Oh I wish...

[Craig]

...That you could give us a printer prompt so I can select what printer I want to print to and which paper drawer I want to use. That way I can print invoices on my letterhead paper and easily/quickly print an estimate/order on plain paper without having to stop and change the default each time.

...We had multi-user's on a network.

[Hal Heindel]

Those are great wishes, Craig. Especially your first one, about the printer tray option. If I ever found a shortcut, I might consider closing up shop, taking out a patent, then knocking at the doors of Microsoft and Adobe.

Just kidding about the closing up shop part ;). Here is how MS Word tackles it (for our Phaser 5500):
Click the Office button
Click the Print button
Select Print (withQuick Print or Print Preview the other options)
In the window that opens, select the printer
Click Properties
In the window that opens, select the Paper/Quality tab
Click Advanced
Select Force Printing from a specific tray
Select the tray
Now, Microsoft has a few more resources to throw at the problem than we do. Not that it would matter in this case. Because here, the main issue is the ginormous range of print drivers, all managed by the OS and the printer manufacturers. Applications have very little say in this, and that's a good thing. Nobody wants to go back to the old DOS days, where all programs had to include escape codes for each make and model of printer they supported.

Your second wish is more easily accommodated. Just not in this generation of MF programs. In 2010, finally, developers will have viable options for writing cross-platform applications that can be deployed on the desktop or the web. Either with Silverlight (http://www.silverlight.net/) in MS Visual Studio, or with Adobe Flash Builder 4 (http://www.adobe.com/products/flashbuilder/). We own both, beyond which I really can't comment yet.

My personal opinion is that within a couple of years, most print MIS systems will be on the web, at which time the whole multi-user issue becomes moot. You'll be able to access quotes and orders from your cell phone.

Have a great weekend!

[Keith]

My personal opinion is that within a couple of years, most print MIS systems will be on the web, at which time the whole multi-user issue becomes moot. You'll be able to access quotes and orders from your cell phone.

Wow!:eek: That would be awesome! So when people bother me for a price when I'm out and about and feeling nice, I can whip out my cell phone and get it done and out of the way. Or, when I'm not feeling so nice, tell them to go away and do it themselves! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Keith