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This page provides methods for printing from WPDOS under 32-bit Windows only! If you have 64-bit Windows (as you almost certainly do if you bought you computer after around 2010), then use either the vDosWP method or the WP-64 method for running WPDOS, which automatically prints to your Windows printer.
This page contains information on printing from WPDOS to a Windows printer that is not connected to your computer by a traditional parallel (LPT) port, but is connected instead by a USB cable, a wireless connection, a network connection, or some other method. Other information on printing from WPDOS under Windows may be found on this site's Windows printing page. Other methods suitable for Windows 95, 98, and Me may be found on a separate page. Information on printing to a Novell print server may also be found on another page.
Important warning! Read this now! Before attempting to fix any problems in printing from WPDOS to your Windows printer, be absolutely certain that you can print from your Windows applications to your printer. If you are not absolutely certain that you can print from Windows applications, press Ctrl-P now and print this page. If it does not print correctly, install the Windows software for your printer; then make absolutely certain that you can print from Windows applications; and test whether you can now print correctly from WPDOS. If your WPDOS printing problems persist, return to this page. If you can't print from Windows applications, you can't use any of the methods on this page!
Don't be clueless! The advice on this page applies to WordPerfect for DOS only! Do not use the advice on this page to solve problems with WordPerfect for Windows (which is what Clueless Visitor No. 56 tried to do)! You will only make the problems worse! (One of a series of Don't be clueless! messages provided by this site as a public service.)
Unless you have a lot of time to waste, read this now! You must read the paragraphs marked "important" in this section before you continue! These methods will not work if your printer is a cheap Windows-only printer of the kind that I warned you not to buy! (I warned you here and here, but perhaps you weren't paying attention, or you were checking your e-mail, or you thought you had better things to do.) If you have a printer that I warned you not to buy, stop reading this section and go to a different page instead!
WPDOS, like all other DOS applications, cannot print directly to a printer that is connected to your computer by a USB port or network connection, instead of to a traditional parallel (LPT) or serial (COM) port, but you can use USB or networked (including wireless) printers with WPDOS through one of the four methods described below.
A separate page describes methods suitable only for Windows 95, 98, or Me (but the PrintFile method described below is also suitable to those Windows versions.)
Extremely important warning: These methods work only if you already have a WPDOS printer driver that works with your printer and you have already installed the Windows printer driver for your USB or wireless printer and you have successfully printed to it from a Windows application (e.g. your web browser). You will probably need one of this site's WPDOS 5.1 printer drivers or WPDOS 6.x printer drivers for HP DeskJet, HP LaserJet, HP OfficeJet, or HP PhotoSmart printers, Lexmark laser printers, some laser and inkjet printers from Canon, Brother, and a few other manufacturers, or for any PostScript printer.
Very important paragraph, which you must read: These methods will not make it possible for you to print from WPDOS to printers that have no compatible WPDOS printer drivers; examples of such printers are most Dell, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark inkjet printers and all printers (including low-priced HP and Brother printers) described by their manufacturers as "GDI printers" or "host-based" or "Windows-only" printers (most inkjet printers, and many low-priced HP and non-HP laser printers are Windows-only printers). If you want to print from WPDOS to a printer that has no compatible WPDOS printer driver, use this site's methods of printing from WPDOS to any Windows-supported printer, which work with printers connected to your computer by any type of connection, including parallel, serial, USB, and networks.
Very important note: These methods will only work if your USB or networked printer already works perfectly with Windows applications such as Notepad or Word or your web browser. Do not even think about using these methods until you have already printed successfully to your USB or networked printer from a Windows program! Please do not send e-mails asking me if there is a way to make these methods work outside of Windows, or if they will work when no Windows printer driver is installed for your printer. Instead, please carefully reread the opening sentences of this paragraph until you understand them in full! Remember, these methods work only when you run WPDOS inside 32-bit Microsoft Windows; you cannot print to a USB or networked printer under plain DOS (in other words, when DOS runs but Windows is not running). And please don't ask if these methods will work with the ancient Windows 3.11 system; they will not.
