How to print

Printing documents in the WTO is an interesting challenge. We have several different types of printer some of which can be used with have several different programs or "printer drivers" that give different results for the same document on the same printer. Nevertheless it is possible to give some general guidelines as to how to connect to and print from printers in general.

How to identify the address of a printer 

In order to connect to a printer you must first identify the name or "address" of the printer.

As a final further complication there are two different types of printer.

Network printers

The address for a network printer can be found by following the gray cable plugged into the back of the printer to the socket on the wall where there will be a small plaque with four digit number followed by a letter e.g. 3172 X

Local printers

In some cases when you follow the gray cable from the back of your chosen printer you may find that, rather than connecting to a socket on the wall, it is connected directly to a PC. This is often but not always the case in offices that have their own printer. In this case it is necessary to connect to the printer via the PC to which the printer is connected and as such you need to identify the address of the PC. The address of the PC can be identified in one of two ways:

Click: Start > Settings >Printers

This will open a window that looks something like the following example.  If the icons you see are smaller than shown a different views can be used as described here.

Double-click the Network Icon to obtain the following dialogue

The computer name in this case "ZI10203" (without the quotes) can then be found on the "Identification" tab. NB take careful note of whether their is an "i" after the Z or not.

Alternatively you should be able to find the WTO "Inventory number" on a small sticker stuck to the front the PC. On older PCs the stickers are silver & black while on more recent PCs they tend to be orange with a bar code. As you will see the inventory number corresponds to the PC name. 

NB Once again take careful note of whether their is an "i" after the Z or not and be sure not to take the screen inventory number rather than the PC number. For this reason it is always best to double check using the above procedure.

How to connect your PC to a printer

Having taken note of the address of the printer in question (as described above) you may now proceed to connect your PC to the printer.

Click: Start > Settings >Printers

This will open something that looks like one of the two examples depending on whether your PC already has another printer installed. Clearly the larger the number of printers connections installed the larger the number of icons.

Double-click the add printer icon :  and check the "Network printer server" on the subsequent dialogue:

For a Networked printer search for the printer address in the following dialogue, verify that the type of printer - in this case "HP LaserJet 5si" - corresponds to the type of printer and double-click the icon:

NB As you may have noticed the printer address -  in our example from above 3172 X - is prefixed with the network details - \\MARCOPOLO6\ and the simple letter has been converted to a -X1. You may even find there are several references to the address on different networks e.g.  \\MARCOPOLO5\3172-X1. Don't worry the most  detail is the number.

For a Local printer search for the computer number (don't forget some are z alone and others are zi) - in this case zi16598 - double-click the icon to reveal the printer details, verify that the type of printer - in this case "HP LaserJet 4050 N PCL 6" - corresponds to the type of printer and double-click the icon:

Check "Yes" or "No" depending on whether you want this printer to be your main printer and click "Next >"

NB Strictly speaking programs like MS Word are happy to set their own default whatever the default for the PC as a whole may be as discussed here. In the meantime you have now installed your new printer and can click "Finish"

How to print from MS Word 

How to select a specific printer in MS Word

Menu: File > Print or Keyboard shortcut : ctrl+p

Click the in the Printer name box and select the installed printer you wish to use - in this case 3172-X1.

NB Even if you did not choose to make this your "default" printer MS Word will use this printer until further notice.

How to change the print quality for graphics

Documents should be printed at a resolution of 600 dpi (dots per inch) except where they contain graphics which should be printed at 300 dpi which makes it easier to detect the difference between the different shadings. Documents control are aware that this will reduce the quality of any text on the graphics pages but are prepared to accept this for the sake of the good graphics.

NB after printing your graphics do remember to switch back to 600 dpi for the next document.

How to print specific pages in MS Word

In the section on selecting a specific printer we looked at how to print a whole document. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to print only the page you are currently editing or as in the preceding case only certain pages with graphics. 

Current page only

In the case where you wish to print only the page you are editing on the screen you have two choices.

Click on the Formatting tool bar

This will bypass the print dialogue & print the page currently displayed onscreen

Menu: File > Print or Keyboard shortcut : ctrl+p

Check the "Current page" box in the "Page Range" section

Specific pages only

How to print from Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer Page Setup

Unlike MS Word where each document has it's own margin settings, the page setup dialog of Internet Explorer allows you to set your preferred margins for every document you print as follows.

NB Html documents are not (yet) able to provoke the use of Portrait & Landscape formats within a single document in the same way that MS Word can currently do. As such it may sometimes be necessary to print certain pages as landscape much in the same way as it is necessary to print certain graphic bearing pages in 300dpi.

The Internet Explorer print dialog

Most of the options in Internet Explorer print dialog are identical to those described for MS Word above with the additional possibilities of choosing whether to print the page "As laid out on the screen" or "Only the selected frame" or "All frames indiviudally" with or with a copy of the linked documents or a table listing the documents links. 

NB When you wish to print a specific frame it is usually necessary to select the frame you wish to print by clicking somewhere inside it before opening the print dialogue.