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If you want to print one of your Family Tree Deteective documents at a later time or print it using a plotter or printer owned by someone who doesn't have Family Tree Detective you can "print" a copy of the document into a computer file, and save that on diskette.

Creating the File

1. In Family Tree Detective, view the document you want to print.

2. From Family Tree Detective's File menu, select Print.

   Family Tree Detective displays the Print dialog box for the document in view.

   
   Figure 1: A Print dialog box

3. In the Print dialog box, select the Print to File check box, then make any other selections that you want. See Figure 1 above for an example.

   Important: If you intend to print the file on a printer other than your own, you will need to change the printer driver to the printer that you will be using to print your file. Take the following three steps:

   1. Click Setup.

      Family Tree Detective displays the Print Setup dialog box, shown in Figure 2.

       

   
   Figure 2: The Print Setup dialog box
   2. From the Print Setup dialog box, select Specific Printer.

      Click the down arrow in the Specific Printer field, and choose the correct printer driver from the drop-down list. If the printer you'll be using is not shown in the "Specific Printer" drop-down list, then you will need to install that printer's driver.

   3. After making your selections, click OK.

   Family Tree Detective displays the Print to File dialog box, shown below in Figure 3.

   
   Figure 3: The Print to File dialog box

4. In the Output File Name field, type a path, if needed, and a name for your file. The file should have the extension *.prn.

   In the example in Figure 3, the diskette is in drive A, so you would type A:\MYTREE.PRN.

5. After typing the file name, click OK.

   Family Tree Detective creates a file with exact instructions for your printer.

Printing the File

1. Turn your printer's power switch On and make sure it has a paper supply.

2. From a DOS prompt, change to the drive and directory that contain the file you created in step 4.

3. Once you are in the correct directory, type

   copy /b <filename> <printer port>

   and then press Enter. For example, if we were printing a file named TREE1.PRN to a printer attached to port LPT1, we would type

   copy /b mytree.prn lpt1:

   The document should begin to print.