What is an ospx file and why do people send them?

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:06:49 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

Why not just share the printer with her so she can print from it, too?

--

Char Jackson

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

It sounds as if this will be a recurring problem whenever she wants to
print something, and it's probably worth spending some time fixing it
properly.

Perhaps Santa could bring her a Personal Printer to go with her Personal
Computer.

Alternatively you could look at networking the things together. I think
that's what most people would do. What OS is your PC running? Is a
hard-wired connection practical? Is it a network-ready printer?

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 23:55:14 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:06:49 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

Why not just share the printer with her so she can print from it, too?

Because I don't know how to do that.

Window does not come with manuals, and even if it did, they probably would not
tell you how to share a printer attached to a Windows XP machi9ne with a
machine running Windows 8.

And when you want a map and directions to a place you are leaving for in 2
hours time, there probably isn't time to find out. That is why I asked if
anyone knew of a way of printing a .oxps file, which I had never heard of
before,

And now I know that it can't be done, unless you are also running Windows 8.

Thanks to those who provided helpful information.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:52:22 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

It sounds as if this will be a recurring problem whenever she wants to
print something, and it's probably worth spending some time fixing it
properly.

Perhaps Santa could bring her a Personal Printer to go with her Personal
Computer.

Alternatively you could look at networking the things together. I think
that's what most people would do. What OS is your PC running? Is a
hard-wired connection practical? Is it a network-ready printer?

We have enough of a network connection that she can see my "Shared" directory
(where she put the file for me to print), but she can't see the printer and I
can't see her machine at all.

We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:52:22 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

It sounds as if this will be a recurring problem whenever she wants to
print something, and it's probably worth spending some time fixing it
properly.

Perhaps Santa could bring her a Personal Printer to go with her Personal
Computer.

Alternatively you could look at networking the things together. I think
that's what most people would do. What OS is your PC running? Is a
hard-wired connection practical? Is it a network-ready printer?

We have enough of a network connection that she can see my "Shared" directory
(where she put the file for me to print), but she can't see the printer and I
can't see her machine at all.

Have you shared the printer in Control Panel? (right-click: Printer
Properties: Sharing).

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:27:17 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:


We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


You might want to get a laser instead of an inkjet. They are much
cheaper to use, and if you don't need color, you can get a B&W laser
for around $80.

Ken Blake wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:27:17 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:


We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


You might want to get a laser instead of an inkjet. They are much
cheaper to use, and if you don't need color, you can get a B&W laser
for around $80.

And IME inkjets are totally unsuitable when there are long periods
between printing. Ink dries up, and the printer needs to go through a
cleaning cycle that wastes several pages worth of ink. An inkjet might
be cheap to buy but that's because the manufacturer profits from
overcharging you for the ink.

For occasional printing, get a laser.

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:37:57 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Ken Blake wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:27:17 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:


We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


You might want to get a laser instead of an inkjet. They are much
cheaper to use, and if you don't need color, you can get a B&W laser
for around $80.

And IME inkjets are totally unsuitable when there are long periods
between printing. Ink dries up, and the printer needs to go through a
cleaning cycle that wastes several pages worth of ink. An inkjet might
be cheap to buy but that's because the manufacturer profits from
overcharging you for the ink.

For occasional printing, get a laser.

I totally agree with the advice to use a laser, but wow, what a testament to
how far technology has come in a relatively short time. Laser printers used
to be exotic and expensive. Now they're in the running as a better
alternative to the supposedly cheap kid on the block, the inkjets.

--

Char Jackson

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:24:08 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 23:55:14 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:06:49 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

Why not just share the printer with her so she can print from it, too?

Because I don't know how to do that.

Window does not come with manuals, and even if it did, they probably would not
tell you how to share a printer attached to a Windows XP machi9ne with a
machine running Windows 8.

Well, there's this thing called the Internet. :-) But seriously, it should
be pretty straightforward.
1. Right-click on the printer and select Sharing... Follow the prompts.
2. On the other PC, you'll probably want to install a driver first, then
browse to the printer (you can browse to it now because it's shared), right
click on it and select Install... Follow the prompts. Print a test page to
be sure you're using the right driver.

If you do a search, you'll find more detailed instructions, sometimes with
screen shots, but the steps above are the basics and might be enough.

And when you want a map and directions to a place you are leaving for in 2
hours time, there probably isn't time to find out. That is why I asked if
anyone knew of a way of printing a .oxps file, which I had never heard of
before,

The biggest takeaway should be to print to PDF rather than XPS. There are
lots of PDF print drivers, but I've been using CutePDF (free) for what seems
like 15 years. It just works.


--

Char Jackson

On 12/9/2014 4:24 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 23:55:14 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:06:49 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

Why not just share the printer with her so she can print from it, too?

Because I don't know how to do that.

Window does not come with manuals, and even if it did, they probably would not
tell you how to share a printer attached to a Windows XP machi9ne with a
machine running Windows 8.

This is a real issue. Windows is good about sharing printer drivers.
Hook up an XP machine to one that has a printer and it automagically
downloads the driver from the one with the printer, if it doesn't
already have it. But Windows XP and 8 use different, incompatible
printer drivers. So to print between the two, you need to install the
Win 8 driver on that machine, and then try to make it talk to the XP
printer across the network. Sometimes it works.

