This Week’s Word(s): Print Options

molly Posted on January 25th, 2010 No comments

Someone recently asked me how to only print one page of a document which is several pages long. While this is something which is very intuitive to me and the rest of the Best Macs staff, if you have not been using a computer very long and very frequently, it might not be so simple. This is just another example of why I write the weekly word. If you already have knowledge about how to change your printer settings, there is no need to read this, but if it’s not so clear for you, keep reading!

Any time you go to print a document, webpage, photo, whatever, a box will pop up. Last week, when I walked you though PDFs, I sent you to the same box to save a document as a PDF. Depending on which application you are printing from, the box will look a bit different. In fact, if you go to print something in some applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, the application has its own box of printer settings before it moves you along to the printer settings which are standard to Mac OS X. We are going to ignore the application settings right now and stick to the ones which are standard for Mac OS X.

If the print options box only give you the option for selecting a printer and the presets, click on the little arrow just to the right of the printer selection. That will give you more options. That print options box which pops up will give you the options for how many copies you would like to print. Here, you also have the option for your printed documents to be “collated”. This means that if you are printing five copies for example, instead of printing 5 copies of page 1, then 5 copies of page 2, etc, which it does automatically, it will print one set of all the pages and then another set of all the pages, then another, etc. The next option below it is for the pages that you would like it to print. If you only need the first page, you can type 1 to 1. On the left, it will give you a print preview of which pages you are printing.

There are many more settings which you can change as well. In the very last box on the right side, there are many options you can select from. “Layout”, “Color Matching”, “Paper Handling”, etc. Of course, you can play with the settings for all of these to suit your needs, but I am going to focus on two of the most useful.

If you are printing many images or slides, you may want to check out the layout settings. Here you can select to print out several pages on one sheet of paper. This is also a great way to bring a handout to a meeting for everyone to take notes on your presentation, without using a lot of paper. Or, if you want to have the presentation in front of you with your notes along side the slides, this is very handy as well.

The second useful setting to change, depending on your needs is the “Paper Type/Quality.” Your printer likely automatically prints a good quality page and if you have a color printer, it will print your document in color. As we all know, it is not always necessary to use the best quality. If you are printing directions to a business across town, for example, you do not need the best quality. Although if you are printing a photograph, you probably do want the best quality. You can also click on the arrow next to “Color Options” at the bottom center part of the box and change the document from color to black and white if you do not need the document in color.

There are many, many more settings that you can change when you are printing a document. If you have any questions about what you can and cannot do and how to do it, please leave a comment here and I will get back to you. Computers and printers have very many settings and you should always use them to suit your needs to get the most out of your machine!