prn files

[Steve]

Powerpoint (office xp) allows printing slide handouts to
file. If I do that the file has a .prn extension. I want
students to be able to print the 6 to a page slides. I
can upload a prn file to a server they can download from.
How do I instruct them to print the prn file off their
computers. I can't do it on mine. I have printed
directly from the ppt presentation file and then
converted to adobe, but besides the trouble much quality
is lost to the students. I do not want to give them
direct access to the .ppt file.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

Powerpoint (office xp) allows printing slide handouts to

file. If I do that the file has a .prn extension.

By default, yes.

I want
students to be able to print the 6 to a page slides. I
can upload a prn file to a server they can download from.
How do I instruct them to print the prn file off their
computers. I can't do it on mine.

There's usually one way or another of doing the equivalent of the good old
DOS command:

COPY /B Myfile.prn LPT1:

This gets a lot more complicated if their printer's a USB one rather than a
parallel one.
But in any case, it only works if they have the same printer as you.
PRN files are the stuff that Windows would ordinarily send to your printer,
dumped to a disk file instead. They tend to be very printer specific.

I have printed
directly from the ppt presentation file and then
converted to adobe, but besides the trouble much quality
is lost to the students.

A PDF will be far less trouble for the students than messing about with PRN
files. Promise.
And if it's set up right, making a PDF shouldn't be more trouble than making
a PRN.
As to quality, what's going wrong? It's usually a matter of tweaking a few
settings.

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

Nice writeup! Thanks.

To demonstrate this, suppose that you print to an HP
LaserJet printer named Deforest on a server named
Corporate. To begin, click the Start button and select
Settings, followed by Printers. When the Printers folder
appears, right-click the network printer icon and select
Properties from the shortcut menu.

Note that you can do this from the command prompt if you like:

NET VIEW
gives you a list of computers; Corporate should be on the list

NET VIEW \\CORPORATE
gives you a list of shared resources on Corporate; Deforest (Lee, I presume?
Wouldn't want to go denuding the landscape, would we!) will be on the list

NET USE LPT1: \\Corporate\Deforest
captures LPT1 output and redirects it to Deforest

now you can do the COPY /B thing

NET USE LPT1: /DELETE
ends the redirection

Since it can all be done from a command prompt, it could be dropped into a
BAT file if you had to do it often. If the COPY command used %1 instead of
a hardcoded filename, you could put a shortcut to the bat file on the
desktop and voila .... dragondrop.

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Steve,

If you do not want to give your students direct access to a powerpoint file,
lots of other options are discussed ont his page
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00038.htm

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

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