Special Print Button

[Dan-A]

Hi,

Using FM on a PC/Mac network -- all is fine except for printing...

My dot matrix printer can only be run thru the pc (paralel port).

Can i program a script to activate the print button on the pc?

If this works, I could work on the mac then get the mac to "talk" to the pc

just for the printing of some forms. I have tried to "run extrenal" script but it always ends up running in the mac, so the print job is sent to the wrong printer.

Thanks

--Dan

[Vaughan]

I'd suggest the most robust and reliable method would be to share the printer on the PC using something that the Mac can connect into... LPR is ideal, or maybe a network printer queue or something. No, I've never done anything like this. Hopefully others can contribute the details.

If it were me, I'd buy a new printer or a usb-to-parallel adapter or something. The reason being that all this kludgy programing will be useless the moment you buy a new printer or a new computer and then you'll have to re-program it to work the proper way anyway.

[Dan-A]

Thanks,

You think I should look for a dot matrix printer that is PC & Mac compatible.

What is LPR?

--Dan

[Vaughan]

Dan

Why do you need a dot-matrix printer? An inkjet or laser would be a whole lot easier and you'd have a huge choice!

LPR (if I got the name right) is a way of sharing printers through TCP/IP. It's cheap or free and reliable but necessitates that you have a TCP/IP network, which might not be the case for small networks.

[jasonwood]

Why do you need a dot-matrix printer? An inkjet or laser would be a whole lot easier and you'd have a huge choice!

I've heard of a lot of companies that insist on sticking with dot matrix because they can do multiple layers.

I just don't get it... in this technological day in age when you can do SUPER HIGH-TECH STUFF like printing multiple copies automatically, it seems like nonsense to me.

A lot of distributors print invoices/packing slips this way. The packing slips are below the invoice, and have certain areas blocked out so you can't see prices. Why not just have two layouts and print one at a time through a script?

It would probably cost less and you'd be creating a much more professional/convenient document for your clients (or whoever has to read/file these documents).

[Dan-A]

I would love to use my system as it was designed....to use a networked laser printer with ncr paper.

The problem is with my current client who insist on using pre-printed po forms supplied and approved by the head office!! so i am trying to figure out quick patch to use a dot matrix.

Worse case i will use another pc on the network and forget about the mac.

Thanks for your comments.

--Dan