Moderately interesting note: If you insist on paying for software instead of using the free solutions recommended on this page, you can print from WPDOS to a USB or networked printer with DOS2USB or Printfil; as with the other methods on this page, these programs will work properly if and only if a WPDOS printer driver already exists for your printer; you must set up DOS2USB to work in "DMP" mode (DMP means Dot Matrix Printing, but works with laser printers also), or you must set up Printfil to use "RAW" mode. I will not help you set up these programs; pay the registration fee and ask the program's authors for help.
If you have not yet bought a new printer, and your computer has a parallel (LPT) port built in, try to buy a printer that works with a parallel cable so that you can print more easily from WPDOS. If you already have a printer, and can choose whether to use the USB or parallel cable, always use the parallel cable. If you have no choice, and you must use the USB cable or connect the printer over a network or wirelessly, follow the instructions in this section.
Note: If your printer is already set up under Windows to print from a USB port, but if both your computer and your printer have a parallel port, and you can therefore connect your computer to your printer with a standard parallel cable, you will find it much easier to print from WPDOS if you reinstall your printer for use with the parallel port and the parallel cable. (Do not confuse a standard parallel cable with a "USB-to-parallel cable," which is a very different thing! This paragraph is about a connection made using a parallel cable, from a computer that has its own parallel port to a printer that has its own parallel port! This paragraph is absolutely not about a USB-to-parallel cable that connects to a USB port on the computer and a parallel port on the printer!)
Remember that you must be able to print to your USB-connected or network-connected printer from a Windows program (such as your web browser) before these methods will work. That means that you must install the Windows printer driver for your printer and print a test page to make sure that the printer works correctly with Windows.
Troubleshooting: If Windows tries to repeat earlier print jobs after you restart your computer, do the following. In the Control Panel's Printers (or Print and Fax) window, right-click on the printer that is causing the problem, choose Properties, then the Ports tab. If there are checkmarks next to "Enable bidirectional support" or "Enable printer pooling", clear those checkmarks and click OK.
Note: Your Windows account must be (and probably already is) an "administrative" account when you set up this method.
To install DOSprint, download the DOSPrint utility (free for personal use) from this page on the web site of A.N.D. Technologies. Click on "DOSPrint.zip" from this link at the Internet Archive. Do not confuse this program with programs with similar names on other web sites! Only download the one from A.N.D. Technologies!
You must read the extremely important warning elsewhere on this page before you try to use this method! Then, you must read and follow all of the instructions below in order to use this program! Do not expect the program to install itself or work by itself unless you follow all of the instructions! You absolutely, positively must read and follow all of the the instructions! If you ignore the instructions, the program will not work! (Don't be clueless! Don't be like Triply Clueless Vistor No. 29, who didn't bother to read the instructions, but sent me furious e-mails complaining that this method doesn't work and that I had wasted his precious time by posting it.) Did you understand this paragraph? Did you read the extremely important warning? If you truthfully answered Yes to both questions, then proceed.
How to install DOSPrint: Create a convenient folder in which to store the programs in the downloaded ZIP file; extract the programs from the ZIP file and place them in this folder. (See the note on folder locations immediately below.) The program you will use will be the one named DOSPrintUI.exe (not DOSPrint.exe). Make sure that the folder that contains the DOSPrint files is open in Windows Explorer; right-click on DOSPrintUI.exe and choose Create Shortcut from the popup menu. (Help! What's a shortcut?) Take careful note of the new shortcut that you created, and leave the window open so that you can find it again.
A note on folder locations. For convenience, I suggest the following locations for the DOSPrint files. Under Windows XP, create a folder named DOSPrint inside the folder named C:\Program Files. Under Windows Vista or Windows 7, 8, or 10, you may also use C:\Program Files, but you will may avoid potential difficulties if instead you create a DOSPrint folder inside your individual user folder; in other words, if your username is Roscoe, create a DOSPrint folder inside C:\Users\Roscoe, and place the DOSPrint files inside that newly-created folder.
Next, type Win+R to open a Run box. In the Run box, type the following, and then press Enter:
shell:startup
Note that this has a colon in the middle but no spaces! An Explorer window will open, showing the startup group (which may or may not empty). Find the new shortcut to DOSPrintUI that you created a few moments ago and drag it into the Startup group. Close all open windows.
