Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
    • Introduction to Spooled Printing
    • Setting Up a Printer
    • The Print Dialog Box
    • Managing Print Jobs
    • Deferred Printing
    • Fonts Have Style
    • Fonts and Typefaces
    • Removing Fonts
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

Managing Print Jobs

When you print documents, Windows formats the output into the format required by the default printer and then sends that output to a spool file. When the output completes, the printer subsystem routes the output to the actual printer, as long as it is connected and turned on.

Suppose that you want to print several documents to your printer in succession. Although today's printers are fairly fast, the computer's disk drives and memory are much faster than the relative speed of printers. Therefore, you can end up sending several documents to the printer before the first document even finishes printing on paper.

After printing one or more documents, open your Printers and Faxes window and double-click the Printer icon that represents the printer you printed to. A scrolling list of print jobs, such as the one shown in Figure 16.5, appears inside the window.

Figure 16.5 You can see all the print jobs spooled up, waiting to print.

Each line in the window describes one print job. If you've printed three documents, all three documents appear inside the window. The Status column shows how far along your print job is by telling you how many pages of the print job have completed. The remaining print jobs on the list are awaiting their turn to print.

If you want to change the order of the print jobs in the queue (another name for the list of print jobs), you can drag a print job to the top or bottom. Dragging a print job around in the list changes priority for that print job. For example, your boss might be waiting over your shoulder for a report. If you had several jobs you had sent to print before your boss showed up, you could move the boss's print job to the top of the list so that it would print next.

Right-clicking over a print job gives you the option of pausing a print job (putting it on hold until you resume the job) or canceling the print job altogether.

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