On 26 Mar 2004 at 6:39, Denis Snider wrote:

> Simply, how do you stop a printer from printing in the middle of the
> process without waiting until the full message gets done printing?

  Printing is a multi-stage process that involves reading data from your
local drive (usually), formatting it for printing, copying it across from
your PC into the printer, and further processing on the printer that
eventually results in electro-mechanical processes that deposit something
onto paper.  Often several of these processes are going on in parallel,
working at different points in the document.
  It's relatively easy to stop the local reading/formatting process,
although few applications provide an opportunity to do so.  The "Printers"
control lets you abort the transfer process, but by the time you realize you
don't want the output, even that may already be complete.
  On a lot of printers, the only sure way to interrupt the process that
transfers the document from printer memory to the paper may be to pull the
power plug.  That will usually do the trick, although you often have to
manually eject an incomplete page....  (This is much simpler with sheet-fed
printers than with fan-fold continuous forms/paper where you may have to
realign the top of the page after restoring power.)

  Most Windows applications offer a "Print Preview" option.  Checking that
and only selecting "Print" when the results are what you want is probably
the best habit to get into.

Dave Gillett

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