Tip #3096 - Make Your Printer Work For You
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Make
Your Printer Work For You
There is probably
no bigger frustration for office workers and others who use printers than
a waste of printer paper due to careless formatting. I have worked in
plenty of offices where hundreds of pages could have been rescued from
the recycling bin with a few simple clicks. Many employees are simply
not aware of the amount of options they have with their printer. Well,
hopefully, with a few helpful hints today, I will save you some money
and some headaches down the road.
The first helpful
printing hint that I feel is important is to make sure that the page size
is correct before printing. The best time to set up the page size is before
working on a document, but it can be changed at any point before printing.
In order to change the page size, go to File in the upper
left hand corner of your document, left click and then left click on Page
Setup. From Page Setup, you can adjust the size of the page that
will be printed.
A list of available
sizes will fill the majority of the screen. To select a page size, left
click on your choice and press OK. Before pressing OK
in the bottom right hand corner, users can preview the alignment and size
of the page by simply left clicking on their choice and looking at the
preview box on the right hand side of the Page Setup screen. As well,
users can adjust the orientation of the page from portrait to landscape
by left clicking on the page orientation scroll down menu at the bottom
of the screen.
Another important
hint to know is how to align the printed page with the computer generated
page. While it would seem that if you have an 8.5 x 11 computer image,
it will print on 8.5 x 11 paper, but that is not necessarily the case.
In fact, I have seen people print 11 x 17 documents on 8.5 x 11 paper,
leaving most of the document off of the page. In order to ensure that
your printed page will match your word processed document, go to the File
option in the upper left hand corner of your page and left click. From
the File menu, left click on the Print option.
The Print screen offers
many options, including a Properties button. Users should left click on
Properties and look at the Paper Setup
option. By left clicking on Page Type and Page
Size under Paper Setup, a user can adjust the type and size of
the paper that will come out of the printer. For example, you can ensure
that when you print an 8.5 x 11 document, it will come out of the printer
on the appropriate paper. When the appropriate page size and type have
been selected, click on the OK button and from the main
Printer screen, press OK to print your document.
Save some paper and
some frustration with these simple printing hints. If you can’t
remember them, make a little chart to place above your computer screen
or on your desk. It will remind you to format your documents properly.
This chart could also be duplicated and distributed to everyone in your
office to spread the printing love!
~ Nick Katers
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