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Steve Bass's Weekly Newsletter
TechBite's columnist Steve Bass writes weekly commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them, and the gotchas that can cause computing misery. Plus a couple of weekly laughs.
Save Printing Ink -- and Money
In This Issue
Printing? Save Ink (and Money)
Color No, Monochrome Yes
Money-Saving Draft Picks
Zap Ads and Images
Tool of the Week: Lazarus Form Recovery
Techy Tech Tip: Drag and Drop to DOS
Time Wasters
Free Inkjet Cartridges
Printing? Save Ink (and Money)
Are you replacing printer cartridges faster than Citibank is raising credit card interest rates? Aggravating, and no surprise -- inkjets have a voracious appetite.
Have a glass of warm milk and relax -- I have a few solutions that can make you happy.
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Color No, Monochrome Yes
The biggest waste of inkjet cartridges is printing in color when good old black and white will do.
I say to you: Turn off the color. Yep, it's that simple. Unless color is crucial for your document, you're wasting ink if you output in color. Try this experiment: Print a color page, then print it again in gray scale. To do this, go to Start, Settings, Printers and right-click on the printer's icon. Go to Properties and find the tab that lets you change from color to gray scale. Save the settings, then print the page again.
Here's my trick: Create two drivers for the same printer--one set to monochrome, the other to, of course, color. When I'm ready to print and absolutely have to do it in color, I pick the "color" printer from the program's File, Print menu. It's a heck of a lot easier to switch between the two drivers when printing rather than fiddling with the driver's settings each time I print.
I know what you're thinking. (You may not realize I read minds.) Some inkjets need every color of the rainbow to print black. I think it's because inkjet manufacturers want you to buy more cartridges. Some printer experts say this occurs only when your printer is set for printing photos, and it doesn't matter a bit if you're printing run-of-the-mill Word docs and Web sites. I say experiment and see how your printer does. [top]
Money-Saving Draft Picks
You can extend the life of any printer cartridge, monochrome and color laser printers included, by printing in draft mode.
Try it: From the Start menu, click on Settings, Control Panel, Printers and Faxes, select your printer, then right-click Properties. Choose the Device Options tab and click Print Quality, select the lowest quality, and exit the menus. Then print something.
The print and graphic quality will be a little less sharp and colors might not be as bright. But hey, it's okay for most of the day-to-day stuff you print -- and you'll save some ink.
If you're following me so far, you may have a new printer driver -- for monochrome printing only. Now I'll suggest you create another two: one for draft mode, the other for high-quality printing.
It's easy enough: As you did earlier, open the Control Panel's Printers and Faxes, and repeat the process to install another copy of the printer driver. Save the one set for draft mode as "draft" and set the next one's print quality to a higher level. (Name this one "high quality" or, more aptly, "money waster.") When you need high-quality prints, choose File, Print and select that printer from the drop-down menu. [top]
Zap Ads and Images
You're wasting ink -- and money -- if you're printing Web pages with big images and ads just to read text. (Ironic that this is the first time the TechBite newsletter has an ad, no?)
About the easiest trick is using an option built into your browser's printing option. First select and highlight the text you want to print. Then choose File, Print, and click Selection in the Print Range section of the Print dialog box.
Easy, no? But not always perfect. That's because occasionally you'll still scrape stuff off the page that you don't need.
You might try GreenPrint World, a printing utility that automatically removes wasteful pages. For instance, GreenPrint World gets rid of the last page of your print job if it has nothing except headers and footers; and it won't print pages with small amounts of text, or totally blank pages. The tool is free (it's ad-based), and it lets you print from any application, including, of course, Web browsers. The latest version, 2.0, lets you easily remove specific text or graphics from the page, or create a PDF.
GreenPrint sends the last page to the bit bucket.
Also valuable is HP Smart Web Printing Software, a freebie that lets you grab selected text and graphics from Web pages, save them to a document, and then print your customized pages. HP Smart isn't always too bright, so on some pages you'll need to fiddle a little to print a good-looking document. The tool works with IE8, but it isn't yet compatible with the current version of Firefox.
My favorite printing tool, though, is PrintWhatYouLike, an comprehensive online editing tool that lets me block out items on a Web page that I don't want to print. It takes about a dozen tries to get the knack, but once you do, you'll agree it's indispensable.
PrintWhatYouLike lets me isolate images and blocks of text for
deletion, and mark other objects for printing.
Finally, a low-tech money saver: Print rough drafts on the blank side of used paper. Except for when I've forgotten to remove a staple (duh!), I've never damaged a laser or an ink jet printer. I also throw my doubly used paper into the curbside recycling bin. [top]
Tool of the Week: Lazarus Form Recovery
After I wrote about Firefox add-ons, my buddy Bill Webb fired a note into my inbox. "You've got to -- got to! -- try Lazarus." The add-on captures the text you enter into forms and saves it. Here's what Bill says in his blog:
"Lazarus grabs the text from text boxes, WYSIWYG editors (including WordPress.com, Blogger and -- I'm fairly sure -- just about anywhere else), encrypts it, and stores it on your hard drive. When the inevitable happens, you right-click the text box after you've found it again, enter a password, right-click again, select the drop-down, another click and -- Voila! -- your form is propagated with all the dearly departed text. Or at least it has been every time for me. So far."
I agree. It's a handy-dandy tool -- and a keeper. [top]
Techy Tech Tip: Drag and Drop to DOS
Last week I told you how to use the Tab key in a DOS window. (See Techy Tech Tip: DOS TAB Shortcut.) Paul Westerman, a TechBite subscriber from England, has a nifty addition.
If you're using a command window within Windows, you can drag a folder to it and the path is entered for you. Open a CMD window -- you'll be at a C: prompt -- and type CD followed by a space. Now drag the deepest, darkest folder you can find on your C: drive from Explorer to the DOS window. Just make sure the prompt is set to the drive you're using or it won't work (no, CD won't change the drive). [top]
Time Wasters
I have nothing against Mac fans and actually have some friends using the silly things. But I have to tell you the "I'm a Mac" commercials are annoying. So here's a fresh look at the "I'm a Mac" commercial. (And yes, the Mac guy really deserved it...
You know what bears do in the woods, right? In this case, the bear's on a bridge and gets himself into quite a mess.
The question is whether the guy in the video is a great juggler or just a talented contractor.
I know it'll be hard, but pick your favorite tattoo... and be grateful the kids are out of the house. And if you're going to get a tat (please don't), make sure to use a spell checker. [Thanks to TC.]
Did you hear that Windows is about to release Service Pack 4 for Windows XP? Yep, it's true, and I was able to snatch an interactive Flash demo of the product. [top]
Image of the Week
Always give them the directions in writing...
Free Inkjet Cartridges
Oh, please, do you believe everything you read on the Internet? This is just a ploy (a brilliant one, I might add, because you're here) to get you to forward my newsletter to the guy who decorates your cakes, a couple of tattooed friends, and your Uncle Artie who just bought a PC. Here's the URL: http://www.techbite.com. By the way, if you're enjoying this newsletter and getting something out of it, become a TechBite member by sending us some financial support using PayPal. I promise, good things will come your way... [top]
_____________________
Steve Bass is the publisher and self-appointed Chief Content Officer at TechBite; he continues to experience the cool feeling of having his own newsletter. Send him your feedback at TechBite. To sign up for TechBite's free Steve Bass Technology newsletter, head for our signup page.
Steve's also the author of "PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer," available on Amazon. You haven't purchased your copy today yet, have you? Don't wait, supplies are limited...
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