account

Normally, print jobs will be charged to the account you initially logged in with. In special cases you may wish to log in with your personal account but submit a print job using a different username.

If you wish to print to Cplot1 using a different username, refer to Cplot1 - Windows XP - Charge a Different Account instead.

Assume for example that you have logged in with your personal account "jsmith". You have a course-specific account "me156waa" on host iacs5 and the department is paying for me156waa printing. You want to print to laser19.

To submit letter sized print jobs and charge them to a different account (me156waa for example), follow this procedure:

  • Open the "ACS Account Utilities" folder on your desktop.
  • Double-click the "Special Printing" icon.

    A "Connect to Printer Queue" dialog appears:

  • Select the server for the account to be charged for the print jobs. The server you pick must recognize the username you wish to charge to. If you are not sure which server to select, use the Account Lookup Tool to see the full list of servers you can use for a particular account.
  • Enter the printer name. You must type in the name exactly like it is on the label posted on the printer; that means all lower case and no spaces.
  • Enter the username of the account to be charged for your print jobs.
  • Enter the password.
  • Click on the "Connect" button.
If all went well, you will get the following dialog in a few moments:

At this point, the printer and username you typed in earlier (example: laser19 and me156waa) is linked to the Generic Postscript Printer. To print, send your print jobs to "Generic Postscript Printer." Print jobs sent to this printer will be charged to the "other" account (example: me156waa).

CAUTION: Print jobs sent to any printer other than "Generic Postscript Printer" will still be charged to the account which you initially logged in with (example: jsmith).

Troubleshooting

Problem: Unable to connect to another account using Special Printing Utility

You may make the connection manually instead of using the Special Printing utility. To do so:
  • Open up the Start Menu and select "Run"
  • Lets say you want to connect to laser19 through iacs5. In the Run dialog, type in: net use lpt2: \\iacs5-print\laser19 and click OK
  • The program will prompt you for the username you wish to charge to and its corresponding password

Problem: PDFs not printing

Some printers have problems printing PDFs. The solution to this is to print the PDF as an image.
  • In the print dialog box click Advanced
  • Now check the box Print as Image
  • Click OK and OK again
Another solution is to use a printer that is not a Lexmark. You can find the location of other models of printers on ACSs printer locator.