Power Tips: Setting up a Local Printer with eComStation

From the OS2eCS Organization.

Standard WorkPlace Shell Way
There are a few different ways to setup a printer with eComStation. But we will first look at the simplest way, which is to use the WorkPlace Shell. It's really quite simple. Browse and find the printer driver you want to install, for example if you are setting up an Epson C86, locate and open the folder containing the OMNI drivers for this printer (It will look like the icon highlighted below and have a "drv" filename extension.):

Double-click the object "empmni5.drv" This will open a new window such as below:

Drag the object "C80" to your Desktop or your Printers folder. That's it! The driver will install itself. You may want to open up the settings for the New Printer Driver object, to confirm the right port settings. To do this, Right-mouse button click the object and select "Properties". This will open up a Notebook of the printer objects properties as in the following example:

Click on the Blue tab named "Output Port". Confirm that the correct port is selected. It should be highlighted as in the picture above with LPT1. LPT1 is the first parallel port. If the printer was attached via a TCPIP network, then it would be appropriate to select "SLPR2" or "\PIPE\LPD0", depending on which protocol you wanted to use.

In eComStation, you don't need to click a button to confirm or save your settings. Just close the Notebook window and the settings will automatically be saved!

WorkPlace Shell Template Way
Now let's take a look how to setup the same printer using a WPS template. First open the Templates Folder located on the Desktop:

Next drag the template-object "Printer" to your desktop. This will open a dialog window like the one below:

Fill in the Name you want to give the printer. In my case I named it "EPSON C86". Confirm that the correct output port is selected. In my case LPT1(parallel port) is correct.

Then click the button "Install new printer driver". This will open a new window:

Here you can select a printer driver that already is supplied with eComStation or click "Other eComStation printer driver", as we will for our example. Enter the full path where the new driver is located, or use the Find button to located it using a GUI dialog. After you type the correct path or locate the correct folder using the Find tool, click the "Refresh" button at the bottom of the window. You should see something like this:

Select the printer driver you want (In this example it is C80 for the Epson C86 Printer.) Continue by clicking the "Install" button. After the files are installed, you will get a confirmation window:

Click "OK". You will then see the previous "Create a Printer" window, but this time you will see the new printer you installed as an option under "Default printer driver". Select the driver as in the example below:

Then click the "Create" button. That's it! You will see a new printer object on your Desktop called EPSON C86 (or whatever you named it).

eComStation's Install Printer Object
Finally, let's look at a third way to install a printer driver in eComStation. First I should point out that I'm using eComStation v2 Beta3 for this. This process was streamlined in eCS v2.0 Beta, so if you are using an earlier version of eComStation, you will see the SmartGuide. So we will show the process using both versions of eComStation.

eComStation v2.x(Beta3)
Well, let's get started! First open up the Printers folder. It should be located in the Local System folder, which is on the desktop:

Double-click the object "Install Local Printer". A dialog window will open:

In our example we will setup a Local Printer, so select that option and press the "Install" button.

Fill in the Name you want to give the printer. In my case I named it "EPSON C86". Confirm that the correct output port is selected. In my case LPT1(parallel port) is correct.

Then click the button "Install new printer driver". This will open a new window:

Here you can select a printer driver that already is supplied with eComStation or click "Other eComStation printer driver", as we will for our example. Enter the full path where the new driver is located, or use the Find button to located it using a GUI dialog. After you type the correct path or locate the correct folder using the Find tool, click the "Refresh" button at the bottom of the window. You should see something like this:

Select the printer driver you want (In this example it is C80 for the EpsonC86 Printer). Continue by clicking the "Install" button. After the files are installed, you will get a confirmation window:

Click "OK". You will then see the previous "Create a Printer" window, but this time you will see the new printer you installed as an option under "Default printer driver". Select the driver as in the example below:

Then click the "Create" button. That's it! You will see a new printer object created in your Printers folder called EPSON C86 (or whatever you named it).

eComStation v1.0-v1.2R
Now we will show the same way of installing, but with the old SmartGuide! First open up the Printers folder. It should be located in the Local System folder, which is on the desktop:

Double-click the object "Install Local Printer". A SmartGuide window will open:

Click the "Next" button. This page allows you to select the port for your printer. For our example, select In our example we will select "LPT1 Printer port".

Click "Next". This page allows you to select your printer from the available ones that come with eComStation. In our example we will click the button "I have disk" to install a different printer driver. The next page allows you to enter a path where the new printer driver is located:

Fill in the path and click "Next".

In the next page, select the printer, in our example it would be C80(epomni5.drv) for our Epson C86 printer. Click "Next".

Now you will be given an opportunity to name the printer. Click "Next". In the last page you will confirm your settings. After the settings are correct, click the "Install button".

In this situation, the printer driver installation fails. The solution is to install an existing printer driver (one that is already included with eComStation), then update that driver with the Epson C80 driver. This is accomplished by editing the existing printer's object properties notebook.

Summary
In eComStation we have learned there are different ways of installing a printer driver. You, the user can decide which way is best for you. You are not forced to do it just one way, like with other operating systems!

eComStation v2(beta) introduces a new Printer Installation object, that proves to be a lot simpler and can actually install a new printer driver, that is not included with eComStation--unlike the old SmartGuide, which fails and gives an error dialog. The New Printer Installation object also allows the user to setup a printer for use on a Local Area Network using NetBios as well as a local port.