PrinterSwitch is a control panel/system extension that allows you to easily select among many different printers when you print documents in your applications. It eliminates the need to use the Chooser to select a printer.
PrinterSwitch complements Apple's new Desktop Printers because it allows you to select different print devices even if your application won't let you drag & drop documents onto a Desktop Printer.
PrinterSwitch is shareware with a 14-day free trial period. Registration is quick and easy; registered customers get free technical support and free upgrades to future versions of PrinterSwitch. See below for more details.
• Why is PrinterSwitch better than existing printer switching utilities?
PrinterSwitch presents a simple user interface that is always available when you need it; no need to memorize "hot key" sequences.
PrinterSwitch understands the latest LaserWriter 7 & 8 drivers and will correctly switch between different PPD files. You always use the proper PPD file for the printer, eliminating a common source of PostScript errors.
PrinterSwitch is ideal for networked environments. It is simple to install, and network administrators can easily preconfigure a Macintosh by copying PrinterSwitch and its preference files to the new machine.
Installation
• System Requirements
Any kind of Macintosh
System 7.0 or greater
Two printing devices, or a printer and faxmodem, etc.
PrinterSwitch will not work with Quickdraw GX.
• Installation instructions
If you have PrinterSwitch 1.0 beta 1 or beta 2 installed, Delete the PrinterSwitch extension and the "PrinterSwitch Prefs" folder inside your Preferences folder.
If you have PrinterSwitch 1.0 beta 3 installed, delete the "PrinterSwitch Preferences" file inside your Preferences folder.
If you have PrinterSwitch release 1.0 or 1.0.1 installed, you need only replace the control panel and control strip module. You can keep your "PrinterSwitch Preferences" file and "PrinterSwitch Printers" folder.
Copy the "PrinterSwitch" control panel to your control panels folder.
If you use Apple's "Control Strip" or the shareware "Desktop Strip" extension, you will want to install the PrinterSwitch Control Strip Module. It's inside the Extras folder.
Copy the "PrinterSwitch CSM" file to your Control Strip Modules folder or Desktop Strip Modules folder. (You'll find either of these folders inside your System folder.)
Once you have finished copying everything, restart your computer.
If installation was successful,
PrinterSwitch will display this icon:
If something went wrong (or you held down the Shift key,)
PrinterSwitch will display this icon:
If something went wrong, PrinterSwitch will notify you with a message after startup is complete.
How to use PrinterSwitch
PrinterSwitch is activated when a user invokes the Print dialog or Page Setup dialog. For example, choosing Print... from the File menu, or P.
As an example, open any document in SimpleText. When you choose Print... you will be presented with the PrinterSwitch dialog.
Choose "OK" and you will be presented with the appropriate "Print" or "Page Setup" dialog for the printer you have chosen. When you print, your output will be sent to the chosen printer.
When you first use PrinterSwitch, there will be only one printer in the popup menu, and the menu will be disabled (greyed). This is normal; PrinterSwitch must "learn" about your printers before it can switch between them.
• How to teach PrinterSwitch about your printers
PrinterSwitch learns about each printer you use, one at a time. So the first time you use PrinterSwitch, it will only display one printer in its Printer menu. Try it now: in SimpleText, choose Print (P) then press OK. The Print dialog will appear. Press Cancel to exit the print dialog.
Open the Chooser and select a different printer. Then return to your application and Print (P) again. This time the PrinterSwitch menu will contain two printers. Once you've set up PrinterSwitch, you won't have to do it again. It saves your settings in a "PrinterSwitch Printers" folder inside the Preferences folder.
You may copy the PrinterSwitch Printers folder to other computers in your organization, and when you install PrinterSwitch on those computers, it will immediately know about the printers.
If you "Get Info" (I) on any of the Printer files, the Comments field will show you which printer the file is used for.
• Configuring PrinterSwitch
PrinterSwitch has several options you can set via the PrinterSwitch control panel. Open the control panel and you will be presented with a number of choices:
You can configure PrinterSwitch to activate before the Print and/or Page Setup dialogs by using the checkboxes on the left.
If you select a "Hot key to activate", PrinterSwitch will not appear when you open Print or Page Setup dialogs, unless you hold down the "hot key". For example, if you set "shift" as your hot key, you should hold down the shift key while selecting Print or Page Setup from the menu.
The Register button allows you to register PrinterSwitch. Registration will allow you to use PrinterSwitch after your 14-day free trial period has ended. See the section "How to register PrinterSwitch", below.
* The PrinterSwitch Control Strip Module
Control Strip is a handy system utility, available in System 7.5.3 for all Macintoshes. For those who do not use Control Strip, the Desktop Strip utility is a good alternative.
You can find Desktop Strip at Men & Mice Software's web site:
http://www.menandmice.com/
Desktop Strip is also shareware, so if you use it you should register your copy.
"PrinterSwitch CSM" is a Control Strip Module that will work with either Control Strip or Desktop Strip. Here is a picture of a typical Control Strip with PrinterSwitch CSM installed:
The PrinterSwitch button is the rightmost button. When you press this button, the PrinterSwitch dialog will appear. This is handy for activating PrinterSwitch from the Finder, and activating PrinterSwitch from applications that do not use the standard Print and Page Setup dialogs (for example, Adobe PageMaker).
The only place the PrinterSwitch CSM will not work is from the Chooser. When the Chooser is active; the button will be disabled and will not function.
PrinterSwitch CSM requires that PrinterSwitch load at startup time. It will not install into the Control Strip unless PrinterSwitch has loaded.
How to register PrinterSwitch
Registration is easy and convenient. It's also the right thing to do! Registered owners receive free upgrades to future PrinterSwitch 1.x releases, and free technical support.
PrinterSwitch is licensed on a per computer, per site, or worldwide basis.
