Working with Printer Forms

Printer forms affect the order in which the print server processes print jobs.

Printer forms include information about the length and width of different types of paper used in your printer. You can designate printer forms to prevent your print jobs from printing on the wrong paper. The print server operator is notified when a form change is needed. Printer forms are configured in PRINTDEF or NetWare Administrator.

When a print job requests a printer form other than the form currently mounted in the printer, the print server does not service the job until a print server operator reports that the new form is mounted. A print server operator can use PCONSOLE or NetWare Administrator to mount the new form. For information on mounting a printer form, see "Mounting Printer Forms."

Printer form names must begin with an alphabetic character and can have up to 12 alpha-numeric characters. Numbers can range from 0 to 254. Length can range from 1 to 255. Width can range from 1 to 999. These numbers are for your reference only.




	NOTE: Printer forms are stored in the Directory Services database. In bindery mode, printer forms are stored in a file named PRINTDEF.DAT in SYS:PUBLIC.

Creating Printer Forms

From the browser's "Object" menu, select a container object and then choose "Details."
At the "Object" dialog, press the "Printer Forms" page.
The "Printer Forms" page appears.
Choose "Create."
The "Create New Form" dialog appears.
Enter a name for the form in the "Name" field.
The name must begin with a letter and must be unique. It can be up to 12 characters long. Spaces are converted to underscores (_).
Enter a number from 0 to 255 for the form in the "Number" field.
Enter a number from 1 to 255 for the form in the "Length" field.
This is the length of the printer form you are defining, measured in lines of text.

Mounting Printer Forms

Printer forms can be designated in an effort to prevent your printer from printing a print job on the wrong paper. When the print server detects a print job in the queue, and that print job calls for a form different from the one currently mounted in the intended printer, the print job will not be serviced until a new form is mounted. Each printer form has a unique name and number.

Mounting a printer form consists of two elements:

Changing the paper. NetWare has no way of determining whether the paper was actually changed or not. It relies on information it receives from the operator.
Mounting the form through the software. This is the information that NetWare receives from the operator and that is required in order for printing to continue.

To mount a printer form, you need the following prerequisites:

The print server must be loaded and accessible.
The printer must be installed, assigned to the print server, and connected.
A queue must be created and assigned to the printer.
At least one printer form must have been created.

To mount a printer form with NetWare Administrator, use the following procedure.

Procedure

From the browser, select the "Details" dialog for the printer you want to configure by double-clicking on the printer object.
The printer "Identification" page appears.
Select "Printer Status."
The "Printer Status" page appears similar to that shown in Figure 2-13.
If Printer Status does not appear, the printer is not connected.
Select "Mount Form."
The "Mount Form" window appears. A list of existing forms appears in the "Defined Forms" field.
Select the form you want to mount.
The form number appears in the box below.
Select "OK."

You can also mount printer forms from PCONSOLE or at the print server console. See "Mounting Printer Forms" in Chapter 4 (PCONSOLE) or "Viewing a List of Forms" in Chapter 9 (PSERVER).

Viewing or Modifying Printer Forms

Procedure

From the browser's "Object" menu, select a container object and then choose "Details."
At the "Object" dialog, press the "Printer Forms" page.
The "Printer Forms" page appears, listing all current forms in that container.
Highlight the form you wish to modify and select "Modify."
The "Modify Printer Form" dialog appears. The values for the printer form that you selected appear in the fields of the dialog. You can change any of the fields.
(Optional) Enter a new name in the "Name" field.
The name must begin with a letter, and must be unique. It can be up to 8 characters long. Spaces are converted to underscores (_).
(Optional) Enter a number from 0 to 255 in the "Number" field.
(Optional) Enter a number from 1 to 255 in the "Length" field.
This is the length of the printer form you are redefining, measured in lines of text.
(Optional) Enter a number from 1 to 999 in the "Width"field.
This is the width of the printer form, measured in characters.
Choose "OK."
The form is now modified. You do not have to choose "OK" in the object dialog to complete the action.
You return to the "Printer Forms" list. The printer form that you selected in Step 1 is still selected. It may appear with a different name if you changed the "Name" field in Step 2.

Deleting Printer Forms

Procedure

Select a printer form from the "Printer Forms" list box.
Choose "Delete."
The "Delete Printer Form" dialog appears. The values for the printer form that you selected appear in the fields, but they are grayed. You can see what values you are deleting as part of this printer form, but you cannot change them here.
Choose "OK."
You return to the "Printer Forms" list box. The printer form that you selected is deleted from the list of printer forms. You do not have to choose "OK" in the object dialog to complete the action.
The "Delete" operation cannot be undone. You must "Add" a new printer form with the deleted values.

Working with Printer Forms

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Index

Creating Printer Forms

Mounting Printer Forms

Viewing or Modifying Printer Forms

Deleting Printer Forms