>have seen examples that indicated you could specify a printer name
>in the STRTOFILE command and send a string to the specified printer.
>
>i tried the following, but instead of sending the output to the
>selected printer, the output was sent to a file (in the current
>directory). of course the filename is the name of the
>printer that i specified.
>
>

>lc_Printer_Name = ALLTRIM(GETPRINTER())
>lc_File_Contents = FILETOSTR(lc_Source_File_Spec)
>ln_Chars = STRTOFILE( lc_File_Contents , lc_Printer_Name , .T. )
>

>
>how can i get it to go to the printer ?

Download my DIRPRTCLASS from the Files section - it would look something like:

SET PROC TO DIRPRTCLASS ADDITIVE
oPrt = CREATEOBJ('DirectPrintOutput')
WITH oPrt
   .PrinterOpen(lc_Printer_Name)
   .DocOpen()
   .DocWrite(lc_File_Contents) && you can have several .DocWrite() lines to merge into a spool file
   .DocClose()
ENDWITH

OR

WITH oPrt
   .PrinterOpen(lc_Printer_Name)
   .SpoolFile(lc_Source_File_Spec)  && add <b>, .T. </b> before closing ) to delete after print
ENDWITH

You also need ClsHeap, also available in the Files Section. Documentation for both classes in in the header contents of the source code, so be sure to read the code.