Dummy printer

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

Someone suggested using adding a port and specifying "local port"',
however I don't seem to know the syntax for doing that. When I specify
"local port" it asks for the port name, and I don't know what to put. I
tried putting in the file name, but that get rejected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

Don't know the answer, but I'm cross-posting this to the Win98 General
group, since this one gets very little traffic.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .
I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

Someone suggested using adding a port and specifying "local port"',
however I don't seem to know the syntax for doing that. When I specify
"local port" it asks for the port name, and I don't know what to put. I
tried putting in the file name, but that get rejected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

In article , "Gary S. Terhune"
none says...
Don't know the answer, but I'm cross-posting this to the Win98 General
group, since this one gets very little traffic.


Thanks.
--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

Just to reiterate, your original post was:

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

Someone suggested using adding a port and specifying "local port"',
however I don't seem to know the syntax for doing that. When I specify
"local port" it asks for the port name, and I don't know what to put. I
tried putting in the file name, but that get rejected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .
In article , "Gary S. Terhune"
none says...
Don't know the answer, but I'm cross-posting this to the Win98 General
group, since this one gets very little traffic.


Thanks.
--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

http://www.filedudes.com/Miraplacid_...load-8938.html

""Miraplacid Text Driver 4.4 for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 extracts text
from any printable documents. After installation on your PC, Miraplacid Text
Driver appears as a new printer in your system. When document is printed,
Miraplacid Text Driver opens a dialog with Preview Window. You can save
resulting text to disk, upload to FTP or HTTP server,or print them to a real
printer or send to Clipboard.
You can save the extracted information as plain, formatted text or as XML
for future processing in all installed codepages and Unicode.
Miraplacid Text Driver 4.4 adds icon to desktop. All the documents you drag
and drop to this icon will be printed behind the scenes and processed by
Miraplacid Text Driver. Turn "Auto Save Mode" on if you want Miraplacid Text
Driver to save all the extracted text to a file without waiting for your
input. If you want every document to be saved to an individual file, add
{{DATE}}, {{TIME}}, {{IDENTITY}}, {{PAGE}} or {{JOB}} to the file name or
path. They will be replaced with current date, time, some unique number,
page number and print job id respectively.
With "Redirect" option, you can print original print job to your physical
printer at the time of extracting text.""

This might do what you want, I had the link lying around have several band
printers arent directly supported in win98


--
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links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before
use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
Just to reiterate, your original post was:

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

Someone suggested using adding a port and specifying "local port"',
however I don't seem to know the syntax for doing that. When I specify
"local port" it asks for the port name, and I don't know what to put. I
tried putting in the file name, but that get rejected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .
In article , "Gary S. Terhune"
none says...
Don't know the answer, but I'm cross-posting this to the Win98 General
group, since this one gets very little traffic.


Thanks.
--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

You requirement is not quite clear. Does the file you are creating have to
be a print file for a particular type of printer? This would a file that
you then transfer to another machine that has that type of printer attached,
and copy to that printer in order to print it.

Or are you trying to use a print procedure to create a certain document
type, such as plain text or postscript or PDF?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
Just to reiterate, your original post was:

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

Someone suggested using adding a port and specifying "local port"',
however I don't seem to know the syntax for doing that. When I specify
"local port" it asks for the port name, and I don't know what to put. I
tried putting in the file name, but that get rejected.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .
In article , "Gary S. Terhune"
none says...
Don't know the answer, but I'm cross-posting this to the Win98 General
group, since this one gets very little traffic.


Thanks.
--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

The main undecided item here is whether you wish to concatenate
data here (like DOS pipe ) or to overwrite (DOS ). Either way,
/ Print / to File Device
will prompt you for a filename. You could no doubt program the
pipe function to append new file contents to the existing
file of the same name. But I doubt the standard Windows or DOS
will do this for you.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Would take a script to automatically create new filenames based upon whether an old one already exists. Something I've done quite a few times, though not for this purpose.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"Don Phillipson" wrote in message ...
"Jerry Bank" wrote in message
.. .

I would like to set up a dummy printer that will print to a file. I know
that I can specify the port at "FILE:", which will create a file on the
disc. However, I don't want to have to respecify the file name each
time. Is there a way to have it go to the same file each time.

The main undecided item here is whether you wish to concatenate
data here (like DOS pipe ) or to overwrite (DOS ). Either way,
/ Print / to File Device
will prompt you for a filename. You could no doubt program the
pipe function to append new file contents to the existing
file of the same name. But I doubt the standard Windows or DOS
will do this for you.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

In article ,
says...
You requirement is not quite clear. Does the file you are creating have to
be a print file for a particular type of printer? This would a file that
you then transfer to another machine that has that type of printer attached,
and copy to that printer in order to print it.

Or are you trying to use a print procedure to create a certain document
type, such as plain text or postscript or PDF?

Let me explain precisely what I am trying to do. I have an ancient dos
program that I use to do accounting for a very small business. I would
like to continue using it. However, while it was able to print its
reports to my old dot-matrix printer, it really can't handle my current
laser printer.

The program itself only prints to lpt1. Previously I used the simple
program prn2dos, which sent the printing to a file, which I then edited
and printed out in Windows. Since upgrading my computer it no longer
works.

I have been trying to find a way to do this task. I did find a program
called dos2usb, but it only works erratically.

I would very much appreciate any suggestions as to how I can solve this
problem.

Thanks.
--
Jerry Bank
Trenton, New Jersey
Music is the language of the gods.

Jerry Bank wrote:
In article ,
says...
You requirement is not quite clear. Does the file you are creating have to
be a print file for a particular type of printer? This would a file that
you then transfer to another machine that has that type of printer attached,
and copy to that printer in order to print it.

Or are you trying to use a print procedure to create a certain document
type, such as plain text or postscript or PDF?

Let me explain precisely what I am trying to do. I have an ancient dos
program that I use to do accounting for a very small business. I would
like to continue using it. However, while it was able to print its
reports to my old dot-matrix printer, it really can't handle my current
laser printer.

The program itself only prints to lpt1. Previously I used the simple
program prn2dos, which sent the printing to a file, which I then edited
and printed out in Windows. Since upgrading my computer it no longer
works.

I have been trying to find a way to do this task. I did find a program
called dos2usb, but it only works erratically.

I would very much appreciate any suggestions as to how I can solve this
problem.

Thanks.
Have your tried installing the Generic Text to file "printer"

You would only need to click a file name and press the "Enter" key when
the file name dialog appears.