Post by hereticus on Nov 9, 2005 11:26:09 GMT 1
Are there any professional or amateur IT experts out there amongst us advisors ? I have raised a question with Hillarys IT Department and am not convinced by the answer, so wonder if anyone can provide some further insight - perhaps with an actual solution..... perhaps simply to back up my thinking that there really ought to be a solution..... or perhaps to help explain why my thinking is illogical and impactical.
I copy below the email correspondence that I have had with IT on this subject.
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My original email asked :
Hope you or your department can answer this one for me. I have a problem with the small print outs, which do not really suit my tidy approach to record keeping as they are too small to hole punch and file (I actually use a glue stick to mount them on a sheet of A4 that I can then file – (how sad is that ?) so........my question...
Is it possible to print from SAM through my PC to my laser printer and, by doing so, get a proper A4 size print copy of an order ? If so, how do I go about it ? If this can be done then I will change my working practice so that I just print one order copy for the customer, then wait until I get home to print my own copies through the PC.
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Their response advised :
The software uses a DLL from Brother themselves, which is effectively the print driver. So other printers aren’t an option i'm afraid. Suggest a scanner to save your multiple "chits" onto one big sheet - then you can bin all paper.
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to which I have responded :
Many thanks for investigating but it sounds like somebody has been fobbed off with a stock answer. What about the thousands of people out there who use a PDA with a windows based operating system but haven't invested £ 300 plus in a miniature printer. They must have some way of printing from their PDA through a PC, or of transferring a data file from their PDA to their PC so that they can then edit, print, etc through Word or Excel. There MUST be a way of doing this, otherwise the market for PDA's would have been a non-starter from the outset.
I'm not sure exactly what DLL stands for but, in essence, it is 'driver' software and yes, for sure, SAM must have the Brother driver software installed but that does not prohibit other printer drivers also being installed (anyway, my laser printer happens to be Brother as well).
The answer, however, probably lies not with printer drivers but with file transfer - SAM synchronises with a PC through its USB docking station and transfers data relating to calendar, contacts, etc so I cannot accept that it is impossible for it to also share order data and, indeed, anything held on the PDA and, having been forced to invest in PDA's, we should not be denied access to the full functionality of this powerful tool.
I am hoping that you will be able to take this question further because I'm sure it can't really be that difficult to an IT expert, and I and many other agents would really benefit.
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Am I right or am I wrong ? Any input or ideas would be appreciated.
I copy below the email correspondence that I have had with IT on this subject.
-----------------------------------------------
My original email asked :
Hope you or your department can answer this one for me. I have a problem with the small print outs, which do not really suit my tidy approach to record keeping as they are too small to hole punch and file (I actually use a glue stick to mount them on a sheet of A4 that I can then file – (how sad is that ?) so........my question...
Is it possible to print from SAM through my PC to my laser printer and, by doing so, get a proper A4 size print copy of an order ? If so, how do I go about it ? If this can be done then I will change my working practice so that I just print one order copy for the customer, then wait until I get home to print my own copies through the PC.
-----------------------------------------------
Their response advised :
The software uses a DLL from Brother themselves, which is effectively the print driver. So other printers aren’t an option i'm afraid. Suggest a scanner to save your multiple "chits" onto one big sheet - then you can bin all paper.
-----------------------------------------------
to which I have responded :
Many thanks for investigating but it sounds like somebody has been fobbed off with a stock answer. What about the thousands of people out there who use a PDA with a windows based operating system but haven't invested £ 300 plus in a miniature printer. They must have some way of printing from their PDA through a PC, or of transferring a data file from their PDA to their PC so that they can then edit, print, etc through Word or Excel. There MUST be a way of doing this, otherwise the market for PDA's would have been a non-starter from the outset.
I'm not sure exactly what DLL stands for but, in essence, it is 'driver' software and yes, for sure, SAM must have the Brother driver software installed but that does not prohibit other printer drivers also being installed (anyway, my laser printer happens to be Brother as well).
The answer, however, probably lies not with printer drivers but with file transfer - SAM synchronises with a PC through its USB docking station and transfers data relating to calendar, contacts, etc so I cannot accept that it is impossible for it to also share order data and, indeed, anything held on the PDA and, having been forced to invest in PDA's, we should not be denied access to the full functionality of this powerful tool.
I am hoping that you will be able to take this question further because I'm sure it can't really be that difficult to an IT expert, and I and many other agents would really benefit.
-----------------------------------------------
Am I right or am I wrong ? Any input or ideas would be appreciated.