About Printer's Daemon ------------------- Thanks for downloading Printer's Daemon, Shareware Version 1.60S! Maximize this file for easier reading. Printer's Daemon is a drag & drop text file printing utility for Microsoft Windows, Version 3.1 or later. (Sorry, this application will not work with Windows 3.0 or earlier.) Printer's Daemon appears as an icon on the Windows Desktop. Select one or more DOS or Unix text file names in the Windows File Manager, or other drag & drop server. Drag the names to the Printer's Daemon icon, and the files will be printed on the default Windows printer. Printer's Daemon has advantages over printing from Notepad, most notably the abilities: to print without extra keystrokes directly from a desktop utility; to print in other than the system font / 10 point size and; to print Unix text files. Options for Printer's Daemon are accessed by clicking on the icon and selecting an item from the "Customize" sub-menu of the System Menu. Version 1.50S was a major upgrade, allowing the start-up of drag & drop servers other than the Microsoft File Manager, moving customization options to a cascading sub-menu, "nailing down" the Printer's Daemon icon, and adding error-trapping for some printer intialization problems. This version, 1.60S, allows the user to select to close down Printer's Daemon along with its drag and drop server, recognizes and acts on the ASCII Page Feed character by starting a new page, and recognizes the fact that Printer's Daemon will print Unix-originating text files without any translation. Installation ------------ The archive file you extracted, PDEMON.ZIP, contains this file and the file PDV160S.ZIP. Copy PDV160S.ZIP to a temporary directory, and "unzip" it. It will create the following files: Name Size Date Time ------------ -------- -------- -------- PDAEMON.EXE 21068 06-02-94 9:49p SUBEZ.VBX 17408 03-11-93 4:09a CMDIALOG.VBX 18688 04-28-93 12:00a Copy PDAEMON.EXE to your Microsoft Windows default directory, normally named \WINDOWS. SUBEZ.VBX and CMDIALOG.VBX are support files for Printer's Daemon; copy them to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. We recommend the use of the Windows File Manager for these tasks, and would NOT overwrite files of the same name but with later dates. One additional support file is required to use Printer's Daemon Version 1.60S: VBRUN300.DLL, the runtime module for Visual Basic 3.0. If you run any other Visual Basic 3.0 programs, you have this file, probably in your \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Otherwise, VBRUN300.DLL is available from the same BBS, on-line system or software distributor where you obtained PDEMON.ZIP. To execute Printer's Daemon, add its icon to a Program Manager Program Group, or click on the name PDAEMON.EXE in File Manager. If you use Printer's Daemon to launch a drag & drop server, you might want to change the Printer's Daemon icon to the server icon in the Program Manager group. Do this by clicking "Change Icon..." from the Program Manager Properties box, and specifying the file name of the server in the "File Name" input box. Then choose your favorite server icon! NOTES ABOUT THIS VERSION ------------------------ 1. ABOUT THE ICON - We are not promoting Satanism with this design, and we're sorry if it offends anyone. We believe that icons should be distinctive, and the VB Expressions Desktop Assistants all look back at their "bosses". (Look for Draggin' Viewer and Trash Free-K!) For the record, in Unix-land, a "daemon" is a disconnected process that offers utility services, such as printing and mail. And, in the printing industry, a "printer's devil" is an errand boy, especially one who takes the printed sheets off the press. Pretty natural, huh? 2. Printer's Daemon is a drag & drop client. The Microsoft File Manager is the most available drag & drop server. Printer's Daemon gives you the option to start it or any drag & drop server along with the Printer's Daemon application. By default, Printer's Daemon will start the Microsoft File Manager. To select another server, choose "Customize" from the Printer's Daemon System Menu, then click on "Select &D+D Server". A dialog box will allow you to select any executable as your server. We leave it to the user to choose an appropriate application! (This option can be used to launch another file other than a drag & drop server of course - we leave the possibilities to your imagination!) Printer's Daemon defaults to start up a server; to change this option, uncheck the "Start D+D Server" option in the Printer's Daemon "Customize" menu. Printer's Daemon will store the last setting of "Start D+D Server", when closed normally, in the file PDAEMON.INI and restore the setting when restarted. "Closed normally" means shutting down either Printer's Daemon or Windows itself before turning off the power. Turning off your computer before exiting Windows is bad computer hygiene! 3. Printer's Daemon can be set to close down with the drag & drop server selected in 2.) above. It defaults to close down; to change, uncheck the "Quit With Server" option in the Printer's Daemon "Customize" menu. This option will function whether the server was started with Printer's Daemon or not, but only if the server is running BEFORE Printer's Daemon is started. 