Print to File

Folks:

I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every way I
could think of.
I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not have a
printer.
Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could Email
it to a friend to print for me.
Is there anyway I can do that.

TIA
Drew

Drew Leyda wrote:

> Folks:
>
> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every way
> I could think of.
> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not have
> a printer.
> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
> Email it to a friend to print for me.
> Is there anyway I can do that.

What about "printing" to a PDF file and sending your friend that file?
BullZip PDF printer works very well and is free.

http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

Since you didn't mention what "program output" consists of, that's all I can
suggest.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Drew Leyda wrote:
> Folks:
>
> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
> way I could think of.
> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
> have a printer.
> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
> Email it to a friend to print for me.
> Is there anyway I can do that.
>
> TIA
> Drew

This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
a modified copy command.

--
Dave T.


You can't imagine the extra work I had when I was a god. - Hirohito,
Emporer of Japan

Dave T. wrote:

> Drew Leyda wrote:
>> Folks:
>>
>> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
>> way I could think of.
>> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
>> have a printer.
>> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
>> Email it to a friend to print for me.
>> Is there anyway I can do that.

>
> This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
> simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
> check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
> a modified copy command.

The problem with creating a .prn file is that I believe the recipient must
have the same printer to open it. I could be wrong about that, but that's
why I suggested the OP create a .pdf instead.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

"Drew Leyda" <> wrote in message
news:F15711A1-6366-47FC-A676-...
> Folks:
>
> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every way
> I could think of.
> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not have
> a printer.
> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
> Email it to a friend to print for me.
> Is there anyway I can do that.
>
> TIA
> Drew

As has been pointed out, a print to file {your subject} is printer specific.

You did not mention what application is providing the program output. To
convert to PDF, the application you are using must be supported by the PDF
writer you are using {not all are supported}.

If the application that you are using in your hospital, supports saving the
program output, just save the output as a text file. In most Windows
programs use File, Save As and select the file format as text.

If the application that you are using only supports saving as a specific
hospital oriented file format, then you could copy and paste the output into
a program that supports saving as a text file. Windows Vista includes
Wordpad which should work.

Don

Malke wrote:
> Dave T. wrote:
>
>> Drew Leyda wrote:
>>> Folks:
>>>
>>> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
>>> way I could think of.
>>> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
>>> have a printer.
>>> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
>>> Email it to a friend to print for me.
>>> Is there anyway I can do that.
>
>> This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
>> simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
>> check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
>> a modified copy command.
>
> The problem with creating a .prn file is that I believe the recipient must
> have the same printer to open it. I could be wrong about that, but that's
> why I suggested the OP create a .pdf instead.
>
> Malke

Probably a good idea, but again I think it may be different depending on
printer software. With my HP, the "Print to File" simply makes an exact
copy of what I want to print including the format. If I have a document
already saved to my computer and I command "Print to file", it makes an
exact duplicate, same format extension, and same location on the
computer. I end up with the same results as if I had simply copied and
pasted to a new file.

Re-reading the OP, why not save as, and email as an attachment?

--
Dave T.


You can't imagine the extra work I had when I was a god. - Hirohito,
Emporer of Japan

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:04:23 -0700, "Dave T." <>
wrote:

> Malke wrote:
> > Dave T. wrote:
> >
> >> Drew Leyda wrote:
> >>> Folks:
> >>>
> >>> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
> >>> way I could think of.
> >>> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
> >>> have a printer.
> >>> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
> >>> Email it to a friend to print for me.
> >>> Is there anyway I can do that.
> >
> >> This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
> >> simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
> >> check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
> >> a modified copy command.
> >
> > The problem with creating a .prn file is that I believe the recipient must
> > have the same printer to open it. I could be wrong about that, but that's
> > why I suggested the OP create a .pdf instead.
> >
> > Malke
>
> Probably a good idea, but again I think it may be different depending on
> printer software. With my HP, the "Print to File" simply makes an exact
> copy of what I want to print including the format. If I have a document
> already saved to my computer and I command "Print to file", it makes an
> exact duplicate, same format extension, and same location on the
> computer. I end up with the same results as if I had simply copied and
> pasted to a new file.
>
> Re-reading the OP, why not save as, and email as an attachment?


Because if the E-mail recipient doesn't have the same printer you do,
the attachment will not print properly when received.

If you create something that was printed to file, that print-to-file
capability must have been created using the correct printer driver for
the printer it will ultimately be printed on. If not, it will not be
printed correctly. You can do this if you know what printer the
recipient has, and install the print-to-file using its driver;
otherwise it won't work correctly. That's why Malke's suggestion to
create a pdf file instead is a very good one.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Dave T. wrote:
>
>> Drew Leyda wrote:
>>> Folks:
>>>
>>> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
>>> way I could think of.
>>> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
>>> have a printer.
>>> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
>>> Email it to a friend to print for me.
>>> Is there anyway I can do that.
>
>>
>> This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
>> simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
>> check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
>> a modified copy command.
>
> The problem with creating a .prn file is that I believe the recipient must
> have the same printer to open it. I could be wrong about that, but that's
> why I suggested the OP create a .pdf instead.
>


Why doesn't the OP just copy the document to a flash drive? Why bother to
change the format at all?

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:04:17 +0100, "Gordon"
<> wrote:

> "Malke" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
> > Dave T. wrote:
> >
> >> Drew Leyda wrote:
> >>> Folks:
> >>>
> >>> I do not know where else to ask this question. I have Goggled it every
> >>> way I could think of.
> >>> I have a laptop with Vista Home premium. I am in a hospital. I do not
> >>> have a printer.
> >>> Occasionally I would like to Print to Text a program output so I could
> >>> Email it to a friend to print for me.
> >>> Is there anyway I can do that.
> >
> >>
> >> This is usually part of your printer software. With my HP printer I
> >> simply click File>print, and when the print dialog comes up there is a
> >> check box for "Print to file". I use it occasionally. I think it is just
> >> a modified copy command.
> >
> > The problem with creating a .prn file is that I believe the recipient must
> > have the same printer to open it. I could be wrong about that, but that's
> > why I suggested the OP create a .pdf instead.
> >
>
>
> Why doesn't the OP just copy the document to a flash drive? Why bother to
> change the format at all?


And send the flash drive to the friend? That assumes that his friend
has the same (or compatible) software that was used to prepare the
document. That may very well be an erroneous assumption, and the
friend may be able to do nothing with the copied document.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup