>Hi Al!
>
>>In general you don't print to a printer in the Novell environment, you print to the queue. The printer is set up to service the queue (or a print server sends the job to the printer).
>>
>>The queue(s) should definitely be available to CAPTURE (I can't remember if you still use that command in NDPS or if there's something new). IOW you should be able to do something like

* In your environment, prior to firing up VFP
>>CAPTURE L=1 Q=<i>Tree.OrganizationalUnit.Server.Queue</i> TI=5
>>
>>* In VFP:
>>COPY FILE < filename > TO LPT1
>>

>
>All I know is that the IT folks here, who I have limited faith, say they will no longer make queues for the printers, that Novell created NDPS and that windows applications are supposed to print directly to them. (They also say that something called IPrint is on its way and the printers will only have an IP address at that point, continuing not to make queues.) There are several laser printers that are setup this way. They don't have a queue and applications like WORD and EXCEL are able to print to them. VFP is also able to print reports to these devices directly. My difficulty is getting a file created by AutoCad, a PLT print file, and COPY FILE it to the NDPS print device and produce a map rather than sheets of characters.
>
>I will explore CAPTURE further and will gladly take any other suggestions.

Hopefully your IT types are aware of the issues of not using print queues. Not using them usually requires that the printer itself has a built-in print server of some kind. One issue is that this device usually has limited local queue/buffer space - in the case of add-on JetDirect cards 2MB or less. Once this fills up, print operations on workstations must wait until some space is freed up. In most cases, including, I believe, direct IP printing as you mentioned, the local workstation does not set up a local queue for the print device, it is simply setting up a redirector so there is no buffering on the workstation. The net effect is that your workstation actually pauses, waiting for the printer to catch up, just like in the XT days!

Another issue is that in a larger environment it is possible to set up a single print queue, and have it serviced by more than one printer. With direct printing this is more cumbersome to set up at each workstation and less flexible.

Having said all that, we'll assume for a moment your IT people know what they're doing. A couple of things come to mind:

- how large are these files you're trying to copy? If they overwhelm local buffer space on the printer's print servers that could be a problem.

- have you tried a binary copy ( COPY filename printdevice /B ) from a command prompt?

- this is a SWAG, but what if you SET PRINTER TO < printer name > in VFP, then COPY FILE < filename > TO PRN (which is the default print device)?