INSTALLING WINDOWS PRINTER DRIVERS

IMPORTANT NOTE: This document will help you install the Windows printer drivers. Once they are installed, please refer to the on-line help file that came with your driver pack for answers to all of the most commonly asked questions regarding our Windows Printer Drivers. The help file also includes a thorough Trouble-Shooting section.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quick Start................................................. Section 1

Step-by-Step Instructions........................... Section 2

Step-by-Step Instructions (Cont.)............... Section 3

Possible Errors During Installation............... Section 4

If You Have Difficulty Printing..................... Section 5

SECTION 1: QUICK START

If you are reasonably proficient with Windows, the following section should be all you need to install the Windows printer drivers. If you need more detailed instructions, then please start reading at section two.

WINDOWS 9X, NT 4.0, AND 2000 USERS

Install your drivers using the Add Printer wizard. When asked which printer to install, press Have Disk. When asked where to install from, enter the path to where the drivers are located. If you are installing from floppies or CD, the path will be the root directory of that drive. If you downloaded the driver from the web, the path will be whatever was specified when the files were extracted.

WINDOWS 3.1 USERS

Install your drivers from the Printers icon of the Windows Control Panel. When asked which printer to install, select the "Install Unlisted" printer option and then enter the path to where the drivers are located. If you are installing from floppies, the path will be "A:\". If you are installing from a CD, the path will be the "\Drivers" directory of your CD-ROM drive. If you downloaded the driver from the web, the path will be whatever was specified when the files were extracted.

If you were successful, then you are done. If you encountered problems, then please continue reading section two.

SECTION 2: STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

This section has instruction on how to extract files downloaded from our web page. If your drivers came on CD or diskette, skip to section three below.

Downloaded Seagull drivers consist of a single "self-extracting EXE" program file containing compressed versions of the various printer driver files. Your first step is to "run" this program file, which will extract the various driver components to a disk drive and directory of your choosing. This is done as follows:

1. Download the EXE file into a directory on your hard drive.

2. Run the downloaded EXE file as follows:

Windows 9X, NT 4.0, and 2000 Users:

Use your Windows Explorer to view the directory into which you downloaded your EXE file. Next, double-click on the EXE file to run it. (Alternatively, you can use the Start, Run option and explicitly type in the name of the EXE file you wish to run.)

Windows 3.1 Users:

Use your Windows Program Manager to view the directory into which you downloaded your EXE file. Next, double-click on the EXE file to run it. (Alternatively, in the Program Manager, you can select the File pull-down menu and the Run option. Then explicitly type in the name of the EXE file you wish to run.)

3. You will be prompted for a disk drive letter and directory into which your extracted printer driver files will be copied. You can use the default, or specify your own. (As you will need to know this information later, be sure to make a mental or written note of what path you used, especially if you changed it.)

SECTION 3: STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS (CONTINUED)

This section applies regardless of whether you downloaded your drivers from our web page OR received them on CD or diskette.

For Windows 9X, NT 4.0, and 2000:

1. Launch the Windows Add Printer Wizard in the normal manner:

a. Click on the Start button

b. Select the Settings option

c. Select the Printers option

d. In the dialog that comes up, double-click on Add Printer

2. One of the first few dialogs will contain a "Have Disk" button, which you should push.

3. When prompted, enter the disk drive and directory path to your printer driver files:

If your drivers came on CD and your CD drive letter is "D:" type in:

D:\ (Substitute the appropriate alternate drive letter for the "D" if your CD drive is mapped to a different letter.)

If your drivers came on diskette, type in:

A:\ (Or B:\ if you use floppy drive B.)

Otherwise, if you downloaded your drivers from our web page, type in the path to the directory into which you extracted your driver files. Unless you changed this setting away from its default, it should be:

C:\Seagull\

4. Continue with the normal operation of the Add Printer Wizard, except for the Test Page procedure.

Select "No" when asked if you want to print a test page. (Since the Windows test page procedure assumes you have a laser, ink-jet, or dot-matrix printer that can print out a full page, it is very unlikely that you will be able to properly print it to your thermal label printer.)

For Windows 3.1:

If you received your drivers on diskette (rather than downloading them), place your diskette in floppy drive "A" (or "B," if appropriate).

Whether you downloaded your drivers OR received them on diskette, continue as follows:

1. From within the Windows Program Manager, select the "Main" group and bring up the Control Panel.

2. Double-click on the Printers icon.

3. Select the "Add" button.

4. Highlight the "Install Unlisted" printer option and click on the Install button.

5. In the "Install Driver" window that pops up, enter the disk drive and directory path to your printer driver files:

If your drivers came on CD and your CD drive letter is "D:" type in:

D:\Drivers

(Substitute the appropriate alternate drive letter for the "D" if your CD drive is mapped to a different letter.)

If your drivers came on diskette, type in:

A:\

(Or B:\ if you use floppy drive B.)

Otherwise, if you downloaded your drivers from our web page, you will type in the path to the directory into which you extracted your driver files. Unless you changed this setting away from its default, it should be:

C:\SEAGULL\Win31\<driver family name>\

(Where <driver family name> is usually just the brand name of your printer.)

6. Complete the printer driver installation as you normally would.

SECTION 4: POSSIBLE ERRORS DURING DRIVER INSTALLATION

If, during the printer driver installation, you got any error messages about a file or driver already being in use, this section will help you.

Some Windows programs keep files open that the driver installation option (the "Add" button or icon) in the Windows Control Panel needs to access during the installation of new drivers.

Close All Open Windows Programs

Any Windows program that is not first closed can possibly result in an unsuccessful installation of the driver, accompanied by a message about a printer driver or other file being "already in use."

Restart Windows

If you don't close all running Windows programs until after you have gotten an error message, you may continue to get that error message until you have exited from and restarted Windows.

In order to ensure that the driver installation procedure does not encounter a file or driver "already in use" error, after you restart Windows you must still close any programs that were launched automatically.

The Microsoft Office "Short-Cut" Bar

Since the Microsoft Office toolbar (or "Short-Cut Bar") is itself a Windows program, it should also be closed before performing the printer driver installation. Sometimes, especially with Windows 3.1, you may need to temporarily disable the MS-Office toolbar and restart Windows in order to avoid an error message. The easiest way to do this is to temporarily remove the MS-Office icon from your Startup group or folder and place it into another group or folder. Once Windows has been restarted, and the driver installation is complete, you can put the toolbar back into your Startup group and run all your programs as you have in the past.

(Although it is not typical, some people have their short-cut bar launched by a RUN command in their WIN.INI file, rather than through an icon in the Startup group. In this case, you will need to find the line RUN MSOFFICE.EXE near the beginning of the WIN.INI file (located in your Windows directory) and place a semi-colon in front of it before you restart your computer. After installing your driver(s), you can remove the semi-colon in order to start using your short-cut bar again.)

Use Your Other Programs Normally After Installation

As the above-mentioned conflicts are only a potential problem at install-time, after the desired drivers have been installed, you will once again be able to use as many Windows programs as you like. (Because the install-time conflict is inherent to Windows, and not a fixable "bug" in the driver, the preceding measures are the only available solution.)

SECTION 5: IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY PRINTING

The help file accessible from within your printer driver includes a "Trouble-Shooting" section, which contains a sub-section called "Trouble-Shooting Printing Problems." This section lists critical settings to check and a number of printing tests that will usually get you up and running quickly if you encounter difficulties.