Saturday, October 09, 2010

Features

I think the only thing more frustrating that a piece of equipment or software not having a feature you'd like or need is for that software or hardware to have that feature -- but you can't figure out how to access it!  I guess there is one thing more frustrating and that is having had that feature until you UPGRADED!!!

A little background....
Printers were made to print in black ink on white or light colored paper.  Right?  And printers were made to print on one side of a piece of paper.  Right?  So most of what we print is on one side of a sheet of paper and in black.  Until... you discover that there is a colored world out there.  When you find out that documents, coupons, photos, all sorts of things really do look better in color.  And you especially find out when you start printing in color automatically because your printer has that feature and your computer understands how to use it.  Now color is absolutely essential.

Same thing for two-sided printing.  It started with long documents that I didn't want to have to use a hammer to drive in the staple.  Then it was medium sized documents that I wanted to save a little paper.  And finally it was two page documents that I didn't want to staple at all.  I found myself selecting two-sided so often that I changed the default setting of the printer.  I don't use two sided printing all the time but I want it available all the time.

THEN we upgraded our computer.  Suddenly the two sided printing went away.  No way! I complained.  I tried a different printer driver (a blog entry all its own someday) and got two sided printing back... but no color.  What?!  I have to pick and choose which feature I want?  Several dozen sheets of paper later and a half dozen downloads from HP and I finally have two-sided color -- for now.  But who knows what the next UPDATE will disable.

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