TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:re: Printing from Word using DocuTech systems From:rvantour -at- mondenet -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Thu Jul 27 13:29:39 EDT 2000
Geoff asked:
"Any tips, warnings, war stories, or suggestions?"
My current client (with whom I've worked for a number of years) always uses this method.
Our printer provided us with the proper Docutech drivers for NT. Make sure you get the proper driver for your OS.
Prior to printing, in Word I select File - Print, select the Docutech from the list of available printers and click Cancel. After you select the new driver in Word update all your fields in the document: Ctrl A then press F9.
I then review the entire document checking that page breaks haven't changed and other formatting issues have not crept in.
After ensuring that the doc looks the same as it did when the HP printer was the default printer I again select File - Print, click OK and print to a PRN file.
(I have yet to find a single formatting error after changing from the HP to the Docutech driver. The simpler your formatting the better, I guess. We have no floating graphics or text boxes and we don't push the limits of the margins, therefore no page break problems. Fonts have never been an issue, either.)
Our printer specifically asked that we do not send PDF but instead send the PRN file. It has worked flawlessly on many different documents over the last 3 and a half years. The PRN zips fairly efficiently as well so file size is not a problem.
We've been very happy with the results and it costs us about $6-8/copy Canadian for 100 copies (180 pages per) including a simple spiral binding.
Make sure you get the same driver that the print shop uses.
By the way, we use .bmp for our graphics and they look great.
Good luck.
Rick Vantour
Vantour Communications
rvantour -at- mondenet -dot- com
