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Folder Action: print item(s) added to folder
Authored by: gneagle on Nov 04, '04 01:07:29PM

Why wouldn't you just use a Desktop Printer for this? In the Printer Setup Utility, select a printer, and then choose Printers->Create Desktop Printer, or simply drag the icon of the printer to the desktop. You can then drag documents to the printer icon to print them.



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Folder Action: print item(s) added to folder
Authored by: Jon on Nov 04, '04 01:15:05PM

...or just drop it on the already existent desktop printer in ~/Library/Printers



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Accountability, perhaps
Authored by: sinjin on Nov 04, '04 01:33:08PM
I'm not exactly sure either but my guesses are the above script would be useful if 1. you don't want to launch all the applications associated with the files being printed (I believe the desktop printer will, lp won't) and 2. if part of the reasoning or workflow is to have accountability for the documents you've printed, i.e. a quick glance at the folder(s) with the documents in it/them tells you that you've already printed them so go look for the hard copy. Something like that.

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How I found this useful (from the script's author)
Authored by: pianoroy on Nov 04, '04 01:43:06PM

The reason I wrote this was because I have a network with my own computer (connected to a printer) and a wireless PC laptop. I have SAMBA running on my mac, but I haven't been able to get the printer settings right so the PC laptop can print through SAMBA.

So I made the Folder Action as a workaround, so the PC user can just drop a file into "MacComputer > Shared Items > PrintFolder" and it'll automatically print.

Of course, it only works with the CUPS-enabled file types (postscript, raw postcript, PDF, text, rtf, images, and a few others). So if the PC laptop user wants to print, say, a Word file, they have to print it to file (PDF or PostScript) and then drop it in the PrintFolder.



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