How to print in black and white

Hello Jeff,

Regarding the b&w printing, the settings on the Windows printer will not influence the Mac's settings. The Windows shared printer queue simply acts as a path to the printer. If you want to print in b&w, then you will need to find the setting in the Mac driver that lets you do this. Once found and selected, you can then make a preset of this setting so that next time you want to print in b&w, you simply select the preset rather than having to open all the printer menus.

Regarding the right-click > print, I have only ever used this process to copy the selected data. I haven't seen the option to print, but then I am still using 10.5 most of the time and have only been testing 10.6 before I make the full move.

You may find that only certain applications let you print this way. Or, after you select the text, if you check the Services menu, there may be an menu item there that lets you print just the selection. Worst case, you could copy into a text file and then print...

Pahu

1. I cannot print selected text by right clicking

Whether or not you can print selected text depends on the application, but that is not something you typically see.

2. and , I cannot print anything in Black and white

If the print driver for your printer allows that sort of thing, it's typically accessed in the print dialog. There will be a pop-up menu that lets you access different print options. Some of the typical things you'll see are Layout, Color Matching, Page Handling, etc. For my printer, I have a Quality & Media option, and in those options there's a Grayscale Printing option.

Of course, you have a different printer from a different manufacturer, so YMMV. Check the documentation and the HP support pages.

Help, I hope I did not make a mistake in getting a Mac.

Those seem like fairly minor things to make you doubt an entire platform choice. Give yourself some time to get used to a completely new and unfamiliar system.

PAHU is an expert on printing so I'll defer that part of the question to him. AFAIK, the option to print in greyscale (i.e. in b/w) is printer dependent and will show up in one of the pull-down menus in the print dialog if your printer can actually print in color AND you have a good driver. you might need to update the driver for your printer.

as for printing selected text using right-click menu, there is no such option by default but you can easily add it yourself by creating a service using automator. see this link where I explained how to do that.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10449001&#10449001

I am completely frustrated with the lack of clear printing options with my Mac. Blog after blog on the internet continue to ask the question how to change the default to print in black and white, and it is NEVER simply answered. Quite frankly, I would not recommend a Mac to anyone who does not have an Apple printer to go with it.

What's even more bizarre, is the people from tech support honestly think their answers are clear and sufficient!