Printing a Document with Laserfiche Snapshot

Laserfiche Snapshot can process any Windows application file that can be printed. During the printing process, Snapshot may prompt you to verify the settings assigned to the Laserfiche document that will be created. After verifying these settings, a document containing the images and/or text files generated from the Windows file will be created in the specified Laserfiche folder.

Note: If you plan on using Snapshot frequently, consider making it your default printer. If another printer was not present when Snapshot was installed, it is already set as your default printer.

Note: Snapshot will not generate text for files that do not already contain text, such as a photograph of a page in a document. For more information on configuring these settings, see the Configuring Default Printer Settings and Configuring Default Document Settings topics in the Administration Console help files. To generate text from images, see Laserfiche Quick Fields.

To print documents using Laserfiche Snapshot

1. Open the desired file in a Windows application with the ability to print.
2. From the File drop-down menu, select Print.
3. Make sure to select the Laserfiche Snapshot printer name.
4. To configure printer settings (e.g., paper size, resolution, orientation, color depth, file format, etc.), click Preferences or Properties or Printer Properties, make the desired changes, and click OK.
5. Click OK or Print to send the document to Snapshot.
6. If Snapshot is configured to prompt you for document properties, the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box will appear, allowing you to configure where to store the Snapshot images and what Laserfiche metadata you want to assign to the document. Use the General tab to configure where to store the Snapshot images.
   • If you want to send the document to your Laserfiche repository, use the Folder option to specify where to save the document in your repository.
   • If you want to store the generated images on your computer, select the Export to directory checkbox and specify a folder on your computer. Snapshot will generate a TIFF of your document, an XML import list file, and if applicable, text and location information. You can use a custom Laserfiche SDK script to read the XML import list file and import the images, metadata, and text information in to a Laserfiche repository.
7. At the bottom of the dialog box, click Preview to get a sneak peek at the generated image for each page. Click OK to complete the print process.

Items to note

• The storage location cannot be blank. You must specify where you want the files stored before importing.
• If the assigned template contains a required field, that field must be filled in to save the document to the repository.
• Network printer: when printing from the network, the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box will not appear; administrator-defined Laserfiche settings will be applied to printed documents.
• Terminal server: if you are printing with the terminal server version of Snapshot, it will behave like any other printer. If other print jobs are being processed, you will not be able to configure document settings through the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box until they are finished.
• Clicking Cancel from the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box will cancel the entire print job. A Laserfiche document will not be created, and the files generated by Snapshot for that print job will be deleted.

Printing Multiple Documents

Laserfiche Snapshot is typically used to print the file that is currently open in a Windows application. However, Snapshot can also print multiple files that are selected in a file management application, such as Windows Explorer (to print from Windows Explorer, Snapshot must be the default printer).

Note: Certain types of files must be printed one at time from their native Windows application. To check if a file can be printed from a file management application, right-click it and look for a Print command. This capability is provided by the file’s native application.

Note: If you are performing an unattended batch print job of many documents, you may want to enabled batch processing mode in Snapshot.

To simultaneously print multiple documents using Laserfiche Snapshot

1. Make sure Laserfiche Snapshot is the default printer.
2. Open a file management application (such as Windows Explorer).
3. Select the desired files.
4. Right-click the desired documents, and select Print.
5. The Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box, which displays the properties assigned to that document, may appear after each document is printed, displaying the current user's default settings for how image and text files are generated. Make any changes, and click OK. If the assigned template contains a required field, that field must be filled in to save the document to the repository.

Note: Users that print from a remote computer are not allowed to change the settings assigned to Laserfiche documents or the manner in which an existing document is handled. These settings are defined by an administrator from the Laserfiche Snapshot Shared Printer Configuration dialog box.

Note: Snapshot displays up to two simultaneous instances of the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box. When you print more than two documents simultaneously, subsequent instances of the dialog box will open as you finish assigning properties to the current documents.

