Changing default printing shortcuts

[tismanasas]

Hi Frank if you tried the steps I propose, you would see that it would actually SAVE the settings, and you would avoid the assumption that I didn't read the thread. anyway, the info is there, so anyone can feel free to make use of it, instead of waiting for HP to fix the issue in the next decade

[FrankThompson]

Ummm... yes, I did try the steps you suggested.  Did you try mine?

Unless you are using a different print driver, if you change from one shortcut to another, the settings revert back to the HP-supplied defaults.

Can you tell us what version of the print driver you are using?

[gillespe]

I'm an amateur ... but timanasas' workaround solved my problem. By using his backdoor to the print settings (through control panel) I was able to change the settings for the default print shortcut  'General Everyday Printing'  (to fast draft in this case). Using his/her approach you get the 'APPLY' button after making the changes .. which you don't get through regular 'print properties' or the HP solution center settings tab. I made the changes, closed all windows and confirmed that they were permanent via a file > print on an MSWord doc.

Skeptic that I am .. I doubt that HP will ever make it convenient to use less ink in future driver updates.

My system - WindowsXP, HP OJet4500, Print Driver Version 70.91.411.0

[FrankThompson]

gillespe,

I agree that it remembers the default setting for the default shortcut, but it hasn't saved the changes to the shortcut itself: you can confirm that by clicking on another shortcut and then back to "General Everyday Printing", even after clicking the "Apply" button.  If you ever wanted to use the "Fast/Economical Printing" shortcut, or the Two-sided (Duplex) printing" shortcut, you're stuck with the "Letter" paper size.

As mentioned before, the parameters for these shorcuts are NOT stored anywhere other than the hard-coded values in the driver program, and there's no way to delete the supplied shortcts: if you could at least hide them, that would be preferable, because you can set up your own versions.

Still waiting for that urgent upgrade HP promised...

[Tim_Moat]

Hello all,

I had been struggling with this issue and seem to have resolved it although I am still testing in a client/server environment to be 100%.

Firstly ensure you try this with local admin permissions on the workstation. We were seeing this in Windows XP SP3 so i've not tested in Windows 7.

It looks like the PRINTING SHORTCUTS pulls information from the machine based on its regional options . I.E. if your regional options are set to English (United States) it will assume LETTER as the default. This isnt a problem as you set A4 in the printing defaults. It only becomes a problem if you have a user that likes to use the PRINTING SHORTCUTS to change their printing method (our guys use the EcoSMART setting) as when you select it it changes to LETTER but also changes the default back to LETTER.

By ensuring your machine has a regional setting of an A4 'country', in my example English (united kingdom) or French (Belgium) this prevented the PRINTING SHORTCUTS from defaulting back to LETTER when toggling between them.

Weird issue...but the above seems to have resolved for me.