Day 4 - A few issues left. Downloads and select print

meagain, does the text you're printing have definite starting and ending tags, or is it random?

A Google search for "OS X Mail print script" might turn something up. There are people who have written scripts and plugins for Mail. I didn't get far with that search because I'm not that curious.

Jamo - I like the concept of what you're saying, but it doesn't work for me. When I drag the text into the desktop then 'print' - nothing prints. Do you know how I can tell it to print? My printer is working fine, but just can't print as you can doing this method.

xstep - I made the script, but I don't see any applescript wavy type (or any) icon anywhere. What do you suppose I did wrong? This would be nice if it worked.

meagain said:

xstep - I made the script, but I don't see any applescript wavy type (or any) icon anywhere. What do you suppose I did wrong? This would be nice if it worked.

Click to expand...

Did you do this first part I mentioned? "First start the AppleScript Utility in the /Applications/AppleScript folder. Set the check mark on the "Show Script Menu in menu bar" option and close the application." You should instantly see the result.

Wow - It works very well! Nice. It prints in a bit of a funky font, but it sure works. Question, is it possible to put such a command/script in icon form for a one-click option in the dock or something? That would be off the hook!

meagain said:

Question, is it possible to put such a command/script in icon form for a one-click option in the dock or something? That would be off the hook!

Click to expand...

In Script Editor perform a Save As and save it as File Format; application. Uncheck the Startup Screen selection if you do not want to confirm that you want to run the script.

Since my printer isn't giving output, I can't speak to the funky font issue.

This is the way I do it

First select text

Then select services



Finally print No fuss and it's quicker than windows



It works in mail too

IDK - Hitting the squiggly icon in the upper right bar with the mouse then selecting print, seems alot easier. No new windows popping up, etc. I like. I want to try to make one for everything Safari/Firefox though.. not just mail.

i dont have the print service under services in safari, or opera.

christm said:

i dont have the print service under services in safari, or opera.

Click to expand...

Ditto on this end. Latest Tiger, all updates installed.

Kilted1 said:

This is the way I do it

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Here is the link for the Print Selection service. It seems to be a freebie.

Notice it has a quick keyboard shortcut.

xstep said:

Here is the link for the Print Selection service. It seems to be a freebie.

Notice it has a quick keyboard shortcut.

Click to expand...

Good find. Apple should put that in the OS stock. Works great.

dtravis7 said:

Good find. Apple should put that in the OS stock. Works great.

Click to expand...

Lets hope they address the problem anyway. Being new to Mac I thought I installed this software wrong however it works for me . I didn't really know what I did to make it work but it does.

Last night i was on my gaming PC. Went into Firefox and tried right clicking with text highlighted and no print command. Works with IE but I will never use IE on a windows PC again. Tried Opera and no Print under right click either.

Firefox in OSX does not let you use the print selection service but Opera does. I wish everyone would make their software use all the OS's features.

xstep - I absolutely love that little program. Works swimmingly. Would you or anyone know of how one can change the font in it? It's a bit cartoonish and hard to read. IDK - Maybe it's just the default and can't be changed. Works great though!

I don't know how to change the font the lpr command uses. I'm sure there may be a way because our Unix admins do it for our HP printers. This may not apply to all printers. By the way, I liked the font I saw.

As for a font solution, I came up with two scripts to do the job. They do however use applications which means you'll have a blink on the screen as the applications display the document I'm using.

Download the attached files. The first file named pmsp.txt uses Preview. The second file uses TextEdit, allowing font and font size to be preset. You shold be able to open Script Editor (as previously done) and paste each one into it's own script name. I named my scripts 'Print Mail Selection via Preview' and 'Print Mail Selection via TextEdit' respectively.

These scripts leave you in the application that gets called. To return to mail, duplicated (cut & paste) the first tell block to the bottom of the code. A small excercise for you.

View attachment pmsp.txt

View attachment pmste.txt

Put TextEdit icon in the Dock. Select text in Safari, click and drag to the TextEdit icon, then print.