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Apple posts ‘Pro’ tips for Mac OS X Desktop Printer and Finder Sidebar Printing

Apple has been posting some nice little tips regarding printing with Mac OS X Panther on the "Pro" section of their website based on tips found in Scott Kelby’s recent book, "Mac OS X Panther Killer Tips." Recently, Apple covered how to print from the Desktop (without a Desktop printer).

If you don't want a Desktop Printer icon cluttering up your desktop, but you still want to print files from the desktop, or a Finder window, then you can Control-click (Right-click if you're a multi-button mouse user) on the file you want to print to bring up a contextual menu. Go under Open With, and choose "Printer Setup Utility" from the list. Just choose it, and it will either start printing or take you directly to the default application’s Print dialog. (If "Printer Setup Utility" doesn’t show up in the list, you’ll have to click on "Other," then use a standard Open dialog to navigate to the Printer Setup Utility — it’s inside the Applications folder, within the Utilities folder.)

What's a Desktop Printer, you ask? Go under the Apple menu, under System Preferences, and choose Print & Fax. Click on the Printing button, then click the Set Up Printers button. Your printer will appear in the Printer List dialog. Click on it, then go up under the Printers menu (in the menu bar) and choose Create Desktop Printer. A standard Open/Save dialog will appear asking you where you want to save it, so save it to your Desktop. Now, to print a document, just drag-and-drop it on this icon. Some documents, such as TextEdit files and PDFs, will go straight to the printer. Other files will launch their default application and open the Print dialog.

The most recent tip regarding printing that's been posted involves Sidebar Printing: Once you create a Desktop Printer, you can really make things convenient by clicking once to select the Desktop Printer and pressing Command-T (Apple-T), which adds this Desktop Printer to your Finder windows' Sidebar. Now you can drag-and-drop from your current window right onto the printer in the Finder windows' Sidebar.

There are more great tips available and new Scott Kelby Mac OS X tips are posted every Wednesday on the Apple Pro site located here.