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Specify a Default Printer

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After printers have been set up in Business Central, you can then specify which printer you want to use by default. There are a couple of ways to specify printers to be used by default for reports and other print jobs. A default printer is useful if you work with different reports that require different printers because of their placement in the company or their output capabilities.

Important

The only printers that you can specify as default are Microsoft Print to PDF and cloud printers that have already been set up for use in Business Central, like Email printers and Universal Print printers. Cloud printers are typically set up by an admin. For more information, see Printer Setup and Management.

Set a printer as a default printer for all print jobs

Through the Printer Management page you set up a printer as a default printer for all print jobs. You can specify the printer as default for you only or for all users.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Printer Management, then select the related link.

    Tip

    You can also open the Printer Management page from the Printer Selections page by choosing Printer Management.

  2. On the Printer Management page, select a printer from the list, choose Manage, then choose Set as my default printer or Set as default printer for all users.

Note

Setting a default printer from the Printer Management adds an entry in the Printer Selections.

Set a default printer for specific reports

The Printer Selections page lets you specify the printer a report will use by default. Default printers are set on a user-account basis. You can set a default printer for just yourself, another user, or all users.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Printer Selections, then select the related link. Alternatively, select a printer on the Printer Management page, then choose the Printer Selections action.
  2. Choose the New action to add a printer selection for a specific report.
  3. Fill in the fields as necessary.

The specified report is now set up to print to the selected printer by default.

Note

When you print the report in question, you can select a different using the Print field on the report request page.

Note

If you do not set a report up for a specific printer on the Printer Selections page, then it is printed to the default printer of the company, as defined on the Printer Management page.

You or the administrator can also use the Printer Selections page to define other variations of printing for users and reports. The following table describes the combination of values to specify different printing setups for a report.

To Set the following values
Print a report to a specific printer for all users Specify values in the Report ID and Printer Name fields and leave the User ID field blank.
Print all reports to a specific printer for a specific user Specify values in the User ID and Printer Name fields and leave the Report ID field blank. This entry does the same as the Set as my default printer action on the Print Management page.
Set the default printer for all reports for all users Specify a value in the Printer Name field and leave the User ID and Report ID fields blank. This entry does the same as the Set as default printer for all users action on the Print Management page.
Print a specific report to the user's default printer Specify a value in the Report ID field and leave the Printer Name and User ID fields blank.
Print a specific report to a specific printer for a specific user Specify values in all three fields.

Note

More specific printer selections take precedence over more general printer selections. For example, a printer selection that has values in the User ID, Report ID, and Printer Name fields takes precedence over a printer selection that has blank entries in the User ID or Report ID fields.

Choosing the printer when running a report

Instead of using the default printer when running a report, you can override this setting from the request page. Simply choose the printer you want to use for this report generation in the Printer dropdown menu.

Sizing print jobs

Cloud printing is designed for documents of a reasonable size. Most cloud services, including PrintNode and HP ePrint, have a limit of 10 MB per job. If you need to print larger reports, you may have to split them in multiple printouts.

See also

Printer Management
Set Up Universal Print Printers
Set Up Email Printers
Printing a Report
Work with Business Central
Run Batch Jobs
Send Documents by Email

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