Restart your computer in order to make certain that DOSPrintUI.exe actually starts up with Windows. If it does not, read and follow the instructions again and again until it does. After DOSPrintUI.exe starts up, you will see a small red-and-green diamond-shaped icon in the taskbar tray, typically at the lower right of your screen. (In Windows 7, 8, or 10, you may need to click the upward-pointing arrow at the left edge of the taskbar tray in order to find this diamond-shaped icon.) Right-click this diamond-shaped icon and choose Configure from the pop-up menu. A menu will appear with a list of nine LPT ports. Click on LPT1 (unless you are absolutely certain that you already have a port named LPT1 physically present in your computer; if you already have a port named LPT1 on your computer, then choose LPT2 or LPT3 from the menu). Click Set. Select your Windows printer from the menu that now appears. Click OK.
Or, if you prefer, you can download my automated installer for DOSPrint that will perform most of the above steps for you.
Start WPDOS and print. If, and only if, you chose to set your Windows printer to LPT2 or LPT3 in the step immediately above, then, before printing from WPDOS, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit and change the Port from LPT1 to LPT2 or LPT3 (use whichever one you chose in the preceding step).
If this method does not work when you set your Windows printer to LPT1, then set it to LPT2 and try again (remember to change the port in WPDOS!). If it does not work when set to LPT2, then try LPT3. You may even try higher numbers; for example, if you set your Windows printer to use LPT8 in DOSPrint, then change the Port setting in WPDOS to Other, and enter LPT8 (or whichever port you choose between LPT4 and LPT8. (I don't recommend using LPT9, which has other uses in the vDosWP system that you may use in the future.)
In very rare instances, DOSPrint may not work, even after you have followed all the instructions, but it almost always works correctly. If you still cannot print from WPDOS to your printer, then be certain to read the extremely important warning elsewhere on this page, and try again to follow the instructions! If you have studied the warning and carefully followed the instructions, and DOSPrint still does not work, then try the PrintFile method instead, but remember: the DOSPrint method is much faster and much easier to set up!
You must read the extremely important warning elsewhere on this page before you try to use this method!
This method works with any Windows XP computer (not Vista Windows 7, 8, or 10), but, because it relies on the networking features in Windows, you must either (1) have a system that is always connected to a network (which can be an Ethernet or wireless network, or an always-on cable or DSL connection), or (2) install the "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" software which tricks your computer into using its networking features even if it is not actually on a network. You can install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter software by following instructions elsewhere on this page.
Important note: In order to use this method, your computer must be on a network (or use the Microsoft Loopback Adapter so that your computer acts as if it were on a network), but your printer can be connected directly to your own computer. It need not be a printer connected to some other computer on your network! You can "share" your own printer on the network, but the printer itself can be connected to your computer by a parallel, USB, or other connection, not a network connection. All that matters is that Windows thinks of the printer as being on a network somewhere, whether connected to your computer or some other computer.
If you are not certain whether or not your computer is always connected to a network, first perform the steps listed below to see if they work correctly on your system. If they work correctly, then you do not need to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter; if they do not work, then install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter software and perform the steps listed below.
If your computer is always connected to a network, or after you have installed the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, perform all the following steps:
Depending on your Windows configuration, use Start/Control Panel (or Start/Settings/Control Panel), and choose Performance and Maintenance, then System (or go directly to System), then to the Computer Name tab, and write down the "Full computer name" (not the Computer description or Workgroup or any other name). Click Cancel and close the Control Panel. For example, your computer might be named Roscoe. (If your network administrator hasn't forbidden you to change the name, you can use this dialog box to change the existing name to any name you like, but you will need to restart your computer after changing its name.)
Then use Start/Control Panel/Printers and Faxes (or Start/Settings/Printers and Faxes, or Start/Settings/Printers) and right-click on the name of your USB or networked printer. Select Sharing from the pop-up menu. If your USB or networked printer does not already have a sharename, give it one (with no spaces or quotation marks, and preferably only a few letters long, like dj990). Click OK and exit the Sharing tab and printer list (if it is visible).
