.KEYWORD printboydlux
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Print on the run with PrintBoy Deluxe
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Have you ever found yourself wanting to print something directly from your Palm device, without having to use the Palm Desktop? It’s easier than you might think. Chris Phillips has a review of PrintBoy Deluxe, an application that allows you to print from your Palm device either by beaming information to an IR enabled printer or by using a special third-party serial cable.
.AUTHOR Chris Phillips
One of the frustrating things about using a Palm device is the lack of ways to share information with people who don’t have one of their own. I do almost everything with my Palm Vx, and after using a Palm device for three years, I have a considerable repository of information at my fingertips. Yet many times, the only way I can share it with other people is to make a copy of the information using a pen and paper.
PrintBoy Deluxe (at http://www.bachmannsoftware.com) is one of several programs on the market that attempt to compensate for this by enabling you to print directly from your Palm device. The preferred way to do this is to beam the information to an IR enabled printer, although PrintBoy Deluxe also supports serial printing using a special third-party cable.
.H1 Installation and use
You should refer to the documentation for installation. PrintBoy Deluxe requires you to install 17 files and won’t work properly if they’re not all there.
Once the program is installed, you’ll see that two icons, pictured in Figure A, have been added to your launcher.
.FIG A Two icons will be added to your launcher.
The first is BMP Config, which you’ll use to configure a printer driver for PrintBoy Deluxe to use. PrintBoy Deluxe supports many different kinds of printers, as shown in Figure B.
.FIG B PrintBoy Deluxe supports many different kinds of printers.
However, the only one I was able to test was the HP LaserJet series (at http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/prodserv.htm). You’ll want to run this program first so that you can configure your default printer. Again, if you have any questions about this process, you should refer to the documentation.
The second icon is the one for PrintBoy Deluxe. Tapping on this icon will bring up the main screen, pictured in Figure C, where you’ll be presented with a list of items that may be printed.
.FIG C On the main screen, you’ll be presented with a list of items that may be printed.
.H1 PrintBoy features
PrintBoy has a number of interesting and useful features, which are described in the following sections.
.H2 PrintBoy Spreadsheet
One of the more robust features of PrintBoy Deluxe is its ability to interface with QuickOffice (at http://www.cesinc.com/quickoffice/) to print QuickSheet spreadsheets. Options are available to allow you to choose whether you want portrait or landscape printing and whether or not you want gridlines. If your workbook has multiple sheets, you can also choose which sheets you want to print, as shown in Figure D.
.FIG D There are several options for printing a spreadsheet.
At this time, it appears QuickSheet is the only spreadsheet application supported.
.H2 PrintBoy Documents
PrintBoy Deluxe will print almost any document file used by such programs as QuickWord and WordSmith (at http://www.bluenomad.com/ws/prod_wordsmith_details.html). This utility won’t print Memo Pad files, however. PrintBoy Deluxe has another utility for this.
.H2 PrintBoy Note
PrintBoy Note is a nice little feature that basically shows you a blank notepad where you can jot down some information quickly, such as an address or a part number, and then immediately print it.
.FIG E Jot a quick note and then print it
.H2 PrintBoy Address
The PrintBoy Address function will allow you to select a single address from your address book and print all the information stored in that entry. At this time, you can only print addresses one at a time.
.H2 PrintBoy DateBook
The PrintBoy DateBook function will allow you to print information from your calendar. You can choose to print information for a specific day, week, or month, or you can define a range of dates to print.
.H2 PrintBoy To-Do
PrintBoy To-Do will allow you to print your To Do items by priority and due date.
.H2 PrintBoy Memo
PrintBoy Memo will allow you to print any file that can be read by the Memo Pad application that comes with the Palm OS. One really nice benefit of this is that you can print from almost any application, even if it’s not directly supported by PrintBoy Deluxe, as long as the application can export its data to a Memo Pad file.
.H2 PrintBoy Mail
PrintBoy Mail will allow you to print an entry from your Mail inbox.
.H2 PrintBoy Clipboard
Ok, you have an application that’s not supported by PrintBoy Deluxe. Your application also won’t allow you to export information to the Memo Pad. Don’t give up hope yet. If the application will allow you to copy information to the clipboard in the memory of the Palm device, then the Clipboard function in PrintBoy Deluxe will allow you to print it.
