Can I “Mass Print” Multiple Files At Once?
“Mass printing” from a cloud service like My Docs Online can get complicated.
Some general points (and then a specific recommendation):
- No matter what, all documents to be printed will have to at a minimum be downloaded from the “cloud” to the PC or Mac so that they can then be passed on the a local printer.
- Usually this is acceptable as the normal goal is to be able to queue up documents to print with one operation and the time it takes to pull them from the cloud is a lesser concern.
- How well it works depends on:
- Which My Docs Online interface is used (Web browser version or webfolders for example).
- What kind of documents are involved (pdf, doc/docx etc.).
- What operating system is installed and what applications are associated with the file types involved.
- Windows security in particular (depending again on OS version) may interrupt printing of each file to confirm that it is OK to open a file from the internet, which would tend to defeat the purpose of mass printing.
In some cases our webfolders interface is the most “print-friendly”, unless Windows security dialogs interfere.
In the web browser interface you have the option of selecting multiple files in a particular folder and selecting “Download”. This bundles all the files into a single zip file for download. It’s very simple to then open the resulting zip file on the PC or Mac and then select all and print. This makes the actual print action a local one, thus removing the likelihood of a lot of “cloud” security interruptions by the operating system.
You do have to wait until the zipped files are downloaded, but to print any file it has to get from the “cloud” to the PC anyway. As a bonus zipping compresses the files so the download is smaller and thus a bit faster.
Bottom line: using the Download (via zipping) option in the browser interface is usually the best choice, and the one most independent of OS interference.