Use Start/Run and enter CMD, then click OK or press Enter. A DOS-like command window will open. At the prompt, enter a command that looks like this (replace Roscoe with the full name of your computer and replace dj990 with the sharename of your printer!!):
net use lpt1 \\Roscoe\dj990 /persistent:yes
Note: If, for some reason you find that you are unable to use this method to print after you reboot your computer, you might try using this version of the command instead in which the name of your computer is replaced with 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1 is the standard numerical "address" of your own computer, or, in technospeak, your "localhost"):
net use lpt1 \\127.0.0.1\dj990 /persistent:yes
(If, and only if, you already have a printer connected to your parallel port, use lpt2 instead of lpt1 in the command.) Press Enter at the end of the command, and close the window. You may now print from WPDOS and the output will go to your USB or networked printer. If, and only if, you used lpt2 instead of lpt1 in the command, then, before printing from WPDOS, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit and change the Port from LPT1 to LPT2. (If you want to use a colon after lpt1 so that it looks like lpt1: that is perfectly all right, but the presence or absence of the colon makes no practical difference.)
If, after installing this procedure, you cannot print to LPT1 from WordPerfect for DOS, change the "net use" command to include LPT2 or LPT3 instead, and change the printer port in WPDOS to LPT2 or LPT3.
Note: If a physical parallel port exists on your computer, you must be an "administrative" user of Windows to assign LPT1 with this command; you probably are an administrative user if you are working with your own computer, but if you are not, use LPT2 instead of LPT1 as described above.
Note: If Windows responds to this command with an "Error
66" message, first try disabling sharing for your printer; then re-enable sharing and try again. If the error message occurs again, then you may be using firewall software that blocks printer
sharing. A post by "Jonathan" on an advice site offers this procedure for use
with the Norton Personal Firewall (similar methods may be used for other
firewalls; I have not tested this procedure with any firewall at all):
"Jonathan"
writes: You need to allow for printer sharing over 127.0.0.1. For Norton
Personal Firewall (part of Norton Internet Security), open the configuration
window for the firewall. In the "Networking" tab, first choose the proper
settings (Home, Away, Office, or Default). Click the "Trusted" tab below, then
"Add...". In the window that comes up, make sure "Individually" is selected, and
enter "127.0.0.1" as the host to allow. Click "OK" in this window, and "OK"
again to leave the Firewall configuration. If you want to allow sharing under
different locations, change "Settings for:" in the pull-down menu to and repeat
the steps to add 127.0.0.1 as a trusted host.
If you find that Windows does not preserve the assignment of LPTn to your shared printer after you reboot, then you will need to recreate it at the start of each Windows session. You can do this by creating a batch file that runs the "net use" command when Windows starts up. Do this by following this procedure:
First, launch the Windows text editor, Notepad (Start/Run... and enter "Notepad" without quotation marks). Type in the "net use" command shown above (but of course you must replace Roscoe with the full name of your computer and you must replace dj990 with the actual sharename of your printer). Use Notepad's File/Save As menu; in the "Save in" field at the top, navigate to "Desktop" (the top item in the list); then, in the "File name" field toward the bottom, enter the following, including the quotation marks!!!! "NetUseLpt.bat"(remember to include the quotation marks!!!). Close Notepad. You should see an icon named NetUseLpt.bat on your desktop. Right-click on the Start button at the lower left of the screen; choose Open (the first item on the menu); in the window that opens, navigate to the Programs folder, then to Startup folder. Drag the NetUseLpt.bat icon into the Startup folder window. Restart Windows.
Note: If you ever need to undo the assignment of lpt1 to your USB or networked printer, so that you can use a printer connected by a printer cable to the parallel port on your computer, reverse the earlier net use command by entering this command (remember that you may need to replace lpt1 with lpt2 or lpt3 if your original "net use" command used either of those port numbers):
net use lpt1 /delete
Important: This method is far more complicated to set up than the DOSPrint method and may produce slower printing, but it will almost certainly work smoothly when printing across a network or in other rare situations where DOSPrint may not work at all. Try DOSPrint first. If it doesn't work correctly on your system, use the PrintFile method instead.
