How to set up network printer in imac

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I'm totally new to macs and I'm wondering how to set up a printer that's on a peer network (all other machines are pc's).

I guess I'm not feelin' the love from Apple here--I'd always heard that everything on a Mac is a snap and my grandmother could set them up. But I looked under Utilities, where I'd read on Apples help that there's supposed to be a printer utility, and there's nothing.

However, if I go into a document and try to print it, *then* a print dialog comes up where I can add a printer--but I click the + sign to 'add printer', and the list is empty. I can find nowhere to add even a local printer, let alone a networked one.

How can I accomplish this?
Thanks,
--Jim

 

[jmgalvin]

First, make sure the Printer is turned on and you're connected to the Win network.

Again, when I get the Printer Utility SEtup window, it has a More Printers button at the bottom - to the left of the Add button and that has to be clicked to get to the next window where you get Windows printing on teh dropdown


When you click the + button you Printer Setup Utility should become the active program - it's named next to the Apple menu icon. If yes, click the Help menu and see Printer Utility Help. Then click on the See All printer Utility topics link.

Again, when I get the Printer Utility SEtup window, it has a More Printers button at the bottom - to the left of the Add button and that has to be clicked to get to the next window where you get Windows printing on teh dropdown

In the topics, look for Connecting to a printer shared by a Windows computer via SMB/CIFS.

We're missing something here in communication and it could be a slight interface difference between 10.4 and 5.





Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jsteph]

I get none of that--when the printer list comes up, *all* menu items are greyed out--it's as if that dialog is globally modal and nothing else is available. Even the System Preferences menu list is all grey when that dialog is up.

And the only things within that dialog are:
At the top, a two column list of "Printer Name" and "Kind", with just the headings and no data in columns, not even empty column cells, just a pure white area below those two headings.

Then at the bottome of that empty list are 3 listboxes:
Name:
Location:
Print Using:

The "print using" is a dropdown, but since the entire dialog box is disabled and greyed out, I can't even see what would be in that list. And of course the final thing is the the Add button--again--greyed out.
--Jim

 

[jmgalvin]

Did you read the Help?

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jsteph]

Yes I did. I was almost just like the paragraph a few posts above. It mentioned the same buttons and items that simply don't exist here.

I just now went to update the OS to 10.5.2, so I'll see if that changes things. I'm not at the computer, I'm doing this through logmein.com so hopefully I'll be able to reconnect after the restart,
--Jim

 

[jsteph]

Ok...I upgraded to 10.5.2, and still the same. That printer list is just a disabled window. I think that's the crux of the problem. I should see other buttons or at least have something on that dialog enabled. It's just a dead window, period.


For kicks I went to sharing and enabled SMB, which, from looking at the help, appears to be the protocol for printer sharing. Still nothing.

The printer model is not specifically listed in that gimp ghost driver list, but on HP's site they do have a mac driver for that printer.

Yet as I'd said earlier, attempting to install this driver results in the setup doing absolutely nothing. It doesn't hang, it just asks if I want to join the customer improvement thing and whether I say yes or no, it just goes back to the previous install dialog with the Install button highlighted, but nothing's happening--no disk activity, no status bar, it's as if it ignored everything completely.
--Jim

 

[jmgalvin]

Since the machine is new, it's covered by free Apple telephone support. It might be time to call. I really have no idea what you're seeing.

If you're tring to do this, with no mac experience, over a web connection, I'd guess that might be a problem.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[Foamcow]

Out of interest is there a padlock icon on the bottom of the printer window? If so, is it closed or open?
If it's closed, click it and enter the admin password.

Other than that, I'm stumped as I've never seen a greyed out window like you are talking about. My bet is it's something pretty simple though - our minds are too highly trained ;-)

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[jsteph]

No, that's unlocked. I had even locked it and re-un-locked it just in case it needed to cycle through the lock/unlock state to get 'unstuck'.

An odd thing--there was no Printer Setup.app in the Utilities folder. There was the Printers & Faxes thing in System Preferences, but I've heard they're different. I did find the printer setup.app in library/system/core services folder. I dbl-clicked it and it just blinked but never opened. FIguring it might be like PC's where the app often has to be in the same folder as it's .dll's, I copied the .app file to the Utilities folder, and it did the same little blink but never opened.
--Jim

 

[Foamcow]

No, you should just do it via the preferences panel for printers and faxes. Unless this has been changed in 10.5

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[jsteph]

Here's what the problem was:
I'm new to Macs, and have no idea about the little idiosyncracies of the design of mac dialog boxes, etc.

Well, there's a little flat oval in the upper right corner of dialog boxes.

It would appear that that is the button that means:

"Ok, now that you're in a dialog box--by default I'll assume you want to just sit here and look at the pretty dialog box and do nothing at all. But on the odd chance that you actually want to DO something, click me and then and only then will I show you the MENU of what you can do"

That dialog box that I thought was disabled simply had it's menu hidden by that seemingly innocuous unidentified little oval. Clicking on it revealed the menu of adding printers, etc., and in less than a minute I was printing.

So all along, that was it.

--Jim

 

[jsteph]

BTW...Thanks everyone for your help and sorry about the wild goose chase,
--Jim

 

[Foamcow]

I don't think that's a default setting.
I didn't even know it did that and thought it was a roll up or window shade thing.



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Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[jmgalvin]

Yeah, somehow someone set the view in Sys Prefs to Hide toolbar. The default is to show things.

jsteph: If you launch System Preferences and go to the View menu, you'll see Hide Toolbar or, if that had been clicked, Show Toolbar. The little oval thingy overides that setting when wanted. Somehow somebody must have picked hide toolbar. The default is Show. Most people don't even know that the show/hide exists.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jsteph]

Thanks very much, I'm going to reset that to Show,
--Jim