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Desktop printing technologies support a variety of output media, such as decorative and translucent papers, labels, and cards. In addition to traditional and non-traditional papers, overhead transparency film that is ready to print and present is available. To use these clear sheets in your printer, select the appropriate stock to ensure trouble-free output. Media Selection Transparency film manufacturers create versions that are optimised for use with specific output technologies. Products are packaged for laser and inkjet printers, as well as colour copiers. Always match the media to the method for the best results, both in terms of output and hardware health. Transparencies designed for laser printers can withstand the fusing heat inside these machines while still properly accepting the toner bond. Inkjet transparencies accommodate the dyes and pigments sprayed onto output surfaces by these machines, as well as the drying requirements of the technology. Impact printers, such as dot matrix and daisy wheel devices, are the only printer types that do not use these media because they cannot withstand the printer-head hits that these devices require. Loading Techniques Transparency film feeds best when it is placed in the printer tray by itself. Removing paper and loading transparencies separately, or designating a specific tray in a multi-tray printer for these media, best suits the low-friction surface they present to your device’s feeding hardware. Transparencies can slip and skew when mixed with paper, resulting in a jammed sheet. If your device has a manual-feed tray with adjustable sliding guides, snug them up against the stack of transparencies just enough to hold and support them – but not so much that the sheets curve up in the middle. Uses Transparencies, in addition to their traditional use as presentation materials, can be repurposed to create a variety of useful printed items, such as special section dividers for documents, exhibits that show multiple elements of a design or timeline on separate overlays, and design alternatives placed on a floor plan or map to show alternative ways to build. You can achieve relatively good registration among the various elements of your printed sandwich because you can print on transparencies using the same applications you use to create the base art onto which you set these overlays. Other Considerations Store unused transparencies away from sources of light, heat, and dust, and avoid unnecessary handling that can scratch their surfaces, to keep them in good ready-to-print condition. Because they are made of plastic, they generate static electricity that can cause them to stick together, so carefully inspect your stock as you load it into the printer. If your office has a variety of printers, keep the consumables – paper and transparencies – for each one separate from the others to avoid potential mixups.

Many offices and commercial buildings come at least partially cabled for computer networking, offering a convenient connection from your servers to the routers in individual work areas. Those routers are often wireless, an option that provides greater flexibility and easier installation than traditional networking with Ethernet cables. Relatively inexpensive wireless routers and bridges offer options for most range requirements, from a few yards to several miles. The Standard The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, defined the standard protocols for wireless networking in the mid-1990s. This standard, referred to as 802.11, has been revised several times to accommodate improvements in the technology. The first commercial products, released in 1999, adhered to the 802.11a and 802.11b standards. The first offered higher speeds, while the second was slower but had longer range. The first 802.11g devices entered the market in 2003, combining the speed of wireless a devices with the range of 802.11b. Speed and range increased further with the 802.11n standard in 2009, and 802.11ac in 2012. Maximum Range The maximum range of each standard varies, depending on environmental factors such as obstructions and interference from other sources of radio frequency signals. The maximum range of 802.11a wireless was approximately 95 feet with throughput of up to 54 megabits per second, while 802.11b was capable of transmitting up to 150 feet at 11 Mbps. The 802.11g standard extended that range to 170 feet at the same speed as 802.11a; 802.11n extended the maximum range to 230 feet and throughput to a maximum of 600 Mbps. 802.11ac routers provide similar range but increase throughput to a theoretical maximum of 1.33 gigabits per second. Practical Considerations 802.11b and 802.11g routers work on the relatively crowded 2.4 GHz band of radio frequencies, where there are relatively few channels to choose from and a significant potential for interference from other electronics and wireless devices. Devices using 802.11a used the less-crowded 5 GHz band, while 802.11n and 802.11ac use both as needed. Choosing an 802.11n or 802.11ac router will provide better performance to all workstations on your network, especially those furthest from the router. With the older wireless technologies, throughput tails off drastically as you approach the limits of their range. Extended-Range Wireless Conventional consumer and office wireless products can provide adequate range for most business use, but companies occupying large spaces or with facilities spread over a wide area sometimes need more. In large buildings or compounds, you can address this by installing additional routers set up to function as repeaters. They receive a signal wirelessly from your primary router, then rebroadcast it. If your wireless network needs extend beyond a few hundred feet, you’ll need to upgrade to a wide-area product. These connect to your network as a router or network bridge, but can transmit over distances of up to 20 miles.

Microsoft Publisher can create complex page layouts and graphic designs with spot or process colour, CMYK photos, metallic inks, and other advanced printing features. If you’re printing a Publisher project on your desktop hardware, either to create final output or to proof a project for a commercial printer, you want your project to look exactly like it did onscreen. Examine what you’re printing and how you’re printing it to troubleshoot Publisher printing issues. Composites Vs. Separations You expect to see colour pages when you print your Microsoft Publisher document on a colour output device. If you see a series of black and white pages with portions of the content on each page, you’ve accidentally told the software to print separations rather than composites. Separations meet the requirements of printing presses, which divide the colour content of your files into a series of primary inks that combine to create the illusion of colour photos. Turn off the advanced print setting that produces separations on your desktop printer to resolve this issue. Envelopes Printing envelopes can present a number of challenges, including the need to select media with flap styles and adhesives that your printer and supplies can handle without damaging the printer or supplies. If the driver software that communicates between your printer and computer does not support the specific envelope size you want to print, you may be able to create a custom size to accommodate your chosen stock, but some printer drivers do not support custom sizes. When printing envelopes from Microsoft Publisher to your desktop output device, make sure your driver supports the size you want to use. If not, choose a supported size or print your project on a different device. Memory If your Microsoft Publisher file contains large graphics prepared in high-resolution files, the cause of your document printing issues may be your hardware, not your document. Your images may only print partially or not at all in these cases. Printing larger bitmaps takes more memory than printing smaller versions. If you need to use a large file at a much smaller size than its actual dimensions, your computer and printer will have to process more data than the output requires. In these cases, you can use your image-editing application to create a scaled-down version of your photo instead of the original. Unprintable Area Vs. Bleed When you create layouts that use photos, graphics or areas of solid color that extend all the way to the edge of the sheet of paper, you won’t be able to print your work as it appears in your Microsoft Publisher file without generating it on a larger sheet size and trimming off the excess paper to reach your final dimensions. A project like this involves a design technique called “bleed,” which requires that your material extend beyond the final size of your document and be cut away to present the illusion that the ink stops exactly at the edge of the page. Additionally, desktop printers leave at least some white space around the outer edges of the paper when they print, in part because they must leave some of the sheet for the hardware’s use in gripping and moving the output media through the device.