Configuration

Identifying paper trays

The ChangeBins tool requires a mapping of printer tray numbers for all applicable printer types. The QueryPrinters tool will examine all printer drivers installed on a system and report the paper trays and their bin numbers. These bin numbers can then be used to construct a mapping.

Sample output from the QueryPrinters tool:

Found 3 printers



[01] PS_LJ4000							Name of the printer as shown in Windows


     Port (list): LPT1:


     Driver: AdobePS HP LaserJet4000SeriesPS


     Printer provides 7 bins


     [01] (015) Automatically Select    


     [02] (257)  Tray 1						(tray number) and name of the tray as shown


     [03] (258)  Tray 1 (Manual)					in Word.


     [04] (259)  Tray 2                 


     [05] (260)  Tray 3                 


     [06] (261)  Tray 4                 


     [07] (262)  Envelope Feeder  




[02] HP LaserJet 4050 Series PS


     Port (list): LPT2:


     Driver: AdobePS HP LaserJet4050SeriesPS


     Printer provides 24 bins


     [01] (015) Automatically Select    


     [02] (257)  Tray 1                 


     [03] (258)  Tray 1 (Manual)        


     [04] (259)  Tray 2                 


     [05] (260)  Tray 3                 


     [06] (261)  Tray 4                 


     [07] (262)  Tray 5                 


     [08] (263)  Tray 6                 


     [09] (264)  Tray 7                 


     [10] (265)  Tray 8                 


     [11] (266)  Tray 9                 


     [12] (267)  Tray 10                


     [13] (268)  Envelope Feeder        


     [14] (269) Plain					The HP LaserJet 4050 can match paper types


     [15] (270) Preprinted					with a paper tray based on their type, which


     [16] (271) Letterhead					allows operators to load paper in any tray as


     [17] (272) Transparency				required.


     [18] (273) Prepunched					This is shown as virtual ‘paper trays’ in


     [19] (274) Labels					Windows.


     [20] (275) Bond                    


     [21] (276) Recycled                


     [22] (277) Color                   


     [23] (278) Card Stock              


     [24] (279) Rough  




[03] \\xerox\xerox						Network printers show up with their path.


     Port (list): \\xerox\xerox


     Driver: HP LaserJet 5P


     Printer provides 5 bins


     [01] (015) Automatically Select    


     [02] (257) First Available Tray    


     [03] (001) Tray 1                  


     [04] (004) Manual Paper Feed       


     [05] (002) Tray 2




This example shows three printers with their paper trays (bins) and the bin numbers assigned to those trays. Note the very different assignments used for common paper trays by these drivers:






Printer



Tray 1



Tray 2



Envelope Feed







PS_LJ4000



257



259



262







HP LaserJet 4050 Series PS



257



259



268







\\xerox\xerox



1



2



-








Mapping input trays


Based on the identified trays a mapping can be constructed. This mapping should be based on the types of paper that can be used, and not on the tray locations, since neither the trays nor the paper types would be available on all printers.


A sample configuration:















Printer


 



Paper types



Remarks


 







Plain



Letterhead



Pre-printed







PS_LJ4000



Tray 4
(261)



Tray 1
(257)



Tray 2
(259)



Trays are loaded with a fixed paper type.







HP LaserJet 4050 Series PS



Plain
(269)



Letterhead
(271)



Preprinted
(270)



Operators load available trays as demanded.







\\xerox\xerox



Tray 2
(2)



N/A



N/A



This printer has only plain paper loaded.








Creating the configuration file


The ChangeBins and ChangeBinsW programs read their printer mappings from the configuration files ChangeBins.cfg and ChangeBinsW.cfg respectively. These files must be present in the same directory as the programs.


The configuration files are text files and can be edited with any text editor. Unicode and UTF-8 encodings are not supported.




For every printer configuration a line must be present that contains the following information:


All configured printers must have the same number of paper trays in their specification. The trays are matched based on their order of occurrence. If a printer does not provide a paper tray an alternative should be specified as fall-back. It is allowed to specify the same paper tray more than once.


Whenever a printer mapping is preformed the ChangeBins tools will look up the configuration for the printer that is used to configure the Microsoft Word document. For every paper selection used in this document it looks up the first occurrence of this tray number in the configuration. If the number does occur it is replaced with the matching tray number from the target printer's configuration. If the tray number does not occur in the configuration it is replaced by '0' (no tray selected). This will instruct Microsoft Word to fall back to the Auto Select tray when it prints the document.


A sample configuration:


"PS_LJ4000"				0	1	15	261	257	259


"HP LaserJet 4050 Series PS"	0	1	15	269	271	270


"\\xerox\xerox"			0	1	15	2	2	2


The paper trays are specified in the following order:


It is advised to add the first three columns to every configuration to handle documents that do not have paper trays assigned.


The \\xerox\xerox printer in this example has only a single paper tray, so all paper types are mapped to Plain paper as replacement.




It is not necessary to provide mappings for every available printer. If printers are equipped with identical options their configurations should also be identical and it is sufficient to provide a generic printer identification to match all devices.