These common questions are typically associated with the Spool Window. If you can't find the answer to your question here, click the Index or Search tab of the Help to search for a specific word or phrase.
Why does my job display as three entries in the Spool Window?
How do I change the date and time display on the Spool Window?
How can I find the last document printed to a specific printer?
What factors affect the amount of time it takes for the Spool Window to open?
The new BARR/Web Interface allows remote access the Barr Enterprise Print Server. Remote users can now monitor printers in their print center from the comfort of their office. Also, they can pause, cancel, and redirect print jobs to different printers, view text in the print files, and change a job's priority in the queue based on routing criteria. Contact a Barr sales representative to learn more about the new BARR/Web Interface.
The Web Interface is completely customizable, allowing you to view only the specific column headers and printers that you require. You also have the added security feature of maintaining control over which printers a particular user is able to view from their workstation. In addition, the Web Interface is virtually identical in look and feel to the existing Spool Window, so current users will need minimal training.
To view the number of records in a job, add the NDHGNREC (# records) column to the Spool Window. This column is contained in the Data Set Header General Section.
The BARR/SPOOL software is designed to receive jobs with copy counts as three entries in the Spool Window. The first entry is the banner, the second entry is the data, and the third entry is the trailer. The job is split to ensure the data is the only part of the job with the copy count. You can add the # copies (NJHGJCPY) column to the Spool Window to view the actual copy counts.
BARR/SPOOL uses the Control Panel's Regional Settings to display the date and time on the Spool Window. To display these settings in a different format, open the Control Panel's Regional Settings and modify the date and time as necessary. See your Microsoft Windows Help for more information.
There are two simple ways you can find the last document printed to a specific printer.
Open the Operator Console. In the Message column, look for the most recent mention of the specific printer name. This should allow you to easily find the last document printed to that printer.
Open the Retain Window. Add the BEPS printer - NDHBLPRT column to the Retain Window. This will display the spool printer that printed the document. Sorting on this column and the Date Time column allows you to easily find the last document printed to a specific printer.
To see the print date and time, rather than the time the job was received, select Use current date and time on the Spool and Retain tab.
Complete the following steps to interrupt then resume a print job.
Disable the printer. The printer will state will change to Draining. The printer will continue to print the job until the job is placed on hold.
Change the job state to Hold. The printer will finish printing what is currently in its buffers and then the printer state will change to Disabled.
Complete the other tasks (for example, you can print a different job on the same printer).
When ready to resume printing, change the printer state to Reprint and route the incomplete job to the printer. The Viewer will automatically appear and bring the view to the top of the last page which was printing.
The printer must
be set to Reprint for it to start
printing from where it left off, if it is just set to Ready,
the job will start printing from the beginning of the job.
Click the Reprint Now button and the job will begin printing from the start of that page. If necessary, the start page can be modified by selecting a new page in the Viewer.
The number and size of documents waiting to print in the Spool Window – While the Spool Window is opening, the BARR SpoolCore service is gathering and processing the properties of each document waiting to print in the Spool Window. You will need to print or delete the documents in the Spool Window to decrease the amount of time it takes for the Spool Window to open.
The number of printers configured in the Spool Window – While the Spool Window is opening, it is reviewing each printer configured in the Spool Window. The more printers listed in the Spool Window, the longer it will take for the Spool Window to open.
Hardware – The speed of your processor, the size of free RAM, and the document file size. For example, the BARR SpoolCore service, using a computer with a 400-MHz Pentium II and 128MB of RAM, would take 20 minutes to process a spool folder containing 6,000 documents waiting to print.
Printers can be hidden from the Spool Window. If a document is being routed to or is intended to be routed to a hidden printer, the Printer column for the document will appear in a darker gray shading. When printers are hidden from the view, the status bar displays a message that gives the number of hidden printers. Users with the Printer – Show All user access right have the ability to show and hide printers from the Spool Window. If this functionality is needed, ask an administrator to grant you this right.
Printers display in alphabetical order in the Spool Window. When adding or modifying a printer in the Spool Window, you can name each printer so it appears in the order you desire. You can customize the order of the printers by adding a letter of the alphabet to the beginning of the printer's name which will set the order in which the printers display. See the following example:
a_Xerox 4890
b_Barr File Port
c_IBM 6262
d_Files to Host
When adding or modifying a printer, you must restart the BARR SpoolCore service for your changes to take effect. Depending on the nature of the changes, there can be a 20-second delay when restarting the service.
Adding a space in front of a printer's name
will make it the first printer to display in the Spool Window printer
list.