Print When You Want

When you print a document, pages normally start coming out of the printer after only a short delay. But in Windows XP and 2000, you can print your documents at a later time--say, during your lunch break or after hours--without having to remember to send all the necessary documents to the printer at that time. Setting specific print times can make busy network printers more efficient by letting some documents print right away and others print later. It's also handy if your printer is nearby and you want to minimize noise while you work.

To schedule printer availability, open the Properties dialog box for your printer as described in the previous tip and click the Advanced tab. Select Available from and use the controls to the right to set the start and end times for Windows to send jobs to your printer (see FIGURE 2). Then click OK. From now on, you can add files from your applications to the print queue whenever you want, but nothing will print until the preset time. Just make sure the printer is turned on at that time.

You can also designate a printing time for individual documents in the print queue rather than using a blanket setting for all the queued files. First, double-click the printer's icon in the 'Printers' or 'Printers and Faxes' window to open the print queue. Double-click a document in the list to open its Properties dialog box. Under the General tab, click Only from in the Schedule box and specify the start and end times during which this document can be printed. Click OK.

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