Default printer question

[horseboy]

Is there a way to specify a default printer just for one certain app?


Here is my situation... I have an app called Tapit on the PC in my office. Tapit is phone monitoring software; I use it to make sure my salespeople are actually working. I like to send a report over to the printer in the sales area about 3 times a day. This is easy to do when printing it manually, but I don't want to have to take the time out to do it 3 times a day. There is a report scheduler that I can set up to print the reports whenever I want, but the damn thing won't let me specify a printer. It automatically uses the default printer, which obviously is the printer in my office. I can't change the default, because everything else I print needs to be printed in my office. So, is there a way to change the default printer for a certain app?

Thanks in advance.


Oh and, BTW, Tapit only records the phone numbers called/received, call time, and call lengths for each extension. No audio recording or anything like that just in case you thought I was some kind of weirdo. 

[CCM]

I would think it would be a function of the app, not the printer.  The printscreen utility I use lets you speciy what printer to print to when the printscreen key is pressed.

[ChadTower]

If I read that correctly, he's trying to automate the task, and the automation tool uses the default printer.  I would be surprised if the automation tool doesn't have a facility for choosing the printer when it sends the print command.

[CCM]

Is there a way to specify a default printer just for one certain app?


Here is my situation... I have an app called Tapit on the PC in my office. Tapit is phone monitoring software; I use it to make sure my salespeople are actually working. I like to send a report over to the printer in the sales area about 3 times a day. This is easy to do when printing it manually, but I don't want to have to take the time out to do it 3 times a day. There is a report scheduler that I can set up to print the reports whenever I want, but the damn thing won't let me specify a printer. It automatically uses the default printer, which obviously is the printer in my office. I can't change the default, because everything else I print needs to be printed in my office. So, is there a way to change the default printer for a certain app?

Thanks in advance.


Oh and, BTW, Tapit only records the phone numbers called/received, call time, and call lengths for each extension. No audio recording or anything like that just in case you thought I was some kind of weirdo. 

Have you contacted the makers of the Tapit software to see if you are missing something when setting up the automated report?  I'm assuming the report automation is part of Tapit and it's not a separate app.

If the Tapit report automation utility doesn't let you specify a printer you may be out of luck.  I don't know of another way to do it.

This looks like the website for Trisys (the makers of Tapit?):

http://www.trisys.com/ContactUs.htm

[shmokes]

You can add the following command to the shortcut:

prnmngr -t -p "\\server\printer"

The -t specifies default and the -p simply tells it that you're about to point to a specific printer.  server=computer name, printer=printer name

That would change your default printer when you opened the application, but I can't think of a way off-hand to switch it back automatically when you close the program.  Maybe that would take some kind of script or something that is beyond my ability.

[ChadTower]

Given the command shmokes just gave, if you can call the print task from the command line, you can run a batch script that is basically three or four lines.  Line 1 is to set your default printer to the network printer, line 2 is the print task, line 3 is to set it back to your local printer.

Code: [Select]

prnmngr -t -p "\\server\printer"     
<your print task>
prnmngr -t -p "\\server\printer"

This batch script could then be called via your Task Scheduler or some other similar scheduler as often as necessary.