4. Printer's Daemon initially defaults to "Always On Top" mode. This keeps it visible when another window covers it. If you are annoyed by holes in your maximized documents, toggle "Always On Top" off by unchecking the "Customize" menu option. Printer's Daemon will also store the last setting of "Always On Top" in the file PDAEMON.INI, and restore it on start-up. 5. The method that Printer's Daemon uses to print works with text files originating in a Unix environment as well as DOS. Simply drag and drop any shared network files, and they will print, without any need for prior translation. Page feeds however will be ignored for untranslated Unix text files. (Try the VB Expressions DOS/Unix Text Translator for complete compatibility.) 6. Printer's Daemon initially defaults to the "Courier New" TrueType font. You can select a different font by clicking on "Select Font..." in the "Customize" menu. Printer's Daemon will store the selection in the PDAEMON.INI file, and restore the choice when you restart Printer's Daemon. Hint: most text files (like this one) look more "natural" printed in a fixed character font like "Courier New" rather than proportional fonts like "Arial". It is possible to have a default font selection that is incompatible with your current printer. Version 1.50S corrected this by allowing you to pick a new font at file-drop if your stored font selection is not available on your current default printer. 7. You can choose a different printer, orientation or paper size by clicking "Printer Setup..." from the "Customize" menu. This choice becomes the new Windows Default Printer. 8. Printer's Daemon checks the first 128 characters of your files for non-printable characters. If it detects any, Printer's Daemon will warn you, and ask if you want to continue. VB Expressions takes no responsibility for the results of ANY file being dropped into your printer queue. Better to be sure it's text before you try to print! (There's where Draggin' Viewer can help!) Previously, Printer's Daemon signalled that a file had non-ASCII characters if a Page Feed (ASCII 12) was present. Version 1.60S corrects this operation, and in fact feeds a page in response. 9. Close Printer's Daemon by clicking on "Close" from the System Menu. 10. Help can be obtained by selecting "Help..." from the System Menu. 11. The Postscript printer driver that shipped with Windows 3.1 is buggy! If you have problems with the first letters in each sentence being cut off when printing with Printer's Daemon on a Postscript printer, check the "About..." button for the Postscript printer driver in the Control Panel (after clicking on "Setup..."). The defective driver is Version 3.50. The PSCRIPT.DRV file in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory is dated 3/10/92. It will not work properly with Printer's Daemon! To obtain an updated driver, call Microsoft or your printer manufacturer. You can also download new drivers from the MSL Forum on CompuServe. Versions 3.51, 3.55 and 3.58 have been shown to work with Printer's Daemon. NOTICE ------ Printer's Daemon is SHAREWARE! A fifteen day evaluation period is recommended. After that, if you like and use Printer's Daemon, you must REGISTER! Send $5 to: VB Expressions 64 Burning Brush Drive Rochester, NY 14606-4642. Kindly include the Version number and the source where you got Printer's Daemon. Registrants of Version 1.00S, 1.10S, 1.20S or 1.50S need not re-register; your support is greatly appreciated. You can also look for other VB Expressions utilities: additional Desktop Assistants (like Printer's Daemon) include Draggin' Viewer, a drag-and-drop application launching utility, and Trash Free-K!, a drag-and-drop file deletion utility. Smartclp is a Windows Clipboard enhancer, PM Fonts allows you to change your Program Manager fonts from the Microsoft default to any installed screen font and PM Group Sorter allows you to set the order of your Program Manager Groups. Finally, the DOS/Unix Text Translator lets you translate files between these two popular computing environments. Good stuff (if we may say so ourselves!) We'd be interested in your comments or suggestions on Printer's Daemon. You can reach us by Email on CompuServe, ID 73457,3603 or AmericaOnline, ScreenName PMChefalo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Printer's Daemon - Copyright 1993,1994 by P.M. Chefalo Revision History ---------------- Version 1.00 - First Shareware Version Version 1.10 - Corrected "Overflow" error when long files were dropped into Printer's Daemon. Version 1.20 - Improved detection of non-Ascii characters in files. Version 1.50 - "Nailed down" the Printer's Daemon icon, improving compatibility with Norton Desktop. Added error-handling for no default printer selection, incompatible initial fonts and printer changes outside of Printer's Daemon. Added the ability to launch drag & drop servers other than Microsoft File Manager. Added "Customize" to System Menu. Fixed Help text. Version 1.60 - Added capability to quit with selected drag & drop server. Recognized and acted upon Ascii 12 character, page feed. Recognized PD's capability to print Unix text files w/o translation. Fixed Help text again!