GEOS PRINTING

BY: MIKE FARR

-----------------------------------
This Article was Downloaded
from Q-LINK and is reprinted
from the Commodore Club South, Inc.
Newsletter of January 1987
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      Select Printer has generated some confusion.  Here, then, is the best
way to avoid problems and get GeoWrite and GeoPaint to print properly the
first time, every time.
     The theory:  When GEOS boots, it will look through the deskTop notepad
for printer drivers and makes the first driver it finds the default driver. 
When you open your work disk, GEOS does not automatically look for the printer
driver you put on it.  (Maybe it should, but searching for a printer driver
every time you open a disk is just one more thing to slow the system down). 
Thus when you open your work disk, GEOS will still be using the default driver
on the boot disk until you do a "Select Printer" from the file menu on the
desk Top.  If you only have one printer (like most of us) the final
configuration you want is to have the correct printer driver as the first
printer driver on the Original GEOS "Boot" disk.  This should be the same
driver on your work disk.  I will explain what "first on the disk" means
below.  The following is a verbose beginner level discussion about how to get
to this configuration.  Most Q-LINK users know enough to be able to create
this configuration without having to read further.
     1.  Do a complete backup as described in the users manual Chapter one.
     2.  Remove write protect tab.
     3.  Boot GEOS.
     4.  Find the default printer driver on the Boot disk.  This should be on
page 4 of the deskTop notepad.  If you have moved files around on the boot
disk then there may be a printer driver on page 1, 2, or 3.  The "first
printer driver on the disk" is the first driver on the lowest numbered page. 
The order of drivers on a page goes from left to right, with the top row
preceeding the bottom row.  Usually the first printer driver will be the
Commodore 801 in the upper left corner of page 4.  You advance pages on the
deskTop notepad by clicking on the dog ear (the folded lower left corner) of
the notepad.  If the first printer on the disk is the correct driver for your
printer then skip to step 12.  If it is not, then do the following steps to
make the correct driver the first on the disk.
     5.  Throw away the driver that is currently the first on the disk
(usually the 801).  You do this by getting a ghost image of the file (click
the Joystick once, wait half a second and click again)  and dragging it off
the white portion of the deskTop notepad and place it on the trash can icon in
the lower right corner of the screen.  When it's there, click the joystick to
release it.  Since you have backups of GEOS (right?) you can afford to just
throw this driver away.
     6.  Now look for the printer driver that corresponds to your printer. 
(Look around on the different pages of the notepad).  If you can't find it
there then you either have V1.0 in which case you need to get the updae from
us, or the priner driver is on the back side of the disk.  The Okimate 10,
Okimate 92/93, Star SG-10 and Epson JX-80 drivers are all on the back side of
the disk.  Step 7 is for your printer driver being on the front side of the
disk, steps 8, and 9 are for it being on the back side of the disk.
     7.  You found the correct printer driver for your printer on the front
side of the disk.  Now move it to the border just as you did when you threw
the other driver away in step 5, except this time make sure you are over the
grey border and NOT over the trash can.  When you release the border go to
step 10.
     8.  You need to look on the back side of the disk.  Choose close from the
disk menu.  When the disk stops spinning, remove it, turn it over and choose
open from the disk menu.
     9.  Look through the deskTop notepad for your printer driver.  When
you've found it, usually on page 10, drag it off the white notepad and release
it on the grey border.  The file should move to the border.  Choose close from
the disk menu, turn the disk over and reopen the front disk.  The driver file
icon should still be on the deskTop border.
     10.  Now place your drive into the same place you found the first drive
in step 4.  Usually this is page 4 of the notepad.  Move the correct driver
for your printer from the border onto the notepad and release it.  If you
moved a large driver such as the OKI 10 from the back side of the disk then
you will probably get a "not enough space" error message.  If this is the
case, then you will have to throw away another printer driver.  Choose a
driver for a printer you don't own and drag it to the trash can.  Now try
moving the printer driver from the border to the notepad again.  There should
be enough space this time.  GEOS will promt you to flip the disk if your
printer driver came from the back side.
     11.  Reboot GEOS.  Since the correct printer driver is now the first on
the disk it will be made the default driver.
     12.  Remove all drivers but the correct printer driver from your work
disk.  Now when you boot, the correct driver will be automatically selected. 
When you print from an application of the work disk GEOS will find the correct
driver on the work disk.
 
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