HP 832 Printer assistance please

[crank33]

I'm helping a friend set up a new computer with WinXP. He has an HP 832 printer and must depend on the driver built in to XP because HP does not offer an updated driver for XP. He prints a lot of documents and relies heavily on the ability of the 832 to "print like a book" (print both sides of the pages at one time). The XP driver will not let him do this and HP does not offer an updated driver for XP. I've examined all the printing options offered in the XP driver software and see no way to "print like a book" so wants to buy a new HP printer. Can you recommend a good, inexpensive HP printer that will do a good job for him and has the option to print even and odd pages at the same time "like printing a book"? If there is a way to do this with the 832, please tell me how to do it. Thanks for the help. Crank

[PMich]

I think the HP 5150 is the least expensive HP that is new that will duplex. Don't know much about it for quality, though. The 6122 was a reasonably priced printer that could duplex, used the old style ink cartridges, and was pretty good for quality. Maybe you can find one lingering around somewhere.

[crank33]

Thanks, PMich. In reading my initial post, I'm afraid that I didn't word the question correctly. I said that the printer could print the odd and even pages at the same time. Thats not correct. The software gave him the option of printing "like a book" but then would print all the even pages, then he would put the pages back in the printer and print the odd pages. The driver in XP does not give him that capability. He wants another printer that will offer the option to print first the odd, then the even (or visa-versa) pages making the end product like a book. Difficult to explain. Is that what you call "duplex" printing? He could do that with his 832 in Win98 but can't do it with the driver furnished by WinXP. Crank

[PMich]

Let me get this straight, are you saying that he cannot print the odd number pages only and then the even ones only. I honestly don't know if that is a driver issue or a software issue. What program(s) is he printing from?

Duplex printing is where the printer prints both sides automatically without having to print the odds then print the evens manually. A real nice thing to have if you do a lot of printing on both sides of the page.

[crank33]

Sorry PMich, I'm not very good at explaining this particular situation. When I was watching this fellow print a pile of stuff one day, I noticed when the Print Prefs box opened up, he clicked the option to print like a book. When I asked him what that meant, he said that the printer would automatically print all the even numbered pages, then he would insert the pages in the printer again and it would print all the odd numbered pages. The finished product would be like reading a book with each page printed on both sides. I don't know what program he was printing from but he was using his HP 832 and Win98. Now that he has switched to WinXP he no longer has that option in the print preferences window so it makes it more difficult to print both sides of each page and keep things straight. The software that came with the printer is not compatible with XP so he now has to rely on the driver supplied by XP which supplies only the basic printing capabilities. Printing like a book is not one of them. I guess what he needs is, like you said, a duplex printer. My old HP722 never did have the option to print like a book (if it did, I didn't notice it), so I'm not sure what I'm talking about. Thanks for your patience. Crank

[PMich]

I think I understand all that you have said. This is still possible to do with his current situation but it is a more manual process. He just has to print the odds and evens in separate print jobs. He should be able to specify printing only odd or even pages in a single print job, place the paper in the correct order and orientation back into the tray and print the odd or evens in a second print job to give him the same result. He will have to go through the File---->Print menu twice but it will give the desired result.


If for some reason he cannot print just odds or just evens, he should still be able to specify particular pages to print and include just the odds or just the evens on the first print job and the other on the second print job.

[crank33]

OK PMich, thanks. Crank