Presenter: In this lesson,
we're going to talk about printer configuration settings
and how to configure those
in a basic operating system like Windows.
This will include things like duplex, orientation,
tray settings and quality settings.
Now, when it comes to your printer configuration settings,
these are going to be contained inside the printer properties.
In a Windows system, you'll find this under "settings",
"Bluetooth and other devices",
and then, under the "printers and scanners" area,
you'll click on the printer you want to manage,
and then click the "manage" button.
At this point, you'll see the "printer property"
dialogue box.
The "printer properties"
are going to cover many different options,
including those related to print drivers, printer reports,
print sharing over the network,
setting up print permissions for other users,
deciding when the printer is available on the network,
printing test pages and many other things.
When you change the printer properties,
this only affects
the selected printer that you're working with,
so if you have multiple printers on your computer,
you'll have to select each one
that you want to make changes to.
Inside the "printer property" dialogue box,
you'll see this window broken down in the numerous tabs,
including "general", "sharing", "ports",
"advanced", "color management", "security",
"device settings",
and "about".
First, we have the "general" tab.
The "general" tab will give you some basic information
about your printer, including what features it supports
such as does it support color or black and white?
Will it support double-sided copies or single-sided?
Will it support stapling or not?,
as well as what the maximum resolution is
for that particular device.
Under "sharing", you'll be able to control
who the printer is going to be shared with.
When you click on "ports",
you'll be able to select
information about the ports that printer is connected to.
If you've connected your printer over USB,
you will see that defined underneath the "ports" tab.
Under the "advanced" tab, you'll be able to set
some very specific things about that printer.
For example, maybe you only want the printer to operate
between the hours of 09:00 in the morning
and 5:00 in the afternoon.
You can actually configure that on the printer
under this "advanced" tab.
In addition to this,
you can actually create multiple queues for your printer
inside this "advanced" tab,
so if somebody is printing out a document over 10 pages,
it might queue up,
and only print after working hours starting at 5:00 PM,
whereas anything that was 10 pages or less
could be printed immediately during the daytime hours.
This works really well
if you're using a single printer for the entire office
and you don't want one person
printing out a book that's 500 pages,
and tying up that printer for hours during the day.
The next tab is known as "color management",
and this allows you
to do some color correction settings for your printer
if you're not happy with the quality of your printouts.
After that, we have the "security" tab,
and the security tab is used
to be able to set permissions on this printer
about who can print, who can use the printer,
who can configure the printer,
and who can clear out things inside of the print queue.
The next tab is known as "device settings".
Under "device settings", we can configure things
that are set up as installable options for our device.
For example, if you're using a large printer
that has two or three trays,
you can select which one is going to be the default tray
that'll be used by that printer,
or if your printer supports multiplexing,
you can allow this or disable this
based on these features under "device settings".
And, finally, we have the "about" tab.
The "about" tab contains information about the driver
and the printer manufacturer,
and this will also give you links
to the manufacturer's website,
where you can get additional support if you need it.
Now, in addition to the printer properties,
there's also a dialogue box
called the "printer preferences".
The "printer preferences"
is going to come up anytime you start trying to print
from an application.
For example, if you go into Microsoft Word,
and you try to print out a report,
it's going to bring up the "print" dialogue box,
and in there, there is a "printer preference" button.
When you click on that,
it will bring up the "printing preferences" dialogue box.
From here, you can change settings on a per-job basis,
so if you want this report
to be printed out in "landscape mode"
instead of "portrait mode",
you can change that in this dialogue box.
Now, when it comes to printer preferences,
there are four main configuration settings
that you're going to find.
This includes duplex, orientation, tray settings
and quality.
When you hear the word "duplex",
I want you to associate this with the word "two",
and this is because duplex means two sided.
This allows us to print on both sides of the piece of paper.
Some printers will not support "duplex mode",
and they'll only print on one side of the paper.
Now, the problem with this
is if you have a document that needs to be two sided,
you'd have to actually print out
all of the odd number pages first, take those out,
flip them over, put it back in the tray,
and then print out all the even pages.
Now, most modern printers,
especially ones in an office environment,
will support "duplex mode",
which allows you to print on both sides of the paper.
This can save you a lot of paper,
which will reduce your costs,
and is better for the environment,
as well as taking up a lot less space in a binder
when you print out documents or reports.
Personally, I enable "duplex mode"
by default on my printers,
so everything I print is two sided
unless I have a specific need to turn duplexing off
for that particular document.
For this reason, I set "duplexing" to "enabled"
on my "printer properties", which applies to all print jobs,
and then I will turn it off on a specific print job
using my "printing preferences".
