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Mannesmann Tally

MTPRMAN

 MT5200 Spool Manager

MTPRMAN controls the queueing and printing of print jobs intended for the MT5200 printer. It serves as a replacement to Windows Print Manager with the additional facilities of priority queue management and and an API for external applications to gain access to the printer.

General

External API

Spooling Recovery

Menu Options

File

Pause

Resume

Delete

Special


General

General Overview

MTPRMAN is usually loaded automatically by the MT5200 printer driver when it wishes to print. From then on MTPRMAN will usually remain loaded until Windows terminates. Normally this will be as a background icon.

Print jobs are received from the MT5200 driver and queued, with an indicated priority, until printing is possible. Only print jobs directed through the LPTn or COMn ports are handled.

If the application window is opened then a display indicating the current printing and queue status is shown as:

Up to the last five jobs already printed.

The currently printing file (if any)

Any queued files waiting to print

If MTPRMAN is being shown minimised as an icon then a summary display of the file being printed (if any) is shown below the icon.

While MTPRMAN does not display specific printer errors it will alert the user of possible problems if the printer does not respond for more than 30 seconds.


External API

Unusually this spool manager provides a programming interface for external Windows appplications to request access to the printer at the first opportunity. If such a request is received then access will be granted as soon as the current print job has finished. There will be a display of <<EXTERNAL REQUEST>> shown when this occurs. The external application must inform MTPRMAN that it has released access before the queued printing continues.

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Spooling Recovery

In the event of a Windows system failure during printing, or a user exit from MTPRMAN before printing has finished, then any unprinted spool files are still capable of being printed.

In such a case then MTPRMAN will show a dialog box when it is first loaded. This will usually be when an attempt is made to print. The dialog box  will indicate the number of unprinted spool files it has detected and will present the options as follows .........

Print All 	All unprinted files found will be added to the printing queue.

Delete All	All unprinted spool files will be deleted.

Ignore	Do nothing, you will be presented with the same options the next time MTPRMAN loads.


File

File (menu)

This consists of the following options:

Help	Displays this help document.

About	Displays version and copyright info.

Exit	Closes MTPRMAN. Will ask for confirmation if there are current jobs to print.


Pause

This option allows the user to suspend printing. This can be done at any time, even if there is no current print.

The status of <PAUSED> is shown on the current print line. Print jobs will continue to be queued while paused.

The Pause option becomes greyed and inactive when printing is paused. The Resume option is activated.

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Resume

This option is used to resume printing after the user has selected Pause. This option will be greyed and inactive if printing is not paused.

When this is selected printing will continue and Pause will be activated and un-greyed.


Delete Highlighted Print Job

Delete

.This will delete the currently highlighted print job displayed. To highlight a job click on its name.

This will prompt the user for confirmation before continuing. If the job to delete is the current print job then the user is warned that the printer may have to be reset manually after deletion.


Special (menu)
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Special (menu)

The following options are recorded in a WIN.INI section, ie the settings made will be remembered.

Always on top	This will prevent the window or icon being obscured behind other windows.

Icon on startup	If this is set then the next load of MTPRMAN will be as a minimised icon.