And when you want a map and directions to a place you are leaving for in 2
hours time, there probably isn't time to find out. That is why I asked if
anyone knew of a way of printing a .oxps file, which I had never heard of
before,

Credit to Microsoft for making themselves look even more foolish than
usual. They took their own proprietary obscure XPS format, put it into
XP where nobody used it, then changed it to an incompatible one in Win
8, as if having two incompatible forms of XPS would make it the
PDF-killer that it will never be. Ah, Win 8, otherwise known as Windows
ME 2. Good reason to wait for 10.

And now I know that it can't be done, unless you are also running Windows 8.

Thanks to those who provided helpful information.

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:02:41 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:24:08 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 23:55:14 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:06:49 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

Why not just share the printer with her so she can print from it, too?

Because I don't know how to do that.

Window does not come with manuals, and even if it did, they probably would not
tell you how to share a printer attached to a Windows XP machi9ne with a
machine running Windows 8.

Well, there's this thing called the Internet. :-) But seriously, it should
be pretty straightforward.
1. Right-click on the printer and select Sharing... Follow the prompts.
2. On the other PC, you'll probably want to install a driver first, then
browse to the printer (you can browse to it now because it's shared), right
click on it and select Install... Follow the prompts. Print a test page to
be sure you're using the right driver.

If you do a search, you'll find more detailed instructions, sometimes with
screen shots, but the steps above are the basics and might be enough.

Will try.

Of course the printer driver might say it doesn't work on Windows 8. Some do.


And when you want a map and directions to a place you are leaving for in 2
hours time, there probably isn't time to find out. That is why I asked if
anyone knew of a way of printing a .oxps file, which I had never heard of
before,

The biggest takeaway should be to print to PDF rather than XPS. There are
lots of PDF print drivers, but I've been using CutePDF (free) for what seems
like 15 years. It just works.

That's probably the easiest thing. I have PDFactory, and it worked OK on a
Facebook page, which si quite complex, though it did split it into four pages
and cut some of the pictures in half.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:35:57 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:52:22 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:18:53 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sun, 7 Dec 2014 11:28:04 -0500, "Mayayana" wrote:

| Now we've been and gone and come back, and I think the next step is to
| discover how to make Windoes 8 default "print to file" use a more useful
| format like .pdf.
|

I'm curious how you got in that position in the
first place. Printing a webpage through IE, maybe?
If you're on a Google maps page you should be
able to just right click the map and save as JPG.
There's no reason to print a whole page.

Quite possibly.

My wife has the computer with Windows 8, and I've never touched it.

She just found the map of the place she wanted to go to, saved it as a file,
and asked me to print it.

That's *one* approach to printing on a different PC, but I wouldn't
expect it to work very well unless you were very lucky.

Taking things one step at a time, why didn't she print it herself?

Because the printer is connected to my computer, not hers.

It sounds as if this will be a recurring problem whenever she wants to
print something, and it's probably worth spending some time fixing it
properly.

Perhaps Santa could bring her a Personal Printer to go with her Personal
Computer.

Alternatively you could look at networking the things together. I think
that's what most people would do. What OS is your PC running? Is a
hard-wired connection practical? Is it a network-ready printer?

We have enough of a network connection that she can see my "Shared" directory
(where she put the file for me to print), but she can't see the printer and I
can't see her machine at all.

Have you shared the printer in Control Panel? (right-click: Printer
Properties: Sharing).

That was quite interesting.

I saw the Auto Microsoft XPS Document Writer on my son's computer. I suspect
that that is the guilty gadget that caused all the trouble.

And if it's a printer like any other, then it should be quite simple to
install a PDF printer on my wife's computer and make that the default.








--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:40:45 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:27:17 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:


We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


You might want to get a laser instead of an inkjet. They are much
cheaper to use, and if you don't need color, you can get a B&W laser
for around $80.

I have one. The ink is still expensive, because you have to buy a complete new
cartridge, with a new roller as well. It's almost cheaper to buy a new
printer.

Actually my wife does have a printer, an inkjet one, but it doesn't work with
her Windows 8 machine, and in any case we use it mostly for scanning.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:56:35 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:37:57 +0000, Mike Barnes
wrote:

Ken Blake wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:27:17 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:


We don't do a lot of printing -- ink is too expensive.


You might want to get a laser instead of an inkjet. They are much
cheaper to use, and if you don't need color, you can get a B&W laser
for around $80.

And IME inkjets are totally unsuitable when there are long periods
between printing. Ink dries up, and the printer needs to go through a
cleaning cycle that wastes several pages worth of ink. An inkjet might
be cheap to buy but that's because the manufacturer profits from
overcharging you for the ink.

For occasional printing, get a laser.

I totally agree with the advice to use a laser, but wow, what a testament to
how far technology has come in a relatively short time. Laser printers used
to be exotic and expensive. Now they're in the running as a better
alternative to the supposedly cheap kid on the block, the inkjets.

Yes, inkjet printers were introduced as the "cheap" alternative to laser
printers, but the ink costs just as much, and the price of laser printers has
come down to almost match them.

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk