Double-click on the SuperSpool icon in the Finder, and SuperSpool will be installed until you shut down.
After double-clicking, you will have a brief opportunity to configure SuperSpool:
There are three choices for the spool buffer size. The smallest may be appropriate for users with 512K machines, and the largest for users of certain page layout programs. For most purposes, we recommend the default setting of "normal."
You may also configure a RamDisk. A RamDisk is an area of memory (or "RAM") that is set aside to be used as a disk. Because a RamDisk is in memory, it is much faster than magnetic media disks like floppies or hard drives. Although the RamDisk which then appears on the desk top can be used like any other volume (you can place any file that will fit on it), SuperSpool's performance is best when the RamDisk is kept free for SuperSpool's private use. If SuperSpool sees that you have installed its RamDisk, it will make use of it in a special way: when ready to print a spool file, SuperSpool will automatically copy the spool file from whatever floppy it is residing on to the RamDisk, delete the copy on the floppy, and then print the copy from the RamDisk. You will then be able to eject the floppy which originally held the spool file, and use your floppy drive any way you wish during printing.
Finally, SuperSpool offers a very useful Launch configuration option called " Chain Application." It allows you to select an application which you wish to have launched immediately after SuperSpool. If you don't configure SuperSpool to do otherwise, SuperSpool will chain to the Finder. But, if you have a second application which you wish to have launched automatically when your Mac boots, you can now do this by following this procedure: First, make SuperSpool the "Startup" application by selecting the SuperSpool icon from withing the Finder and choosing "Set startup" from under the Special menu. Second, press the "Chain Application..." button in your SuperSpool configuration screen. This will give you a dialog box with a list of applications from which you can to select the application you want to have launched after SuperSpool. This application will now always be launched immediately after SuperSpool until the time you change your configuration using "Chain Application".
(2) USING SUPERSPOOL
To print any document, follow exactly the same procedures in your application that you would if you were not running SuperSpool. There is nothing else to it.
Once you have made a print request from a menu you will be offered the same dialog boxes that you always have seen. You will notice the difference between printing under SuperSpool and printing under the old method only once you've finished dealing with the print dialog box: you will now regain the use of your Macintosh before printing begins, and not after.
SuperSpool creates two objects for its internal use. The first kind is a file called "SuperSpoolΓäó Queue", placed in the disk window of your startup volume. SuperSpool uses this file to keep track of all the files it has spooled and will be printing. The second kind of object is a folder called "SuperSpoolΓäó Spool Files". If you are using HFS, you will find this folder located in the disk window of whatever volumes you are using to spool to. SuperSpool uses these folders to hold spool files. SuperSpool does not create this folder on an MFS volume, simply placing spool files in the disk window of this volume. It's best not to move both these objects, "SuperSpoolΓäó Queue" and "SuperSpoolΓäó Spool Files", into other folders or on to other volumes.
(3) USING THE "PRINT QUEUE" DESK ACCESSORY
The "Print Queue" desk accessory allows you to view the status of your queued print jobs, to alter the queue, to get on-line help, to change the place where your spool files are stored, and to pause the ImageWriter printer as long as you wish, even as you continue to spool documents for printing later. If you wish to use any of these functions, install this desk accessory using Apple's Font/DA Mover program, included on your SuperSpool master disk.
It is not necessary to install the "Print Queue" desk accessory to enjoy the full print spooling capability of "SuperSpool". The desk accessory simply provides extra capabilities which some people may find useful.
Selecting the "Print Queue" desk accessory from under the Apple menu will bring up a dialog box which gives you several ways to manipulate your SuperSpool environment:
a) Beneath the spool files "view rectangle" -- the box that encloses the names of the queued spool files -- are two radio buttons. If the first button, "Use Dragging for Standard Viewing", is selected, use the view rectangle in the standard Macintosh way: dragging your mouse up or down changes the file you are selecting.
If the second radio button, "Use Dragging to Change Order", is selected, then dragging the mouse up or down will move the position of the file you have selected up or down in the queue.
b) Pressing the "Help" button (which you have obviously just done!) brings up a window with extensive instructions on using SuperSpool, should you ever need help.
c) Pressing the "Delete" button removes the spool file selected in the view rectangle from the print queue. If you "Delete" the presently printing document, it will take about 5-15 seconds for this file to disappear from the view rectangle and for printing to stop. This is because it takes this long for the ImageWriter's hardware buffer to empty.
