A: If your printer explicitly states that it works with the DOS operating
system, and you have connected it to your computer via a parallel cable then you
should be able to use any of the pre-defined printer settings in Advantage Plus
and print to LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3. These settings will give you the best results
if they work. It won't hurt anything to try them. At most you will get an error
message, so if it doesn't work then use the Windows-Only Printer Option below.
If your printer is connected by USB port, DOS programs have no way to directly
access them. Additionally, many of the new, supposedly "smarter" printers, do
not have font tables or even the ability to translate and print simple ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters. They mostly
support only raster graphics, that is, rows of dots that define the page. This
used to be done inside the printers but now is done by your computer in these
cases. So now, instead of sending 4 or 5 thousand characters to the printer to
print a page, often as much as 4 or 5 million characters has to be sent to define
all the dots on that page.
All Smart Luck programs have been modified so that an
option is provided that uses Windows to actually do the printing. In Advantage
Plus, Press F9-Setup from the Main Menu, then #2 for Printer Setup, then leave
Sideways Printer Name field blank and press ENTER to get to Printer 1. Press
F2-Pick A Printer and use the arrow keys to select Windows Only Printer and
press ENTER. The device field will automatically change to WIN.
For the Wheel
programs, the simplest way to set this parameter is to close Advantage Plus and
then run just the wheel program from the START->RUN command line.
To do this
type in the run box:
C:\gh\gailw.exe /prn=win (for Wheel Four, Five or Six Plus) or
C:\gh\gailfwg.exe /prn=win (for Full Wheel Generator) or
C:\gh\gailkw.exe /prn=win (for Keno Wheel)
and click OK to execute the command.
NOTE: Some of the printer drivers lockup the machine or cause other problems if
you print in Full Screen Mode. If your printer has this problem you will have to
run the program in a windowed mode instead of full screen mode.
Network Printers
on Win XP
To access a network printer when running on an XP
machine, you will need to: Click
START|RUN and type CMD.EXE
Then type:
net use lpt1:\\sharename /persistent:yes
\\sharename must be
\\computername\NetworkNameforPrinter for example I use \\gonzo\hp because the
computer where the printer is connected has the network name of gonzo and the
network name for the shared printer is hp.
Network Printers on Other Versions of Windows
To print to a network printer in other versions of windows, click
START->Settings->Control Panel->Printers and then right click on the network
printer you want to use. If it is not there you must add the network printer.
Click on the details tab and click the Capture button. There it has lpt port
names and the network printer name. You have to use lpt1 lpt2 or lpt3 for the
printer you want to use and in the second field identify the network printer
you want access by that port name. Then in the Smart Luck program, be sure to
set the device in printer setup to the same value.