Printing to an Existing Laserfiche Document

Before a Laserfiche document can be created by printing a file with Laserfiche Snapshot, a name and storage location must be assigned to it. If the specified folder already contains a document with the same name, you can print to that document instead of creating a new one. This is handled differently depending on if you are using a local (including terminal server) printer or a network printer.

Note: To indicate you want to print to the currently opened Laserfiche imaged document, set the Document name option to the Current Document token, which automatically assigns the Current Folder token to the Folder option. Whether your print job will be stored in the current Laserfiche document depends on your current document handling configuration. Snapshot does not automatically change the document handling option for you.

Local Printing (Local and Terminal Server Printer)

If Snapshot is configured to prompt for document settings when printing, you can choose from a number of options on the Document Handling tab of the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box.

• Select the Create a new document option to create a new document if Snapshot finds an existing document with the same name.
• Select the Insert new pages option to append, prepend, or insert pages into an existing document.
• Select the Replace existing pages option to overwrite pages in an existing document.
• If you are inserting or replacing pages, you will be prompted to decide if you want to merge the properties of the existing document with those currently set in the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box.
  • If you merge settings and a conflict occurs, the existing document's settings will take precedence, and you can change them after they are merged. Independent fields and multi-value fields added in this configuration (not currently assigned to the existing entry) will be added to the entry.
  • If you don't merge settings, the configuration set in the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box will take precedence.

If Snapshot is configured to use default properties when printing, you will not be prompted to choose how the documents are handled.

• If Snapshot is configured to insert or replace pages, the properties of the existing document will be merged with the default properties configured from the Laserfiche Snapshot Configuration (Current User) dialog box. If the same setting is configured to two different values, the existing document's settings will take precedence.

Remote Printing (Network Printer)

Users that print from a remote computer are not allowed to change the settings assigned to Laserfiche documents or the manner in which an existing document is handled. These settings are defined by an administrator from the Laserfiche Snapshot Shared Printer Configuration dialog box.

• If a document with the same name already exists and Snapshot has not been configured to create a new document, the existing document's settings will be merged with the settings configured from Snapshot. If these settings conflict, the existing document's settings will be used.

Printing Color Content in Monochrome

Laserfiche Snapshot allows you to determine whether the images generated for a print job will be in color, grayscale, or monochrome. Laserfiche Snapshot also provides a variety of filters that can be used when converting color content to monochrome. These filters determine how monochrome versions of color content are interpreted.

Note: The Disable Photo Quality option specifies that a filter should not be used. If you do not use a filter when converting images from color to black and white, your result will yield solid black blocks instead of black and white images.

Tip: Although Stucki is the slowest filter, it produces the highest quality conversion. If you are more concerned with speed than quality, use the Floyd-Steinberg filter.

To print color content in black and white

1. Open the desired file in the appropriate Windows application.
2. From the File menu, select Print.
3. Check to make sure that Laserfiche Snapshot is selected in the Print dialog box.
4. Depending on the program, click Preferences or Properties or Printer Properties. The Printing Preferences or the Laserfiche Snapshot Properties dialog box will appear.
5. Click the File Formats tab.
6. Under Color Depth, make sure Monochrome is selected.
7. Under Photo Quality, select the desired filter. If unsure which filter to select, select Stucki.
8. Click OK.
9. Click Print or OK to print a black and white version of the currently open file.
10. After the document has printed, the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box may appear, displaying the Laserfiche properties assigned to the document that will be created. Make changes, if any, and click OK.

Canceling a Print Job

A print job or command can be canceled at any time.

• Before it starts: Click Cancel from the Print dialog box.
• Before Laserfiche document created: Click Cancel from the Laserfiche Snapshot dialog box.
• While in process: Cancel from the print queue. Note that this will leave already-generated image and text files on the computer hosting Snapshot.

Note: Canceling a Snapshot print job will prevent the document from being imported into a Laserfiche repository.