You experience a long delay when you try to select a printer in the Print dialog box in an Office program (318173)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
  • Microsoft Office XP
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Professoinal
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Standard
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
  • Microsoft Access 2000
  • Microsoft Excel 2000
  • Microsoft FrontPage 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
  • Microsoft Word 2000
This article was previously published under Q318173

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to select a network printer in the Print dialog box in a Microsoft Office program, you may notice a delay before the list of available printers is displayed.

You do not experience this delay when you select a network printer in a non-Microsoft program.

NOTE: You may also experience this delay when you attempt to select a network printer in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or Internet Explorer 6.0.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because Office programs query each network printer to determine whether the printer is online, as well as for specific information about the particular printer -- for example, what driver it uses and what fonts are available. Because of this extra network traffic, you may experience a delay before the printer is displayed in the printers list.

Many third-party programs do not perform this additional work, but only display the list of printers that are present in the Printers folder.

RESOLUTION

To work around this issue and minimize this delay, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Capture the Printer Port

If you have only a few network printers, you can map a network printer to a local port in a batch file or a logon script. This causes the printer list to be displayed immediately.
  • In a Novell network, use the Capture statement, as in the following example:

    Capture Q=queue name L=LPT number 1-9

  • In a Microsoft network, use the Net use statement, as in the following example:

    Net use LPT number 1-9\\server_name\printer_share

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

262032 How to Add LPT Ports in Windows 2000

154498 How to Print to Network Printer from MS-DOS-Based Programs

314499 How to print to a network printer from an MS-DOS-based program in Windows XP

Method 2: Change Print Provider Order

If the client computers are part of a Novell network, you can change the print provider order to increase the speed of the display of the available network printers. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Network and Dial-up Connections.
  3. On the Advanced menu, click Advanced Settings.
  4. Click the Provider Order tab.
  5. In the Network providers list, click NetWare Print Services.
  6. Click the up-arrow button to move NetWare Print Services to the top of the Print Providers tree.
  7. Click OK, and then close the Network and Dial-up Connections window.

MORE INFORMATION

The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/13/2006
Keywords:kbtshoot kbprb KB318173
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