chapter 6

MS-DOS AND YOUR PRINTER

WhenusingyourprinterwithanIBMPC, PC-XT,orPC-ATor compatible,
youwillprobablybeusing PC-DOSorMS-DOSas anoperatingsystem.A
numberofsoftwaretricksmaybe usefidhere.Thischapteris not,however,
asubstitutefortheoperatingsystemmanualssuppliedwithyourcomputer.
Tolearn howto print ffles,etc.it is bestto read therelevantparts ofthese
manuals.

INSTALLING APPLICATION SOFTWARE WITH

YOUR PRINTER

Wheninstallingapplicationsoftware,youmayfind thatyourprinteris not
specificallymentionedinthe lists ofpnntem givenfor installation.How-
ever, this should pose no problem. Read this section, and guidelines
providedwithyour softwareonprinter installation.
Ifyou haveyourprintersetup instandardmode,thenchoosean EpsonFX-
1050orEX-1OOOasyour printerto be selected.
Ifneither ofthese a~ mentioned,chooseoneof thefollowing(in order of
preference):StarNR-10/15,StarND-10/15,EpsonFX86e,EpsonFX286e.
If youhave yourprinter setup withthe DIP switchesto emulate anIBM
PropnnterXL, simplychoosethis fromthe listof printerxavailablein the
applicationsoftwarelist.
Ifthe IBMProprinterXL isnot mentioned,useProprinterIIor Propnnter.
Ifyoursoftwarepackagedoesnotmentionpnntemby name,butasksinstead
whatfeatures yourprinteris capable of,the most commonquestionsare:
“Canyour printerperformabackspace?”and“Can itdo ahardware form
feed?”.Youshould answer“Yes”toboth thesequestions.
Othersoftware packagesmay wellallow youto install specificfeatures.
Spreadsheetprogramswilloftenaskfor themaximumnumberof columns
tobe printed.This isgivenbelow.