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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Where is "Add Printer" in OS X?
RobinS - Jun 28, 2006 - 2:32 pm
Is this a secret?
Using latest OS X.
So I go to System Preferences, Print and Fax, Print, + and I don't see any way of adding a printer. You'd think there would be an "Add Printer" button. That would be too logical I guess. Normally the + thing means add. When I click it, I'm taken to a Printer Browser window - still no add button.
What ??? Who designs this stuff? Am I missing something?
If there isn't a printer installed, you'd think the first thing to automatically pop up on the screen is the option to add one. Incredible software design. I don't know how people take this OS seriously.
Anyway, enough of my rant. If you have suggestions, they would be most welcome.
Using latest OS X.
So I go to System Preferences, Print and Fax, Print, + and I don't see any way of adding a printer. You'd think there would be an "Add Printer" button. That would be too logical I guess. Normally the + thing means add. When I click it, I'm taken to a Printer Browser window - still no add button.
What ??? Who designs this stuff? Am I missing something?
If there isn't a printer installed, you'd think the first thing to automatically pop up on the screen is the option to add one. Incredible software design. I don't know how people take this OS seriously.
Anyway, enough of my rant. If you have suggestions, they would be most welcome.
jackr - Jun 28, 2006 - 3:03 pm
Well, you kind of lost me: I usually go to System Preferences, Print and Fax, and Printing, and push the [+] button. The resulting window's name is "Printer Browser," and you can use it to browse around your network to find the particular printer you had in mind. Or, if you already know its details, you can just type them in at the bottom.
If you prefer to browse, and yet don't see your desired printer, you could try the "More Printers..." button, at the bottom. It browses various other printing networks (there are many types). Since your reflexes seem to be all Windows, the printer networks you're familiar with (and probably connected to) are probably Windows Printing networks as well, so you'll be happy to see that the "more printers" browser comes up displaying the Windows Printing netowrk. If your printers are actually using some other network, the drop lists should fix you right up. Basically, you just browse around in the browser until you find the printer you want.
If you prefer to browse, and yet don't see your desired printer, you could try the "More Printers..." button, at the bottom. It browses various other printing networks (there are many types). Since your reflexes seem to be all Windows, the printer networks you're familiar with (and probably connected to) are probably Windows Printing networks as well, so you'll be happy to see that the "more printers" browser comes up displaying the Windows Printing netowrk. If your printers are actually using some other network, the drop lists should fix you right up. Basically, you just browse around in the browser until you find the printer you want.
jackr - Jun 28, 2006 - 3:04 pm
Actually, to tell you the truth, what I really usually do is go to some application from which I want to print things, press cmd-P (to get the print window), then drop the "Printer" drop list and pick "Add Printer ...". That leads you to the same Printer Browser we've just discussed.
RobinS - Jun 28, 2006 - 3:17 pm
Wow - that was a amazing. All I can say it I wish I had studied software development when younger. I could have made these processes 10x easier.
So there is no Add Printer. Instead we have a Printer Browser. Fair enough. Just words. So I find my printer driver that I just installed (of course Apple never asked me to look for the printer driver....lol) and highlight it in the Printer Browser. But the Add button in the lower right hand corner is greyed out. Wonderful............
Did I do something wrong? There is no right click options of course.
There is also an Adobe PDF 7.0 "printer" above it. When I highlight that the Add button is not greyed out. I guess that is for creating Acrobat documents? So I added that hoping the next item (my printer) would not be greyed out. Alas......no. When I installed the printer driver, it restarted the computer. So you'd think it was really in there.
How a newbie is supposed to do this (and this is supposed to be a user friendly OS!) I have no idea. I guess when illogic raises its ugly head, thats another chance for the local Mac store to get another service call.
So there is no Add Printer. Instead we have a Printer Browser. Fair enough. Just words. So I find my printer driver that I just installed (of course Apple never asked me to look for the printer driver....lol) and highlight it in the Printer Browser. But the Add button in the lower right hand corner is greyed out. Wonderful............
Did I do something wrong? There is no right click options of course.
There is also an Adobe PDF 7.0 "printer" above it. When I highlight that the Add button is not greyed out. I guess that is for creating Acrobat documents? So I added that hoping the next item (my printer) would not be greyed out. Alas......no. When I installed the printer driver, it restarted the computer. So you'd think it was really in there.
How a newbie is supposed to do this (and this is supposed to be a user friendly OS!) I have no idea. I guess when illogic raises its ugly head, thats another chance for the local Mac store to get another service call.
jackr - Jun 28, 2006 - 4:09 pm
If you have installed a printer driver (a datum you didn't mention originally), then you may want to check the documentation that came with that printer driver for some guidance.
Similarly, your "Adobe PDF 7.0" item is not standard, nor do I have such a thing. I would guess it's the Adobe driver that allows you to pretend to print but actually to produce a PDF file. Since this is built into the Mac, people don't much bother installing that, but if you need some of Adobe's advanced features it still has its uses.