You can "Delete" spool files from the queue even if SuperSpool is not installed at the time.
d) Pressing the "Volume" button brings up another dialog box allowing you to select the volume you want to spool files to. (See the section Spool File Storage Strategies for more information on this subject.)
e) Pressing the "Pause" button temporarily stops the ImageWriter from printing. When you press "Pause" the button changes to "Resume", awaiting the time you wish to start the printer back up and begin printing at exactly the spot as where you left off.
Pausing doesn't mean that you are cancelling a print job or deinstalling SuperSpool. In fact, SuperSpool will still be very much active. You can continue issueing print commands and spooling these files to disk. They will all be printed when you "Resume" SuperSpool.
f) Pressing "Deinstall" makes it possible to temporarily remove all traces of SuperSpool. Note that deinstallation does not take place until the currently printing document completes. Printing after deinstallation occurs exactly as if the spooler was not installed: you must wait until a print job is completed before you may use your Macintosh again. However, the previous queue of spooled files is maintained so that it can be used as soon as you go back to the Print Queue desk accessory and hit the Reinstall button. Note that the memory consumed by the spooler (and the RamDisk if one is installed) cannot be recovered by deinstalling; the only way to get back this memory is by shutting down and rebooting the system without installing SuperSpool.
g) Pressing the "Preview" button will allow SuperSpool users to actually see how a document will look before it is printed. Simply bring up the queue from the Apple menu, select a document in the queue, and click on the Preview button. Each click of the mouse within the previewing window alternates between a reduced image of the entire-page and a "full-sized" or "zoomed" segment selected from the page. SuperSpool provides mini-arrows at the foot of the viewing area of multi-page documents so you can walk your way back and forth through the document.
(4) DEINSTALLING SUPERSPOOL
If you want to go back to the old, non-spooling mode of printing, just shut down and reboot. Of course, you must set another application to the startup before you shut down if SuperSpool is presently set as the startup.
Note that any print jobs that are queued at this time are ready to begin printing the next time you install SuperSpool.
(5) SPOOL FILE STORAGE STRATEGIES
SuperSpool can spool to any volume recognized by the Finder with an icon. This includes hard disks, floppy disks, and RAM disks, among others. Keep in mind that the time to spool a file is dependent upon what medium you are using -- of course, hard disks are faster than floppies.
If you choose not to designate the volume to spool to yourself using the "Volume" button in the Desk Accessory, SuperSpool will default to placing your spool files in a safe place for you. The default location on MFS systems for the spool files is the system disk. In HFS systems, they will show up in a folder called "SuperSpoolΓäó Spool Files", which resides on the same volume as your system folder. If you are running under HFS, you must leave your "SuperSpoolΓäó Spool Files" folder in the root, or they will not be printed.
All your spool files need not reside in the same volume. So, if you run out of space on the current spool volume, you can change to a new spool volume without losing any of your previously created spool files. There are no restrictions as far as when or how often you may change the spool volume. All your files will be printed. Just remember not to eject volumes that you have spooled to before the files get printed.
SuperSpool's spool files are typically only about 4K each so you shouldn't have any problems finding space to put them. (More technically-minded users will appreciate that the spool files are so small and can be spooled so quickly because SuperSpool spools Quickdraw representations of files, and not bit image representations of them, like other spoolers.) Depending on what kind of storage media you own, however, you will have different concerns:
Owners of hard disks will very rarely want to spool elsewhere. Of course, if for some reason you want to spool to some place other than your hard disk, you can always use the "Choose Volume" button to change your setup.
Owners of floppy disk drives only are those most likely to face storage space constraints. Use the "Choose Volume" button in the desk accessory to put the spool files on the disk where you will have the most space available. Don't forget, if you run out of space to spool to on the disk you're presently using, you can always switch over to another disk at that time if you've got room there.
WE WANT YOU TO ENJOY USING SUPERSPOOL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR CONCERNS OF ANY KIND, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL US AT SUPERMAC TECHNOLOGY, (415)964-8884.
