Tech Forum

Two versions ago, we decided to always do clean installs to
avoid problems caused by receiving MLS version updates via modem.

Continuing in this defensive manner, we've recently added
a UPS to make sure we can finish a financial batch and transmit
before having to hibernate, due to loss of local electric power.

In case power just goes out and then quickly returns, we're also protected from loosing all Sunday financial processing.

There's a problem we now anticipate with printing any
financial reports during such an electrical power outage.
Laser Printers draw a lot of power and are not to be
plugged into battery backup side of UPS.

Our copy of CutePDF has been removed from our system.
Why? I don't know. It's just not there any more.

I tested using Windows print option "print to file".
It created a filename with suffix, DOT PM (filename.pm)

There doesn't seem to be any application on our system
which can print such a file ending in this suffix, .pm.
Any ideas?

H. Forth

H. Forth wrote:Our copy of CutePDF has been removed from our system.
Why? I don't know. It's just not there any more.

Why don't you reinstall CutePDF from the mls.lds.org site? You can get the login information from your Stake Technology Specialist...

H. Forth wrote:There's a problem we now anticipate with printing any financial reports during such an electrical power outage. Laser Printers draw a lot of power and are not to be plugged into battery backup side of UPS.

Our copy of CutePDF has been removed from our system. Why? I don't know. It's just not there any more.

You didn't directly connect PDF to your UPS question, but it sounds like you are on the right track. You're right that laser printers draw a lot of power (on the order of 1000 watts) and so they should not generally be plugged into a UPS unless you have a very heavy-duty UPS.

But if you are in an emergency situation where the power is out more than a few minutes, you need to be using the energy stored in the UPS as little as possible. The solution for printing is not to figure out how to print to the laser printer, but to quickly print everything to PDF (deposit batch reports, etc.) and then exit MLS and shut down cleanly. Then you can print all that out once you have your power back.

H. Forth wrote:I tested using Windows print option "print to file". It created a filename with suffix, DOT PM (filename.pm)

There doesn't seem to be any application on our system which can print such a file ending in this suffix, .pm.

Any ideas?

"Print to file" is not going to be very helpful. All that does is send the raw printer codes for the print job for your particular printer to a file. It's not obvious how to send such raw output to a printer after the power emergency has passed.

So you are much better off printing to PDF. Reinstall the CutePDF printer as Opee advised.

H. Forth wrote:I tested using Windows print option "print to file".
It created a filename with suffix, DOT PM (filename.pm)

There doesn't seem to be any application on our system
which can print such a file ending in this suffix, .pm.
Any ideas?

This is an interesting thread on another message board:

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-20 ... -what.html

You could try doing one of the suggested "copy" commands. Or this utility linked to in the thread looks interesting as well:

http://www.lerup.com/printfile/

It appears that either solution you select, if your printer is not LPT-connected (and instead USB), you need to make it a shared printer.

But I agree with most everyone else here that reinstalling the PDF driver would be the simplest and probably most effective solution.

Tks for all suggestions. ...Will re-install CutePDF.

H. Forth