A 'Do you need to print that' message

[vote-for-pedro]

Hi all.

I've noticed a lot of wasted paper near all my printers of late and although I don't enforce a printer credit system here I would like a message to pop up as a temporary measure to make them think a bit more about collecting their prints and not leaving them untill they are thrown away.

there a few bits of software around but how do i do it for free!

Cheers for the help

[vote-for-pedro]

I still cant seem to find a script to do this ? Anyone?

[garethedmondson]

I still cant seem to find a script to do this ? Anyone?

Although I've never used it, would AUTOIT do it? I need to look at this application as many people on here use it.

GJE

[plexer]

You could do it with autoit

WinWaitActive("Print")
MsgBox(0, "Stop and Think", "Do you really need to print that?")

Will wait for a window titled Print which is the standard windows one before popping up a message.

Needs to have a loop or something otherwise it will exit the first time after they click ok to the message.

Ben

[plexer]

Print Reminder:

while 1 = 1
WinWaitActive("Print")
MsgBox(0, "Stop and Think", "Do you really need to print that?" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Have you used print preview to make sure it looks correct?")
WinActivate("Stop and Think")
sleep(6000)
WEnd

I'm not sure if doing the wend loop is the best way of doing something no if splitting it into 2 programs is the only way to acheive this.

Ben

[plexer]

If you add:

Opt("TrayMenuMode",1)

To the top they don't get the pause or exit options from the tray icon.

Ben

[dhicks]

I've noticed a lot of wasted paper near all my printers of late and although I don't enforce a printer credit system here I would like a message to pop up as a temporary measure to make them think a bit more about collecting their prints and not leaving them untill they are thrown away.

Adding a pop-up will make no difference - people will simply click on "okay" without reading it, and within a few days will come to regard it as a perfectly normal part of having to print.

--
David Hicks

[nephilim]

printer credits are the way to go if you find waste usage. Set up a £5 limit per member of staff, and a cost of 8p per colour sheet and 5p per black and white sheet and tell them to reason out why they need more credits when its finished. The most anyone has ever used in a term was the bursar who used £15 print credits, otherwise they all tend to stick to the £5-£10 mark, which isnt bad for a term!!

the children have £20 to last all year and rarely go over.

[Freedom]

I know this is an old thread, but I have had the need to start monitoring print usage as it is just rediculous and a nice pop-up warnign people of this I think will help. We are using the free version of PaperCut to just monitor and report on what is being printed and where to name and shame.

The old code had a couple of problems where it would pop-up multiple times for the same print dialogue if they were slow at clicking onwards so this one waits for the print window to be closed. The problem with both the old and new code is it doe not work for office 2010 suite as they do not use the standard dialogue - any help on this would be appreciated. Anyway the new code is below:

#Region ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****
#AutoIt3Wrapper_icon=printer.ico
#AutoIt3Wrapper_outfile=PrintHelper.exe
#AutoIt3Wrapper_UseX64=n
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Comment=A little script to sit and run in the background of all logons to prevent excessive printing within school.
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Description=Prompts User if they Really Need to Print
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Fileversion=1.0.1.3
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_Fileversion_AutoIncrement=p
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_LegalCopyright=Alex 'Freedom' Haines
#AutoIt3Wrapper_Res_SaveSource=y
#EndRegion ;**** Directives created by AutoIt3Wrapper_GUI ****

; Original code taken straight from this source:
; http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/33367-do-you-need-print-message.html

; Do not allow the user to pause or exit the script.
Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1)

; Start the main loop.
Do

	; Wait until the print window is active.
	WinWaitActive("Print", "Ready")

	; Prompt the user to pay some attention to the need to print.
	MsgBox(0, "Stop and Think", "Do you really need to print that?" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Have you used print preview to make sure it looks correct?" & @CRLF & @CRLF & "Don't forget I am watching and monitoring and we will be naming and shaming abusers every month!")

	; Bring the pop-up window to the front.
	WinActivate("Stop and Think")

	; Wait until the print window is closed (to stop multiple pop-ups at the same time).
	WinWaitClose("Print", "Ready")

; End of the main loop.
; Exit the loop using 'ExitLoop' command.
Until False