Printer forms can be designated in an effort to prevent your
printer from printing a print job on the wrong paper. The printer
forms you define are used as you set up print job configurations.
For example, you might want some jobs to be printed on letter-size
sheets of paper and others on green-bar continuous-feed paper.
Printer forms include information about the length and width
of different types of paper used in your printer. 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, PSC, or NetWare
Administrator to mount the new form.
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.
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 | 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. |
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Creating or
Modifying Printer Forms |
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From the PRINTDEF "Available Options" menu,
select "Printer Forms."
A list of the forms that have been defined for printing appears.
Press <Insert>, then type the name of the
new form you want to define in the "Forms Definition Form"
entry box and press <Enter>.
The first character of the form name must be alphabetic, and
the form name cannot exceed 12 characters. Examples of form names
include White_8x11, Continuous, Checks, Green_Bar, and Standard.
Type the number you want to assign to the form and
press <Enter>.
You should probably assign the most commonly used form as
form 0, because 0 is the default form. Form numbers must fall between
0 and 255.
Type the length of the form in lines per page and
press <Enter>.
The number must fall between 1 and 255. This number is for
your reference only. Use a number that makes sense to you. For example,
if your printer is set to 6 lines per inch and your paper measures
8.5 by 11 inches, you might select 66.
Type the width of the form in characters per line
and press <Enter>.
The number must fall between 1 and 999. This number is for
your reference only. Use a number that makes sense to you. For example,
if your printer is set to 10 characters per inch and your paper
measures 8.5 by 11 inches, you might select 85.
To save changes, press <F10>.
Repeat Steps 2 through 8 for each
form you want to define.
To edit a form, highlight it in the "Forms"
list and press <Enter>. Then follow Steps 2 hrough 8 to
make any necessary changes.
To delete a form from the "Forms"
list, highlight that form and press <Delete>. Then select
Yes in the confirmation box.
Viewing a List of Forms |
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To see which forms have been defined for your printers in
PRINTDEF, select "Printer Forms" from the "Available
Options" menu.
A list of the forms that have been defined for printing appears.
Viewing Form Definitions |
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To see what parameters have been set for a specified form,
complete the following steps.
From the PRINTDEF "Available Options" menu,
select "Printer Forms."
A list of the forms that have been defined for printing appears.
Select the form whose definition you want to view.
The "Forms Definition" window appears. It
contains the form's name, the number you assigned to it,
and the form's length and width.
While both a form name and form number are specified when
the form is created or modified, only the number can be specified
when you are mounting a form.
Mounting
Printer Forms |
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After a printer form has been created, it must be mounted
before the print server will recognize it. Printer forms can be
mounted from the Print Server Console, from PCONSOLE, from NetWare
Administrator, or from the command line using PSC.
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 in 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 and assigned to the
print server.
A queue must be created and assigned to the printer.
At least one print form must have been created.
The following paragraphs explain the different ways a a form
can be mounted through the software.
Mounting a
Printer Form from the Print Server Console
At the NetWare Services console, use <Alt><Esc>
to toggle to the Print Server screen. Choose a specific printer
from the "Printer Status" option of the "Available
Options" menu. Highlight the "Mounted form"
field in the printer information screen and type the number of the
form you wish the printer to service. Print jobs using that form
in the print queue will now print.
Mounting a Printer Form with PCONSOLE
Enter PCONSOLE and choose a specific printer from the "Printers"
option of the "Available Options" menu. Highlight
the "Printer Status" field and press <Enter>.
Highlight the "Mounted form" field in the printer
information screen and type the number of the form you wish the
printer to service. Print jobs in the print queue using that form
will now print.
Mounting a Printer Form with NetWare Administrator
See "Mounting Printer Forms" in Chapter
2.
Mounting a
Printer Form with PSC
From the command line, issue the following:
PSC PS=printserver P=printernumber MO F=formnumber |
For example:
PSC PS=.DALLAS.SALES.HP P=2 MO F=1 |
Printable version
