Questions from a new switcher

[whiteangel]

1) I cannot print to the shared printer on an XP computer. I downloaded GIMP-print and use window printing over samba. The printer says that printing started & immediately says printing finished. Without printing anything. My printer is a Lexmark Z600. I have an ibook with 10.3. Apple says that panther has the drivers for Z600 in LexmarkPrintersDrivers.pkg I tried to find it in the 2 cds but i cannot access any folders. Should be due to the fact that they are restore cds. I searched for the package file and found it under receipt and when i double click on it, the installer says that it cannot sinall as it is a receipt.

2) Anybody knows how to make a pdf file in OS X?

3) Where do you search for bit torrent files? (not a mac question i know )

4) Is there a free text editor that allow you to save files with any kind or no extension? TextEdit seems to only do rtf and word files.

Thanks for your help!

 

[MontgomeryBurns]

1.) Install the lexmark driver from the manufacturer's website

2.) (with the doc open) File: Print: Save As PDF

3.)

4.) Text Edit is a pain in the ass if you're not using it to just jot something down. If you're trying to use it as a basic html editor, for example, use something more application-specific, like Taco HTML Edit.

 

[freiheit]

Response from another recent Mac switcher

The interface of OSX is built on PDF, so there's lots of neat tricks you can do to save files (or screen captures) as PDF. If you want a quick screen cap, press Cmd-Shift-4. You should see crosshairs. Press SPACE and you should see an icon of a camera and any window you hover over will highlight. Just click on the window you wish to capture and it saves it right to the desktop in PDF format. You can even do this on the edge of a window that's being covered by another window and, without bringing that window to the front, OSX will save the window you clicked on (without the stuff that's hovering over it) to the PDF on your desktop.

And yes, there's also the built-in Print-to-PDF functionality. Every native Aqua program (which is most of the graphical programs that run in MacOS X) can print to PDF format. To do this on other OSes you have to download and install often cryptic unsupported 3rd party software.

 

[mac4drew]

#1- I think you should probably just get a network printer, or hook your printer into your Mac. Or just wait until we get Rendezvous for Windows.

as far as #3, I'm going to assume you're talking about legal BitTorrent files, (come on guys, BT has a lot of legit uses) but you know, BitTorrent is the same for Mac and Windows, so this is probably a question you could ask your Windows friends, too. BitTorrent for Mac is avaliable here, at Bram Cohen's website.

#4- Doesn't Stickies do that?

 

[MisterMe]

....

4) Is there a free text editor that allow you to save files with any kind or no extension? TextEdit seems to only do rtf and word files.

Thanks for your help!

Open TextEdit > Preferences. Under New Document Atributes, select Plain text.

 

[whiteangel]

1.) Install the lexmark driver from the manufacturer's website

2.) (with the doc open) File: Print: Save As PDF

3.)

4.) Text Edit is a pain in the ass if you're not using it to just jot something down. If you're trying to use it as a basic html editor, for example, use something more application-specific, like Taco HTML Edit.

I installed the driver but the printer utility wouldn't find the printer. And using the printer setup, the printer is not shown.

 

[Blue Velvet]

PDFs

The PDFs that OS X produces are OK at screen-res but for anything for repro you'll need Acrobat Distiller (Pro ver 6) or Quark/Indesign etc.

 

[Fukui]

The PDFs that OS X produces are OK at screen-res but for anything for repro you'll need Acrobat Distiller (Pro ver 6) or Quark/Indesign etc.

Just out of curiosity, what makes Distiller so great? And Quark/Indesign PDF output better? I'm not a graphics guy as you can see.

 

[MisterMe]

Just out of curiosity, what makes Distiller so great? And Quark/Indesign PDF output better? I'm not a graphics guy as you can see.

You're kidding, right? Adobe Distiller is the original and still the standard PDF creator. Distiller distills PostScript files into PDF. All PostScript print drivers have the ability to save their output as PostScript files. You can import those files into Distiller to generate PDFs. If you have the Adobe Acrobat suite installed, then you have Distiller. Most professional Adobe applictions are bundled with Distiller. The Distiller installer creates a Print Center-level print driver that can generate PDFs from any document that can be printed. PDF creation may be a feature of other applications, but Distiller-created PDFs are unsurpassed in quality. I assume that Adobe inDesign uses the Distiller engine. The PDF buttons in Microsoft Office call Distilller. Quark Xpress can at best reach the level of Distiller; it cannot surpass it.

