Print to file automatically

We have a large scale printer mainly used by operators in department A.
Occasionally normal users need to use this printer.

I want them to "Print to File" and have operators in dep A decide when
they sent the job to the printer.

The problem is users must always specify the "Output File Name"!

Is it possible to define this file name in advance, or to have it
generated automatically?

--
Arsene WALD,
Luxembourg (Europe)

"Arsene Wald" <Arsene.Wald@act.etat.lu> wrote in message
news:3f093153$1_1@news.vo.lu...
> We have a large scale printer mainly used by operators in department A.
> Occasionally normal users need to use this printer.
>
> I want them to "Print to File" and have operators in dep A decide when
> they sent the job to the printer.
>
> The problem is users must always specify the "Output File Name"!
>
> Is it possible to define this file name in advance, or to have it
> generated automatically?
>
> --
> Arsene WALD,
> Luxembourg (Europe)
>

I tried a similar thing a few days ago, but I was using a simple plain text
driver. I found that I needed to compile a custom version of the file
tty.drv. Unfortunately, I didn't really understand the source (which can be
downloaded from microsoft). If you do, then I bet you can carry on where I
left off and write a mini driver that will genrate filenames automatically
(something like the current time in milliseconds for example).

John.

ps. I think this will be quite hard unless you really know what you're
doing. I don't.

John Court wrote:

> "Arsene Wald" <Arsene.Wald@act.etat.lu> wrote in message
> news:3f093153$1_1@news.vo.lu...
>
>>We have a large scale printer mainly used by operators in department A.
>>Occasionally normal users need to use this printer.
>>
>>I want them to "Print to File" and have operators in dep A decide when
>>they sent the job to the printer.
>>
>>The problem is users must always specify the "Output File Name"!
>>
>>Is it possible to define this file name in advance, or to have it
>>generated automatically?
>>
>>--
>>Arsene WALD,
>>Luxembourg (Europe)
>>
>
>
> I tried a similar thing a few days ago, but I was using a simple plain text
> driver. I found that I needed to compile a custom version of the file
> tty.drv. Unfortunately, I didn't really understand the source (which can be
> downloaded from microsoft). If you do, then I bet you can carry on where I
> left off and write a mini driver that will genrate filenames automatically
> (something like the current time in milliseconds for example).
>
> John.
>
> ps. I think this will be quite hard unless you really know what you're
> doing. I don't.

I can do some C, C++ programming, but was not able to find the tty.drv
source code at MicroSoft.

Where did you look, and how did you find it?

--
regards,
Emiel

If you can manage with the same file name every time then select your
printer properties, go to the ports tab and add a new local port, enter the
file name for the port name.

If you want a bit more flexibility in naming the files we have a product
called Print Distributor which will let you do this.

Regards

Tony Edgecombe
www.frogmorecs.com
Software for Printing


"Arsene Wald" <Arsene.Wald@act.etat.lu> wrote in message
news:3f093153$1_1@news.vo.lu...
> We have a large scale printer mainly used by operators in department A.
> Occasionally normal users need to use this printer.
>
> I want them to "Print to File" and have operators in dep A decide when
> they sent the job to the printer.
>
> The problem is users must always specify the "Output File Name"!
>
> Is it possible to define this file name in advance, or to have it
> generated automatically?
>
> --
> Arsene WALD,
> Luxembourg (Europe)
>