"Sticky" printer setup possible?

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"Sticky" printer setup possible?

2013-08-24 11:29 am

Hi all,

I use Noteworthy Composer to create PDF scores for my Android tablet for use in a choir (and it works very nicely for this

) As such, I "print" my scores using the Nitro PDF Creator printer driver, with a custom "paper size" that matches my tablet's screen aspect ratio (and appropriate minimum margins to maximize screen real estate). I notice that when I launch NWC, it defaults to my Windows Default printer and paper size. I've looked through the various options that be set, but I don't see any way to "remember" the default printer and settings when I launch the application the next time, so I don't have to set them every time I use the program. Maybe there is a way to "script" this when I launch the program?

I do realize that I could change my Windows default printer and settings to accomplish this, but I have a "real" printer that I use for other applications, and would want that to behave "as is".

If there isn't a way to currently accomplish this in NWC, perhaps I'll turn this into a feature request (of course, this "feature" is probably something that should be configurable, since not everyone would want this behavior).

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Re: "Sticky" printer setup possible?

Reply #1 – 2013-08-24 12:04 pm

Quote from: Mike Shawaluk – 2013-08-24 11:29 am

I do realize that I could change my Windows default printer and settings to accomplish this, but I have a "real" printer that I use for other applications, and would want that to behave "as is".

You might be able to create a script to change your default printer to PDF, launch NWC, and then change it back. There might be some canned code on the web for this.

Re: "Sticky" printer setup possible?

Reply #2 – 2013-08-25 09:21 am

You may not want to change Windows' default printer, but I would have thought you should be able to change the default settings of your PDF "printer" to be as you want them, by using the Control Panel Printers control. All you would need to do then is swap to the PDF printer in Noteworthy.

Re: "Sticky" printer setup possible?

Reply #3 – 2013-08-25 10:41 am

Good call - I checked the printing preferences in Control Panel for that printer, and in fact the default paper size was set to Letter. So, I changed the default to my custom setting (7x10.5), then did an Apply. Then just to be safe, I exited & reran the Printers applet in CP and double-checked that the custom paper size was still my default. (It was.)

Unfortunately, NWC still isn't co-operating with me. When I change printers, the paper size stays at "Letter" (which is the default for my Samsung laser printer), apparently because there is a Letter option available for the Nitro PDF driver, so NWC doesn't change it.

But an interesting footnote. As a test, I made the Nitro driver my default Windows printer. Then when I run NWC and check its printer setup, it shows that as my default printer, with paper size of 7x10.5 as I would expect. But then if I change the printer to my Samsung, the paper size changes to Letter! (Which I assume is because the Samsung driver doesn't have that custom paper size added) And if I change back to the Nitro, it changes back to its 7x10.5 setting.

I guess I'm still stuck here, unless I want to write a PowerShell script to do the default swapping (which seems messy to me and fraught with peril).