.H2 PrintBoy Scribble
Lastly, PrintBoy Scribble lets you create and print a freehand drawing, such as a simple map or diagram. Don’t look for any extras here, you won’t find them. It doesn’t support text entry, allow you to change the width or style of lines, or even erase a mistake. It’s pictured in Figure F.
.Fig F You can draw and print a quick map for a friend.
.H1 My experiences
I found PrintBoy Deluxe very easy to install, configure, and use. I did have some trouble the first time I tried to print, but that was because I had my default printer set to serial instead of IR (infrared). Once I had everything configured properly, I was able to print a wide variety of information. I was printing to an HP LaserJet 6P, so of course, the print quality was excellent. Obviously, the amount of time it took to print each document was directly related to the size of the document. Even so, I found most documents printed quickly.
I really like the way PrintBoy Deluxe formats the information being printed. At the top of each printout is a large and easy to read title that includes the name of the document being printed and the date it was printed. The spreadsheets took quite a while to print (10-15 seconds per page), but they looked very nice. The QuickWord documents I printed looked like they came from a desktop word processing program. The calendar printed in a very organized and easy to read format that included any notes that were attached to a specific appointment, which I especially liked.
I was kind of disappointed with the printed results of the PrintBoy/Scribble feature. The printed version of a drawing is the same size as the one on the screen, but because it’s surrounded by so much white space, the drawing looks much smaller when printed. It would be nice if you could choose to double, or even quadruple, the size of a drawing before you print it.
The thing I found most frustrating about using PrintBoy Deluxe was the lack of IR enabled printers. This isn’t a problem with PrintBoy Deluxe, but it does limit how functional the program is. In fact, out of 20 printers in my organization, I only found two that had IR ports. Next, I began looking at the printers connected to my friend’s home computers, and I noticed most of them didn’t have IR ports either. As I mentioned earlier, you can use a cable to connect the serial port on your Palm device to the printer, but the cable costs over $70. Also, who wants to carry a bulky cable everywhere? The other option is to purchase an IR device for your printer, but the cost for these devices is around $100.
Since my biggest complaint about PrintBoy Deluxe was the lack of IR enabled printers, I was very excited when, on April 17, 2001, Bachmann Software announced the introduction of their InfraReady Adapter, a portable and relatively inexpensive IR adapter that’ll allow you to use your Palm device to print to any printer. The adapter plugs into the parallel port on any printer and has a three-foot cable that leads to an IR transceiver that’s about the size of a thumbprint. The largest part is the piece that attaches to the printer, measuring about two inches wide, three inches long, and half an inch high. This size is required to house the nine volt battery that provides power to the IR eye. At $55.99 (plus shipping and handling), this new product is half as expensive as any other IR adapter, and it’s much more portable.
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.H1 The bottom line
Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of PrintBoy Deluxe. It was easy to use, and I was able to print everything I wanted to. The program appeared to be very stable, and I didn’t find any bugs.
The only things that would keep me from purchasing this program are the lack of IR enabled printers and the price of the program. PrintBoy Deluxe sells for $34.99, which seems like a lot of money considering you’ll probably also need to buy the IR adapter. If your home or office has a printer with an IR port and you want to do a lot of printing from your Palm device, this may be a good investment. I found I have very limited opportunities for using this program, and at that price, I’d like to be able to use it on the majority of printers I encounter.
PrintBoy Deluxe is available at http://www.bachmannsoftware.com. It’ll work on any Palm device with an infrared port running Palm OS 3.0 or later.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on PrintBoy Deluxe, visit http://www.bachmannsoftware.com/pbdeluxe.htm.
For more information on the HP LaserJet series, visit http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/prodserv.htm.
For more information on QuickOffice, visit http://www.cesinc.com/quickoffice/.
For more information on WordSmith, visit http://www.bluenomad.com/ws/prod_wordsmith_details.html.
For the article, "Print straight from your Palm device with PrintBoy," by Jen Edwards in the December 2000 issue of PalmPower, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200012/printboy001.html.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Chris Phillips is a Senior Project Manager for UMB Bank and a member of the Kansas City Palm Users Group at http://www.interpug.com/kcpug. Comments can be sent to chrisof4@hotmail.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6f3b8
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