You must read the extremely important warning elsewhere on this page before you try to use this method!
The all-Windows-versions solution to the print-to-USB or networked printer problem is a superb freeware program called PrintFile, by Peter Lerup. Follow the instructions below to set up WPDOS and PrintFile so that you can print to a USB- or network-connected printer. When you use this method, WPDOS "prints" to a temporary disk file instead of directly to your printer; this file is stored for a few seconds in a special spooler folder on your disk; PrintFile then transfers the file from the spooler folder to your printer; and, after the file has been sent to the printer, PrintFile deletes the temporary file from your disk.
Detailed instructions follow. Expert users may want to modify these instructions, but I strongly urge you to start by following the instructions exactly.
Don't be clueless! PrintFile will not work with WPDOS unless you follow all nine numbered steps in the instructions below. Please print out the instructions and study them until you are certain that you understand them, then check off every step after you have performed it. Do not simply copy PrintFile to your system and expect it to work without further setup. Also, you absolutely must run the Setup program described in step (1) before using PrintFile! Clueless Visitor No. 33 wasted his valuable time sending me outraged e-mails complaining that PrintFile doesn't work and that I had wasted his extremely valuable time - but, of course, Clueless Visitor No. 33 had completely ignored the instructions.
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, 8, or 10, you must have an "administrative account" for PrintFile to work correctly; do not try to use PrintFile from a "standard user" account!
(1) Download and install PrintFile. Follow the link to the PrintFile web site; go to the download page; and download the 32-bit version, which will have a name like prf32-16.zip or something similar. Follow the instructions on the download page to install the program. Don't be clueless! You must run the Setup program in the ZIP archive in order to install PrintFile! When running the installer, allow the program to create a Start menu item and a desktop shortcut, but you need not associate any file types with the program. After running the Setup program, you should probably delete (or move off your desktop) the prf32-16.zip file to avoid confusion in later steps. Don't remove the icon named "PrintFile" from your desktop. You will need it in the next step.
Remember! Don't be clueless! In order to install PrintFile, you absolutely must run the Setup program in the ZIP archive that you downloaded from the PrintFile website! Clueless Visitor No. 33 of course neglected to run the Setup program, then neglected to follow any of the other instructions, and then complained to me that I had wasted his time by posting this method.
(2) Find the PrintFile icon on your desktop or start menu and double-click it to run PrintFile. Don't be clueless! Do not try to run the "PrFile32" program directly from the ZIP archive that you downloaded from the PrintFile web site; run the program from your Desktop or Start menu after running the PrintFile Setup program! (Important note: Under Vista and Windows 7, 8, or 10, run PrintfFile by right-clicking the PrintFile icon on your desktop or Start menu and selecting "Run as Administrator" or "Open as Administrator"; you need to do this only during this initial installation, but you must do this if you use Vista or Windows 7, 8, or 10!) In the PrintFile window, click the Settings button. In the PrintFile Settings dialog, in the Current Settings field at the top, where you see the words "Default Settings" (those words will be highlighted - that is, they will appear white on a blue background) type in either "USB Settings" or Networked Settings" (without the quotation marks) so that the Current Settings field contains the words that you typed, either "USB Settings" or "Networked Settings" (again, without quotation marks). Remember which words you typed in. Under General, add a checkmark next to "Enable spooler function," and remove the checkmark (if any) next to "Show printer selection dialog." I recommend that you add a checkmark next to "Show icon on the taskbar." Under Printer, I strongly recommend that you select the specific printer you want to use, instead of "Use default". Don't close this Settings dialog box until you finish step (3)!
(3) Still in the PrintFile Settings window, click the Shortcut... button. In the Create PrintFile Shortcut dialog, choose the Desktop type; the Storage directory defaults to a subdirectory named Shortcuts, within the PrintFile directory, and need not be changed (but see the note below if you run Vista or Windows 7, 8, or 10). Click OK to close the Create PrintFile Shortcut dialog; if the PrintFile Settings dialog is still open, press Esc to close it,; and then Exit the main PrintFile dialog. Find the "PrintFile - USB Settings" (or "PrintFile - Networked Setting") shortcut that has now been created on your desktop; you will return to it later.
Note: Under Vista and Windows 7, 8, or 10, you must follow the instruction in step (2) to Run (or Open) the PrintFile program as an Administrator. If you neglected to do so, then you will not be able to save the Shortcut into the default location; you can choose another location, or, preferably, start over and - this time - follow the instructions in step (2).
(4) Create a new folder to use as a spool directory for your WPDOS print files. I suggest creating a folder named C:\WPSPOOL or something similar. The name of the folder must not be longer than eight characters and must not contain a space. You should not use this directory for anything other than print spooling, because any files you place in the directory may be deleted by PrintFile's spooler function. This directory must not be the PrintFile Storage directory that you used in step (3).
Note: If you also use this site's methods for printing to any Windows printer or for faxing from WPDOS to Windows fax software, you may use the same spool directory with each method.
(5) Look closely at your Windows desktop. Find the icon named either "PrintFile - USB Settings" or "PrintFile - Networked settings"; the is the desktop shortcut that you created in step (3). (Be sure to find the icon on your desktop that has the full name "PrintFile - USB Settings" or "PrintFile - Networked Settings"! Don't be clueless! Don't choose an icon named only "PrintFile" and nothing else! Don't choose an icon named "PrFile32" or anything other name except the name that I told you to find! You absolutely must find the right icon!) Right-click on this icon and select Properties. Click at the end of the existing line in the Target field. Type a space after the quotation mark at the end of the existing line, not inside the existing quotation marks, and then add the following string:
/s:C:\WPSPOOL\output.prn
Remember to insert a space before (to the left of) this string, and be extremely careful when typing the string itself: do not add any quotation marks, and please note that the string begins with a forward slash, followed immediately (no space) by the letter s and a colon, followed immediately (no space) by the directory name and filename (using backward slashes). The pathname in green (C:\WPSPOOL) should match the folder that you created in step (4). Click OK to close the Properties dialog but do not launch the shortcut.
Note for experts only: You can use *.prn or *.* (or any other file specification) instead of output.prn. You may want to write separate macros that each use different filenames for the output file that is specified in step (6).
(6) Now run WPDOS and edit your printer settings so that the printer output will be directed to a file on your disk. The procedure is slightly different in different WPDOS versions. In WPDOS 6.x, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit, and in the Edit Printer Setup screen, select Port, then Filename, and enter the pathname C:\WPSPOOL\OUTPUT.PRN. In WPDOS 5.1, use Shift-F7/Select Printer/Edit, and in the Select Printer: Edit screen, select Port, choose Other, and enter the pathname C:\WPSPOOL\OUTPUT.PRN. With either version, the directory in the pathname in green (C:\WPSPOOL) should be the folder you created in step (4).
(7) Launch the "PrintFile - USB Settings" or "PrintFile - Networked Settings" shortcut that you modified in step (5). Once again, be absolutely certain to click the correct icon! The PrintFile icon should appear in your system tray (or, under Windows 7, 8, or 10, in the region of the system tray that you can reach by clicking an icon in the tray). Leave the PrintFile program running in the system tray; do not exit or close down PrintFile.
(8) Return to WPDOS and "print" a document. After a few seconds (perhaps as long as a minute under Windows XP), the document should print from your USB or networked printer. If you are running WPDOS in full-screen mode, you do not need to reduce WPDOS to a window, nor do you need to return to the Windows desktop; the entire spooling and printing process occurs in the background.
(9) If all goes well, make a copy of the "PrintFile - USB Settings" or "PrintFile - Networked Settings" shortcut that you modified in step (5) and add the copy to your Startup group so that it will run automatically when Windows starts up. (Help! How do I make a program run when Windows starts up?)
Note: If you have a DOS program that (unlike WPDOS) cannot print to a file, you can print from it to a USB or networked printer by combining Tom Kihlken's utility Prn2file.com with PrintFile. Download the self-extracting archive Prn2file.exe; unpack Prn2file.com into a temporary directory, and follow the instructions in the Prn2file.txt file to set up the program. Use Prn2file to redirect printer output to the same filename specified in step (6) above, and let PrintFile re-redirect the output to your USB or networked printer in the same way it redirects WPDOS output in the steps listed above. If you run Prn2file.com from Autoexec.bat under Windows 95 or 98, it can be loaded into high memory with the LH command; or it may be run from a batch file in a DOS window under any Windows version. (Under Windows NT, 2000, and XP, Prn2file will work properly only if your DOS program can be set up to print to a port that does not really exist on your system, such as LPT2 or LPT3; if your DOS program can be set up to use one of these port names, add the /P2 or /P3 switch to Prn2file to capture output to the nonexistent port so that it can be re-redirected by PrintFile. This nonexistent-port workaround is not needed under Windows 95, 98, or Me.)
Note: If you want to print to a USB printer from
TrueType for WordPerfect or PrimeType for WordPerfect, and your
printer is compatible with one of the printers supported by those programs,
follow these instructions:
Using a text editor, edit the TTWP.CFG or PTWP.CFG file found in
your WordPerfect directory. Find the line that begins Port1=
and edit
it to read something like this: Port1=LPT1,C:\WPSPOOL\OUTPUT.PRN
and
save the file. If you do not already have a C:\WPSPOOL directory, create it.
Run WPDOS, select the TT HP LaserJet II printer driver and set
it to print to LPT1. Print a file; you will find a file named Output.prn in your
C:\WPSPOOL directory. Now follow the instructions above for redirecting the
Output.prn file with the PrintFile utility.
Through the the DOSPrint program described elsewhere on this page, or through "net use" command also described elsewhere on this page,WordPerfect can be set up to print to three different printers that WPDOS recognizes as LPT1 through LPT3. Recent Windows versions allow you to assign networked printers to LPT4 or higher numbers, but WordPerfect cannot print directly to these printers. If you need to print to four or more (usually networked) printers from WPDOS, then use one of the methods described elsewhere on this page and, in WordPerfect, assign the printer port to "Other" (in WPDOS 5.1) or "Filename" (in WPDOS 6.x) and enter as the filename LPT4, LPT5, or whichever number you choose. Many of the methods on this page can easily be adapted to work with a theoretically unlimited number of printers.
If, and only if, you need to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter in order to use this site's "net use" method of printing to a USB printer under Windows 2000 or XP, follow these instructions.
If you have Windows XP:
From the Start Menu choose Control Panel (or Settings, then Control Panel)
If you do not see "Add Hardware" near the top of the list, go to the upper left of the Control Panel window and click on "Switch to Classic View."
Double-click on Add Hardware.
Click Next. Wait until the "Please wait while the wizard searches" message goes away.
On the dialog box headed "Is the hardware connected?" select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware" and click Next.
The next dialog displays a list headed "Installed hardware"; in the list, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list to the last item (it will probably not be visible until you scroll down below the items that are initially visible), and select the last item, "Add a new hardware device". Click Next.
At the next screen, select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)" and click Next.
In the list of "Common hardware types" that appears on the next dialog box, scroll down until you see "Network adapters"; select "Network adapters", then click Next.
In the "Select Network Adapter" dialog, you will see two columns. In the left-hand column ("Manufacturer") select "Microsoft"; then, in the right-hand column ("Network Adapter") select "Microsoft Loopback Adapter"; click Next.
Click Next again, and then Finish.
To make absolutely certain that the Microsoft Loopback Adapter is fully installed, you should probably restart your computer, although this step may not be necessary in all cases.
Now return to setting up the "net use" method.
If you have Windows 2000:
From the Start Menu, choose Settings, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove Hardware.
Click Next.
Select "Add/Troubleshoot a device", then Next.
From the list of devices select the top item, "Add a new device", and click Next.
Select "No, I want to select the hardware from a list."
Select "Network adapters" and click Next.
From the left column select "Microsoft", on the right column choose "Microsoft Loopback Adapter." Click Next, then Next again, then Finish. You may want to restart your computer to make certain that the installation is complete.
Now return to setting up the "net use" method.