 

[Fukui]

You're kidding, right? Adobe Distiller is the original and still the standard PDF creator. Distiller distills PostScript files into PDF. All PostScript print drivers have the ability to save their output as PostScript files. You can import those files into Distiller to generate PDFs. If you have the Adobe Acrobat suite installed, then you have Distiller. Most professional Adobe applictions are bundled with Distiller. The Distiller installer creates a Print Center-level print driver that can generate PDFs from any document that can be printed. PDF creation may be a feature of other applications, but Distiller-created PDFs are unsurpassed in quality. I assume that Adobe inDesign uses the Distiller engine. The PDF buttons in Microsoft Office call Distilller. Quark Xpress can at best reach the level of Distiller; it cannot surpass it.

I'm not disputing what you said...
Just curious, because this obviously is not something I'm knowledgeable on.

PDF creation may be a feature of other applications, but Distiller-created PDFs are unsurpassed in quality.

But what makes them unsurpassed? Is it color management, detail level, DPI or what? Why do they call it distiller anyways?

Sorry for the Off topic.

 

[Fukui]

I searched for the package file and found it under receipt and when i double click on it, the installer says that it cannot sinall as it is a receipt.

If its in receipts, its installed already. When you added the printer, did it appear in the browser for windows printers? Is the printer password protected from windows sharing?

BTW printing to windows printers is an art unto itself! Its all proprietary, so there's no guarentee it would work in anything else than windows... you might search on the internet for free printer servers for windows that could share you printer as a postscript or LPR printer... there's gotta ba at least a free LPR printer server software... if you had windows server....

 

[wordmunger]

But what makes them unsurpassed? Is it color management, detail level, DPI or what? Why do they call it distiller anyways?

Sorry for the Off topic.

Mainly it's control-- you can control the resolution of the images, what fonts are/are not included, specify output devices, create custom settings, etc. With the native Mac PDF generator, you are forced to accept its settings. I have no idea why it's called distiller. Perhaps the folks at Adobe have some background in the moonshine business.

 

[Fukui]

Mainly it's control-- you can control the resolution of the images, what fonts are/are not included, specify output devices, create custom settings, etc. With the native Mac PDF generator, you are forced to accept its settings. I have no idea why it's called distiller. Perhaps the folks at Adobe have some background in the moonshine business.

I see, yea OSX has some options (quartz filters) but not as advanced.

Thanks!

 

[whiteangel]

I still can't get the stupid printer hooked up with my mac...

anyways, any kind of quality of pdf will be fine for me. I'm not particular at all. Just need to send an invoice in pdf format. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Nermal]

Make sure that there is an account on the Windows computer with the same username and password as on your Mac. I've run into printing problems when they don't match.

 

[whiteangel]

Make sure that there is an account on the Windows computer with the same username and password as on your Mac. I've run into printing problems when they don't match.

i managed to get the job sent over but nothing gets printed out and then it'll say that printing is finished..... stupid dumb printer

and after install the drivers for my lexmark z600 i can't get it to show up in the list of printers when i add a printer.
using the z600 utility i was asked to specify an ip address but they say that there is no printer found. using the printer setup utility with os x the printer can be found under windows printer -> workgroup but nothing gets printed out

 

[mac4drew]

using the z600 utility i was asked to specify an ip address but they say that there is no printer found. using the printer setup utility with os x the printer can be found under windows printer -> workgroup but nothing gets printed out

Just a thought, maybe there's a nonstandard port number that Windows assigns to network printers, and that's why you can't find it...

I dunno, personally, I wouldn't waste that much more time on this, printers are so cheap these days, maybe you should just bite the bullet and buy another one. If you just bought your mac you can get a huge rebate on certain printers from apple.

 

[7on]

lol, I've never had any problems printing to Windows printers. And I've never installed GIMP-print (could be part of the problem). Make sure your firewalls are off on Windows and that print sharing is on. This is also why I install all of the print drivers. Never know when you could be traveling and need to print something from another dorm room or something.