The most common reason for the Add button to be grayed out, in my experience anyway, is that the printer is not actually available at the moment you're trying to add it. It sounds as if you've connected this new printer directly to your computer, is that right? Was it turned on during these experiments? If not, try that. If that's no help, then check for error messages in the Console and System logs. There's a log-viewer application, called "Console", in the "Utilities" subfolder of the "Applications" folder.
Another possibility: when you add a new driver, both platforms have to hunt it down before they can display it; both, at some point or other, pause while they search for new drivers. Both post something on the screen to let you know that this is happening, and of coruse in both cases you might well have to wait until the search is complete before you can see your new driver. But since the Windows dialog that does this search disables all its inputs and blanks its main panel, you easily realize you have no choice but to wait until the search is complete. The Mac, on the other hand, offers you the list of drivers it knows about so far, in case one of those is the one you want. It's possible that you simply didn't notice the message at the bottom of the window that said it was searching for new drivers, and gave up before the search was complete.
Since you're having so much trouble switching from Windows to Mac, perhaps a few pointers will make your life easier.
To begin with: they're different. Don't expect all the same buttons and labels, or even steps in an operation.
There's a lot of on-line help included with your Mac, accessible in the Help menu that's always there. But if you prefer to do your own research, then you may find it helpful to take a deep breath and actually read what's on your screen at any moment of confusion.
There's also a sort of philosophical difference between the platforms; keeping this in mind might help you out in your next pinch. The Windows idea is to present you with what are called "wizards": a tool that guides you step by step through any complicated process. The Mac's philosophy, on the other hand, leans more towards just giving you what you want in the first place, without all those intervening steps.
The "Add a Printer" operation is a good case study in the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches. For example, on Windows, the "Add a Printer Wizard" starts with a screen that explicitly tells you you must connect your printer and turn it on; on the Mac, as we've discovered, that's left up to your native intuition, which may not always work. Score one for Windows. On the other hand, the Windows wizard steps you through several pages and choices before offering you a list of printers from which to choose; the Mac simply offers you the list to begin with, and expands it as it searches out additional printers. Windows is all about preventing you from doing anything Windows is not yet ready for you to do; the Mac is all about enabling you to do your work as quickly as possible, and providing help in less obtrusive ways. Clearly, these are different approaches, and you'll need to retrain your reflexes a bit during this switch. Clearly as well, either approach might be better than the other for any given situation, but the operating system (either operating system) has to do one or the other. As the user, you might as well start expecting the thing you're likely to see on the system under your fingers, instead of the thing some other system might do.
Similarly, your "Adobe PDF 7.0" item is not standard, nor do I have such a thing. I would guess it's the Adobe driver that allows you to pretend to print but actually to produce a PDF file. Since this is built into the Mac, people don't much bother installing that, but if you need some of Adobe's advanced features it still has its uses.
The most common reason for the Add button to be grayed out, in my experience anyway, is that the printer is not actually available at the moment you're trying to add it. It sounds as if you've connected this new printer directly to your computer, is that right? Was it turned on during these experiments? If not, try that. If that's no help, then check for error messages in the Console and System logs. There's a log-viewer application, called "Console", in the "Utilities" subfolder of the "Applications" folder.
Another possibility: when you add a new driver, both platforms have to hunt it down before they can display it; both, at some point or other, pause while they search for new drivers. Both post something on the screen to let you know that this is happening, and of coruse in both cases you might well have to wait until the search is complete before you can see your new driver. But since the Windows dialog that does this search disables all its inputs and blanks its main panel, you easily realize you have no choice but to wait until the search is complete. The Mac, on the other hand, offers you the list of drivers it knows about so far, in case one of those is the one you want. It's possible that you simply didn't notice the message at the bottom of the window that said it was searching for new drivers, and gave up before the search was complete.
Since you're having so much trouble switching from Windows to Mac, perhaps a few pointers will make your life easier.
To begin with: they're different. Don't expect all the same buttons and labels, or even steps in an operation.
There's a lot of on-line help included with your Mac, accessible in the Help menu that's always there. But if you prefer to do your own research, then you may find it helpful to take a deep breath and actually read what's on your screen at any moment of confusion.
There's also a sort of philosophical difference between the platforms; keeping this in mind might help you out in your next pinch. The Windows idea is to present you with what are called "wizards": a tool that guides you step by step through any complicated process. The Mac's philosophy, on the other hand, leans more towards just giving you what you want in the first place, without all those intervening steps.
The "Add a Printer" operation is a good case study in the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches. For example, on Windows, the "Add a Printer Wizard" starts with a screen that explicitly tells you you must connect your printer and turn it on; on the Mac, as we've discovered, that's left up to your native intuition, which may not always work. Score one for Windows. On the other hand, the Windows wizard steps you through several pages and choices before offering you a list of printers from which to choose; the Mac simply offers you the list to begin with, and expands it as it searches out additional printers. Windows is all about preventing you from doing anything Windows is not yet ready for you to do; the Mac is all about enabling you to do your work as quickly as possible, and providing help in less obtrusive ways. Clearly, these are different approaches, and you'll need to retrain your reflexes a bit during this switch. Clearly as well, either approach might be better than the other for any given situation, but the operating system (either operating system) has to do one or the other. As the user, you might as well start expecting the thing you're likely to see on the system under your fingers, instead of the thing some other system might do.
