Frustrations with Printing Under Panther

Well I _think_ I have my Epson 740 finally running again under Panther.
It would have been a lot easier had Apple mentioned somewhere in the
Install instructions that the Epson drivers were in the custom install
only. And I can only hope there is some darn good reason for the
protracted printer set-up procedures, but I have yet to discover it.
That the setup procedures are very UN-intuitive, clunky and inexplicable
is another matter that I hope Apple will correct in future
implementations of X.

For instance, I have yet to divine the advantage of having an image of
my sole printer on the desktop, though perhaps this is advantageous in a
multi-user, multi-printer configuration. Yet, I am forced to add
clutter to my desktop because, unlike printing in OS 9 where the
print-monitor would automatically start so you could manage the queue or
stop printing jobs from the menu bar if you wanted, now one must go
through a series of FOUR steps* just to stop a print job once it has
started--- that is unless you install a "desktop printer" that you can
double-click on to access the queue. I do not call this progress. And
I am only guessing here but I suppose that the disappearance of the
*automatic* Epson Print-Monitor was necessary to make all printers act
in the same way under Panther. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
I would really like to know why I am being denied this fundamental
convenience. Surely there is some way to add this most basic
functionality back into Panther.


*The four steps, according to the Print Help Viewer:

1. Open System Preferences and click Print & Fax.
2. Click Printing, and then click the Set Up Printers button.
3. Double-click the printer in the Printer List to see the
printer's Jobs window.
4. Click Stop Jobs or Start Jobs to stop or start all print jobs
in the queue.

..

In article ,
Madwen <madwen.DeleteThis@onomatopaeia.com> wrote:

 > For instance, I have yet to divine the advantage of having an image
 > of my sole printer on the desktop, though perhaps this is
 > advantageous in a multi-user, multi-printer configuration. Yet, I am
 > forced to add clutter to my desktop because, unlike printing in OS 9
 > where the print-monitor would automatically start so you could manage
 > the queue or stop printing jobs from the menu bar if you wanted, now
 > one must go through a series of FOUR steps* just to stop a print job
 > once it has started--- that is unless you install a "desktop printer"
 > that you can double-click on to access the queue.

The purpose of a desktop printer is so you can drop a document on the
desktop printer and have it printed. Otherwise you have to open the
document in its application and print from the application.

As for managing or stopping a print job without a desktop printer, it is
only one step more than with the DT printer. Click on the printer setup
utility in the Dock (it will be there if there's a print job running)
and double click on the name of the printer in the Printer list. you
will get the same dialog you get by double clicking on the DT printer.

--
Never play strip tarot.