From the course: Computer Literacy for Mac (2018)

Setting up a printer - Mac OS Tutorial

From the course: Computer Literacy for Mac (2018)

Setting up a printer

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- [Instructor] One of the most common types or peripherals you'll probably need to use with your Mac is a printer. You can print to printers connected directly to your Mac's USB port, to printers connected to other Macs on your network, or even to standalone network printers, which connect directly to your network without needing to be tethered to a computer. And setting up a printer with the latest version of the Mac operating system couldn't be much easier. Let's take a look at the process, starting with printing to a printer connected directly to your Mac. When you connect your printer to your Mac you'll most likely use a USB cable, as that's the most common type of connection. It's also possible your printer connects via an ethernet cable. So first determine which cable you need and then connect your Mac and printer to each other. As I've been mentioning throughout this chapter, if you're using a newer MacBook model that only has USB-C ports, you'll need to purchase a USB-C to USB-A adapter, which you can purchase through Apple. Once your printer's connected, turn it on. Forget about any installation discs that came with the printer. The software on those discs is probably already outdated anyway. Next, open a document you'd like to print, then choose File, Print. That opens up a dialog box, and in the menu next to Printer, you should see your printer's name. If you have multiple printers, you can select the one you want to use. The Mac operating system automatically recognizes printers connected to your Mac via USB, ethernet, FireWire, Bluetooth, or even on your network in most cases. Just select the one you want to use and to print your document, click Print. We'll talk about some of the common printing options you'll find in an upcoming movie. And now when I click this, you can see that it shows me my printer in my dock. If I select it, I can check the status of the print job. Once the print is done, it disappears from the printer window so I can go ahead and close this now. It really doesn't get much simpler than that. And if you have a printer from a well known manufacturer, that's probably the extent of what you'll have to do to print your files. Now, if your printer did not show up in the printer list, you'll have to add it manually. Click the Apple menu at the upper left-hand corner of your screen and open up System Preferences, then click Printers & Scanners. Here, click the plus button to open up the add window. Your Mac will perform a scan and try to detect your printer. If you see its name appear here in this list, select it and then click Add. But in this case, this is already the printer I'm printing to, so I don't need to do that. I'll close System Preferences. But once you've added a printer, the next time you choose to print, you'll see the printer name appear in the printer list. Now, on the slim chance that you still weren't able to see your printer, and if you're a novice at setting up computer hardware, you might want to call in help for this next step. First, you'll want to go back to System Preferences and open up Printers & Scanners again, and click the plus button again. If your printer is on your office network but not showing up, you can try selecting the IP button. But you need to know the protocol or language being spoken by the printer. So again, this might require you to ask your company's tech support for some help. There's also an option to select Windows if you have a Windows-only printer that you're trying to print to. But again, you'll need to know specific information about your network that's a little too complicated to get into here. Still, the chances that you'll have to do any of these things are pretty slim. More likely, your Mac will recognize your printer the first time you go to print and you won't have to bother with any other steps in the installation process.

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