RobinS - Jun 28, 2006 - 7:31 pm
So I finally figured it out.
As usual, sloppy layout hid the obvious.
When you hit + one of the options is "Print Using", but its all greyed out. How stupid is that? I finally clicked the blue arrows and found my driver. If Apple designed a car they'd hide the ignition keyhole. But at least they'd include a spinning beachball on the dash when it won't start!
The Adobe printer thing is probably related to my Acrobat 7 install. No worries.....I never create pdf's though in the future it sounds nice.
I didn't give up before the search was complete.
I'm not having problems switching. I'm having problems with an incompetently designed OS. This is supposed to be software that has had decades of refinement. As a new user I am dismayed at the dismal lack of organization. Its like there are a hundred different departments and they only talk to each other occasionally. And they all do EVERYTHING with a mouse. Its like they never use a keyboard. It permeates all their software. I'm sure SteveO bows down to a gold mouse in his office before commencing the days activities.
I could on and on about how Mac could make OS X more user friendly to 95% of the world. But they have their pride so far stuck up their ass, and sqealing with delight, that its no use. They think the world will come to them. 95% of the world does things a certain way - Windows. Would it be so hard for them to make a Windows skin? Guess so. Amazing. Perhaps Microsoft would sue them for copying? Who knows.
But things like keyboard layout are universal things that are initially very awkward for Windows users. They don't strive to make things easier. And that's why they have a piddly 5% when they could have many more times that.
I'm not even going to touch on the ripoff hardware pricing..........which of course alienates most people from even considering switching. Intel components will make it far more obvious.
I do read the documentation or browse it but am amazed at the poor searching of it. Or lack there of. I often have better luck searching with Google on the net. Help files for Windows and Mac are terrible. And that's why most people only use 1% of their computer's ability. Its the designers.....they don't think like average people. If they did, computers would be far more prevelant and they would be far richer. They need average people off the street to tell them how they perceive and react to the presentations offered.
"The Mac's philosophy, on the other hand, leans more towards just giving you what you want in the first place, without all those intervening steps."
Well - I beg to differ on that one. They often just couldn't care less. When you grey out an area, that indicates its not to be looked at or its not relevant. Just one example of hundreds I've come across of sloppy, inconsistent design. OS X is better - but better than Windows is not saying much. It should be far, far better.
Re this printer thing.......it is well designed except they greyed out an area that shouldn't have been. Also they should use words instead of silly mathematical symbols. Most software programs use words. So Apple should be using words. Don't "think different", just "think". What Apple needs is an infusion of left brain logic - heaps of it.
As usual, sloppy layout hid the obvious.
When you hit + one of the options is "Print Using", but its all greyed out. How stupid is that? I finally clicked the blue arrows and found my driver. If Apple designed a car they'd hide the ignition keyhole. But at least they'd include a spinning beachball on the dash when it won't start!
The Adobe printer thing is probably related to my Acrobat 7 install. No worries.....I never create pdf's though in the future it sounds nice.
I didn't give up before the search was complete.
I'm not having problems switching. I'm having problems with an incompetently designed OS. This is supposed to be software that has had decades of refinement. As a new user I am dismayed at the dismal lack of organization. Its like there are a hundred different departments and they only talk to each other occasionally. And they all do EVERYTHING with a mouse. Its like they never use a keyboard. It permeates all their software. I'm sure SteveO bows down to a gold mouse in his office before commencing the days activities.
I could on and on about how Mac could make OS X more user friendly to 95% of the world. But they have their pride so far stuck up their ass, and sqealing with delight, that its no use. They think the world will come to them. 95% of the world does things a certain way - Windows. Would it be so hard for them to make a Windows skin? Guess so. Amazing. Perhaps Microsoft would sue them for copying? Who knows.
But things like keyboard layout are universal things that are initially very awkward for Windows users. They don't strive to make things easier. And that's why they have a piddly 5% when they could have many more times that.
I'm not even going to touch on the ripoff hardware pricing..........which of course alienates most people from even considering switching. Intel components will make it far more obvious.
I do read the documentation or browse it but am amazed at the poor searching of it. Or lack there of. I often have better luck searching with Google on the net. Help files for Windows and Mac are terrible. And that's why most people only use 1% of their computer's ability. Its the designers.....they don't think like average people. If they did, computers would be far more prevelant and they would be far richer. They need average people off the street to tell them how they perceive and react to the presentations offered.
"The Mac's philosophy, on the other hand, leans more towards just giving you what you want in the first place, without all those intervening steps."
Well - I beg to differ on that one. They often just couldn't care less. When you grey out an area, that indicates its not to be looked at or its not relevant. Just one example of hundreds I've come across of sloppy, inconsistent design. OS X is better - but better than Windows is not saying much. It should be far, far better.
Re this printer thing.......it is well designed except they greyed out an area that shouldn't have been. Also they should use words instead of silly mathematical symbols. Most software programs use words. So Apple should be using words. Don't "think different", just "think". What Apple needs is an infusion of left brain logic - heaps of it.
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