Printing Tips and Tricks

This topic provides some tips and tricks to use when printing. The very best solution is to have a dedicated network printer for those hard to handle jobs (e.g., reports, checks, large jobs, etc.). You could also dedicate certain hours during the day for certain people/print jobs.

If having a dedicated network printer is not possible, the next best way to handle difficult print jobs is to have a dedicated printer that only you can print to. However, using a local printer (parallel LPT1 or USB) can tax the memory of the computer when printing large print jobs. If necessary, break the print job into smaller print jobs.

Spool Checks Individually

The Spool Checks Individually option in the Check Report form sends checks individually to the print spooler as separate print items. Use this option when printing a large number of checks to maximize performance. See Report: Checks for details about this option.

Cautions and Recommendations

If spooling to a shared printer, other jobs can be placed into the spool queue, along with your print check jobs. This could cause AMS360 to assign the wrong numbers to pre-numbered checks. When selecting this option you may want to use a printer that can be dedicated to the print job (unshared local printer) or initiate the job when other users are off the system.

Using a local printer (parallel LPT1 or USB) can tax the memory of the computer when printing large print jobs.

Tips

From your workstation, you may want to adjust your Printer Properties by selecting the Start printing after last page is spooled option. To find this option:

Click your Start menu and select Printer and Faxes.
Right-click the printer you are going to use, and choose Properties.
Select the Advanced tab.
Select the option to Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster.
Select the sub-option to Start printing after last page is spooled.
A large print job should fill the queue at about two checks per second and then printing starts at the speed available to the printer.

If you use the option to Start printing after last page is spooled, you may also want to turn on the Pause printing option in the print spooler menu before you queue your Checks. This option can be found by clicking Start > Printer and Faxes. Right-click the printer you are going to use, and choose Pause Printing.

The Pause option allows you time to change paper or check the print queue for another person's print jobs that can be mixed up with your checks, which appears as individual jobs.

When you are ready to print your checks, turn the Pause Printing feature off.
Click on the Start menu and select Printer and Faxes.
Right-click the printer you are going to use, and chooseResume Printing.