Q: I'm trying to print a color file and I'm having some trouble. The first problem is that the default print settings somehow got changed to grayscale. Even when I change that back, only red, yellow, and blue inks print; the black ink comes out gray. I would think it was just running out of ink, but it's not like it's fading from black to white. It's just a nice, even-toned gray. Any idea on how to fix that? Secondly, I figured I would bypass that printer's troubles by printing the file on our other PC, which is networked via the wireless router. While my good printer (on Windows XP) appears to be shared (sharing is enabled, and the icon has a hand under it), for some reason, the computer with the defective printer (which is Windows Vista) will not connect to the other computer's printer. It says access is denied, but it's not! I haven't had problems with file sharing, but I can't print it directly from the XP computer because the program (Publisher) is not installed on it. Help!
A: The second question first: Did you go into the Vista machines Network and Sharing Center and enable Printer Sharing? That needs to be performed prior to using any network shared printers. Just as Media sharing needs to be enabled in order to share multimedia files across a network. You may also need to check the permissions on the network printer. Your system account needs at least Print permissions. You would need to check this on the computer which the printer is shared from, as all shares are controlled by the system they are on. Log onto the system that network printer is attached to, open up Printers from Control Panel, and then right click the printer in question and select Properties, or Sharing. On the Sharing tab, a check mark needs to be in both "Share this printer", and "Render print jobs on client computers". On the security tab, the Everyone group needs Print permissions. As for your first question, I don't know what brand your using, so that makes answering difficult. The best I can do is tell you to make sure that the color profile is set to default. Most printers can have different profiles, which can be selected for different print jobs. It sounds like the default profile has either been changed or somebody deleted it either purposefully, or accidentally. Check your printer manual for troubleshooting details, and go to the website for additional support. If your printer is the same manufacturer as your computer, there may be a Communtiy Forum section of the website which allows users of that particular computer and related hardware to get together and help each other with issues directly related to that product line. Another option you have is to phone or e-mail technical support. Good luck and much success fixing your print issues, please have a nice day. *edit* When printing to a networked printer the application you are printing from does not need to be installed on the system which is connected to the networked printer you are attempting to print from. The document is placed in a Print Job. Have you checked Publisher's default Print options? One of the options is to print background colors etc. Which Office version are you using? If it is Publisher '07, click File--Print Setup. You can set the default color options on this page. Make sure your printer is selected in the drop down menu, then click Properties. Click the Color tab on the new dialog box and make sure Print in Grayscale is not selected. You won't be able to setup the default settings for the networked printer until you have a valid connection to it, which is a bummer! You can set similar settings in Office 2003 too, just click on the File menu and then click on Print Setup, make sure the appropriate printer is selected, then click the Properties button on the first tab. If all else fails, you can save your document to removable media, and manually walk it to the system with a working printer which has Publishser installed, and print off of the media. Good luck, I hope you correct your printing issues quickly. Nothing worse when attempting to prepare a document than the inability to get it printed!