At IUB or IUPUI, using Mac OS X, how do I print from my personal computer to an RTC or STC printer?

Note: This document assumes you are using Mac OS X 10.3.x or higher.

To print from your personal Mac OS X computer to a Student Technology Center (STC) or Residential Technology Center (RTC) printer at Indiana University Bloomington or IUPUI:

• Use the printer locator utility, available from IUware Online, to locate the appropriate printer and add it to the Printer Setup Utility. For more, see How do I obtain and use the IU printer locator utility?

  Alternatively, to manually add your RTC's printer, see In IUB campus housing, how can I connect my Mac to my RTC's network printer?

  Note: If you have difficulty using the Printer Locator, make sure you are using the most recent version from IUware Online.

• Make sure your OS X account short name is the same as your IU Network ID username. Your OS X account is the account you use to log into your computer, and the short name is the name the computer uses to identify the account, which may or may not be similar to your own name. To see the short name for your OS X account:
  
  
  1. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences... .
  2. From the View menu, select Accounts.
  3. Highlight your account in the list.
  4. In OS X 10.3 and later, find the short name for your account in the "Short Name:" field.

  If your OS X account currently does not have a short name that matches your Network ID username, you have two options:

  • Create a new OS X account using your IU username, and then transfer the entire contents of your old OS X account into your new account, in effect renaming your OS X account.
  • Create a separate account to use only for printing, and then share documents from your current account to the new account whenever you need to print.

Create a new OS X account

To create a new account in OS X, see In Mac OS X, how do I create and delete users? Be sure to use your IU Network ID username for the short name. However, you may use any password you wish; you are not required to use your IU Network ID passphrase for your OS X account.

Transfer account contents and delete the old account

Once you have created your new OS X account, to transfer the entire contents of your current account into the new account, see In Mac OS X, how do I rename my OS X account?

Share files between two OS X accounts

If you wish to keep your current OS X account and simply transfer files to your new OS X account to print them, see In Mac OS X, how do I transfer files between two OS X accounts? Once you have transferred the files, open and print them as you would normally, selecting the appropriate printer in the print dialog box.

Fix broken printer drivers

If you are still unable to print to an RTC or STC printer, you may need to repair permissions on Mac OS X. For instructions, see Using Mac OS X, how do I repair permissions, and what does that do? If those instructions don't work, Fixamac Software has a shareware utility, Print Setup Repair, that might help. You can download it from the following web site:

Also see:

• In Mac OS X, how do I print over TCP/IP (the Internet)?