[Samba] MS Access XP and Samba Print Queues

Kelly S. Smelser ksmelser at uindy.edu
Wed Dec 11 16:21:01 GMT 2002


MS Access XP appears to handle the default printer setup differently 
than the other apps in the Office suite. Here is the problem we are 
running into. When you open Access and mouseover the printer icon on the 
toolbar it usually should display a popup after a remote procedure call 
that tells you what the default printer is set as. This is very 
important because a great deal of the functionality of Access relies on 
the Print Preview which requires a default printer being set (creating a 
report for example pops up the report in a Print Preview window). So, 
we've found that if your default printer is set to a samba print queue 
(usuing Samba and CUPS) for some reason Access doesn't recognize that 
you have a default printer. Oddly enough, you can print because if you 
go to File > Print it knows that you have a printer set. But, it doesn't 
seem to make that remote procedure call successfully until you actually 
go to File > Print, and once you print and return to your project in 
Access you'll still find that it does not know what youre default 
printer is inasfaras what needs to be setup for Print Preview to work. 
I've found that setting up a default printer that is a direct IP printer 
without a Samba queue works fine, and setting up a default printer 
through a Windows queue works fine. But, it doesn't like the samba 
queue. Interestingly enough, you can actually have the same printer 
setup through a samba queue and a windows queue and watch your default 
printer disappear in Access if you toggle back and forth between the two 
as far as default printer settings. Does anyone have any ideas what is 
going on here?

K.

-- 
“...every tool is a weapon if you look at it right.”
                                   (Ani DiFranco)





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