The second option you'll come across
is known as "orientation".
Now, if you're printing out a document,
you probably want this to be in "portrait" orientation.
Portrait means vertical.
If you take a standard size piece of paper,
the long edge is going to be vertically going up and down
if you're in "portrait mode".
If you use "landscape mode" on the other hand,
you're going to turn that paper to the side,
and the long edge is going to be going from left to right
with the short edge going up and down.
If you're using a text-based document,
normally, you're going to be printing in "portrait mode".
If you're printing out a spreadsheet or a presentation,
normally, these will be printed in "landscape mode".
Inside your "printing preferences",
you can select, on a per-job basis,
do you want this thing to be printed out
in "portrait mode" or "landscape mode"?
And depending on what you're printing,
if it's wider than taller, you want it in "landscape mode".
If you want something that is taller than wider,
you'll print it in "portrait mode".
The third option you'll come across
in your "print preferences" is your "tray" setting.
Now, if you're using a small ink jet printer at home,
you likely only have a single tray
that's going to be feeding your printer with paper.
But if you're working in an office environment
with a large multifunction device
or large scale laser printer,
you're going to have multiple trays.
By doing this,
the organization can have different sizes of paper
or different quality of paper in those different trays.
For example,
in my last large organization I was working with,
we had a printer that had five different trays.
In those five trays, we had the first tray,
which was our main tray, as standard letter paper,
using a low paper weight.
The second one had a heavier paper weight,
and was still a letter-size paper.
The third one was legal size in a standard size paper.
The fourth was legal size with a heavier weight paper.
And the fifth was a card stock that we used
for printing out certificates.
So if I was going to print a document,
I would have to select which of those five trays
I wanted to use for that particular document.
Now, by default in our printer setup,
we had it configured to use tray 1,
because that was the lowest cost paper,
and it was the standard that most people used,
which was a standard letter-size piece of paper
with a low weight.
But if you're printing something
for one of the higher-up executives,
they like the heavier weight paper,
so you'd switch to document tray number two,
and that would use a thicker paper
that had a little bit more weight to it.
When you're buying paper, generally, it's going to be rated
as a pound weight.
So you have 15 pound paper or 20 pound paper,
and that's referring to how many pounds that paper is
for 500 sheets.
Now, at the Dion Training offices,
we have a smaller printer,
and it supports two trays.
In the first tray, we have letter-size paper,
and in the second tray, we have legal-size paper.
Because of that, our software is configured
that if we're printing something that is letter size,
it will automatically choose tray 1 instead of tray 2,
and if we're printing something that's legal size,
it will print out of tray 2 instead of tray 1.
Again, though, this is something that can be configured
either as part of your print configuration
to make it a default for the entire printer,
or you can do it inside your "print preferences"
on a per job basis.
The fourth area you're going to find
inside your "print preferences" is known as "quality".
Now, this "quality" tab
can have a couple of different options
depending on the manufacturer of the printer you're using.
This may have options
such as "black and white" versus "color",
or it may have a mode called "economy mode" or "draft mode",
which uses less ink and toner when printing out something.
For example,
let's say I was making an outline for this course.
I can print that out using "economy",
or "draft mode",
which will use less ink and toner,
giving me a lower quality print,
but that's okay
because the only person who's reading that outline is me,
and I don't need the highest quality out there.
Now, on the other hand,
if I was printing up a legally-binding document or contract,
I would want to make sure it's printed
in higher "quality mode".
Similarly, if you're printing out things like photographs,
you could set this to be a "draft mode", "normal quality"
or "high quality", depending on the level of care you want
on that particular image.
When you use a higher level of quality,
generally, it's going to use more ink and more toner
to create that image.
Similarly, creating something in color
does use more ink and toner
than creating something in black and white,
and so often under this "quality" tab,
you'll also see a "gray scale" option
even if you have a color printer.
This way you can save your color and only use your black ink
because that costs less to print out that way,
and it can save you some money if you don't need color.
Now, in addition to those four key areas,
there's another area called "finishing".
Depending on your printer,
there's going to be additional options
that you may have access to.
For example, some of those large printers
that weighs several hundred pounds
have staplers and hole punchers inside of them as well,
so when you print out your documents,
you can say, "Every time you print out a document,
I want you to put a staple in the top left corner.",
or, "I want you to three-hole punch it
so that way I could put it directly into a binder,
and save myself some time."
Again, this is something
that's going to vary from model to model
and manufacturer to manufacturer,
but, normally, you'll find these options
underneath your "print preferences"
because this is going to be on a per-job basis
instead of affecting every single job you print
to that machine.