Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition

Making the Printout

You print documents from within the programs you used to create them, exactly as in other operating systems. The options for printing should feel distinctly familiar.

Tip

You know how Mac OS X comes with the necessary software for hundreds upon hundreds of printers? Unless you’re in Oprah’s tax bracket, you probably don’t actually own that many printers—but their drivers are taking up nearly a gigabyte of hard drive space!

To clean out the ones you don’t need, open your hard drive→Library→Printers folder. Throw away the folders for printer companies that didn’t make your printer. (Administrator account required.)

Page Setup

The experience of printing depends on the printer you’re using—laser printer, color inkjet, or whatever. In every case, however, all the printing options hide behind two commands: File→Page Setup, which you need to adjust only occasionally, and File→ Print, which you generally use every time you print. You’ll find these two commands in almost every Macintosh program.

The pop-up menu at the top of the Page Setup dialog box offers a command called Summary, which displays a textual description of the document you’re about to print (orientation, paper dimensions, and so on). It sometimes offers a command specific to the program you’re using. For example, in Microsoft Word, the Settings→Microsoft Word command offers a screenful of custom page-size and margin settings.

The real action, though, is in the dialog box that appears when you choose Page Attributes ...