Please purchase one license for each computer on which you use PrinterSwitch. If you have lots of people using PrinterSwitch, the Site or Worldwide licenses may save you money.
Individual Computer License : US $ 14.00
Site License (all computers within a 100 mile / 160 km radius): US $ 280.00
Worldwide License : US $ 2800.00
(Educational institutions, please see the discount policy below)
• Registration step-by-step
1. Open the Register application provided with PrinterSwitch.
2. Fill out your name, email address, postal address, and preferred method of payment. All kinds of payment methods are accepted: credit cards, checks, traveller's checks, and cash in your local currency.
3. Select how many PrinterSwitch licenses you require.
4. Mail, fax, or email the completed registration form with payment to Kagi Shareware, our order processing service.
Kagi Shareware's email address is: shareware@kagi.com
Their postal address is:
Kagi Shareware
1442-A Walnut Street #392-BS
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
Important note: If you do not include an email address, please include your postal mail address and include US $1.00 extra to cover postcard mailing costs. This will insure you receive your registration codes in a timely manner.
5. You will receive your registration code by email or postal mail.
6. Once you receive your registration code, open the PrinterSwitch control panel, press the "Register…" button, and enter your name / business name and the registration code.
7. You are now registered. If your copy of PrinterSwitch had previously expired, restart your computer to use PrinterSwitch once again. Thank you for registering!
• Educational Discount Policy:
PrinterSwitch is free to primary and secondary schools (K-12) or foreign equivalent.
PrinterSwitch is available at a 50% discount to colleges and universities.
If you qualify for these discounts, do not register using the procedure above. Contact Brookline Software directly for instructions on how to receive your discount.
Reference Section
• Known problems and solutions
PrinterSwitch will not auto-activate from within the Finder when you use Page Setup or Print.
However, PrinterSwitch may be used from the Finder via the PrinterSwitch Control Strip module.
Also, the Apple Desktop Printer Update (included in the LaserWriter 8.3.2 package, and with System 7.5.3) provides functionality comparable to PrinterSwitch when used in the Finder.
Microsoft Word has problems printing when switching from any printer to the Global Village GlobalFax printer driver. This problem may occur with other printer drivers as well.
• Workaround: Switch to the GlobalFax printer driver by using the Chooser.
PrinterSwitch won't auto-activate from within programs that don't use standard Print or Page Setup dialogs (i.e. Adobe PageMaker.) Use the PrinterSwitch Control Strip module to activate PrinterSwitch from within these programs.
• Special Note
If you get a Macintosh printing error stating "The LaserWriter Prefs file is damaged. Please select another printer from the Chooser." This means that PrinterSwitch is confused about which LaserWriter Prefs file it ought to use. You should not encounter this message, but if you do, here's how to correct the problem:
1. Open the Preferences folder and drag the PrinterSwitch Printers folder to the trash.
2. Go to the Chooser and select a printer. This should fix the LaserWriter Prefs file problem.
3. Use PrinterSwitch as usual. Since you threw out the PrinterSwitch Printers folder, PrinterSwitch will rebuild this folder as it "relearns" your printers. You will have to teach PrinterSwitch about your printers once more (see above for details on how to do that.)
• Frequently asked questions
Q. Will you be releasing a PowerMac - native version?
A. No. PrinterSwitch works by patching the original Apple Printing Manager. For a variety of technical reasons, the Apple Print Manager is not PowerMac - native code, and never will be. Therefore it would be counterproductive to write a PowerMac - native version of PrinterSwitch.
Q. Will you make PrinterSwitch work with QuickDraw GX?
A. No. QuickDraw GX works by entirely different mechanisms and it would be very difficult to adapt PrinterSwitch to that architecture. QuickDraw GX has its own, more convenient methods of switching between printers, so PrinterSwitch is not needed in that environment.
Q. How about Copland (System 8)?
A. No. System Extensions won't work under Copland, and the built-in printing architecture of Copland is Quickdraw GX. So (for the reasons mentioned in the question above) PrinterSwitch won't run with Copland.
Q. Are you working on any cool new features for release 1.1 of PrinterSwitch?
A. You bet! I will be releasing beta versions of 1.1 soon, watch for it at the Brookline Software WWW site…
• Release History
4/7/96 version 1.0.2
PrinterSwitch 1.0.2 supports up to 48 different printer/driver combinations. Previous versions supported 16.
Added support for the Adobe® PSPrinter driver. PrinterSwitch will correctly save and restore PSPrinter PPD files.
In versions 1.0 and 1.0.1, a damaged PrinterSwitch Preferences file would cause PrinterSwitch to freeze at startup. This has been fixed; PrinterSwitch will now report an error message instead.
3/25/96 version 1.0.1
Fixed a crash that may occur at startup when using system software earlier than System 7.5. (gory details: there's a documented bug in Apple's GestaltValue library code. PrinterSwitch 1.0 used this library, but for 1.0.1 I have removed the library and written my own Gestalt code.)
Upgraded to the latest version of the Register application (v1.2.3) now includes space for your comments.
2/22/96 version 1.0
First production-quality release to public.
Added PrinterSwitch Control Strip Module.
• Contact Information
Contact the author via email: Brookline_Software@kagi.com
or postal mail: Brookline Software, 7 Strathmore Road #2, Brookline, MA 02146 USA
You can also fax or telephone +1 (617) 566-0883. Please don't call for technical support; use email instead.
All trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
Software publishers are permitted to redistribute PrinterSwitch 1.0 on CD-ROM or diskette, provided that:
• Only unregistered copies are distributed.
• Distribution is free or at a reasonable price (i.e. cost of production + distribution + modest profit)
• One (1) reference copy of each CD-ROM or diskette title is provided to Brookline Software. Mail the software to the address shown above in "Contact Information".
