This document may offer some help with printing problems. The links are still valid, best I can tell, and will probably take the steps to get you ready to download the files if it is an FTP link.
T.J. Shuflin 1/1/99
The newer HP DeskJets are a real problem to support now with Q&A for DOS. Current models are not that compatible
with the DeskJet 500 or 550c, which Q&A 4.0 for DOS does have drivers for.
If you can afford even the least expensive HP LaserJet, or any HP LaserJet compatible printer from another company,
then that would be the best way to go. As either the HP LJ III and HP LJ 4 printer drivers in Q&A 4.0 for DOS
would work fine with them.
Q&A 4.0 for DOS can easily be run in multi-user mode. To do that, all you have to do is purchase what we call
the Q&A Network pack. This consists of a diskette that when run will upgrade your current copy of Q&A 4.0
for DOS and make it able to run multi-user. Each Network Pack and disk when installed will add support for 3 additional
users. So with the install of a single Q&A Network Pack, you can then run 4 users from the software. Install
2 Network Packs, and up to 7 users can then run from the same copy.
If you are interested in info on ordering the Q&A Network Packs, please feel free to contact our Customer Service
Department at 1-800-441-7234.
From your description of your printer drivers, I suspect that your Q&A program file and printer driver files
are not the last release we did on version 4.0 of Q&A.
Check the dates on the files QA1.EXE and QAPRINT.CFG in your Q&A directory. These should both have dates in
Sept of 1993 for you to have the current and last rev of Q&A 4.0 for DOS. If you see dates back in 1991 or
1992, then you definitely should update your files to get our later printer drivers.
To upgrade your program files, the file you need to download is the file QAUP.EXE from the Q&A section of our
Q&A file library. This is a self-extracting archive that will give you a program called UPDATE that can be
used to bring your existing Q&A 4.0 program files fully up to date. Place QAUP.EXE in a new directory on your
hard drive. Then run QAUP. Next, run UPDATE and it will locate your files on your hard drive and update them for
you.
A direct link to the QAUP.EXE file is at:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/q&a/ver4_dos/updates/qaup.exe
The program would not give you any of the newer printer drivers nor printer font files, though. But those can be
downloaded from our file library as well. The printer driver update, for example, is the file QA4PRT.EXE in our
library. You should get that file as well. Run it after downloading to create a new QAPRINT.CFG file. Then copy
this file to your Q&A directory, overwriting the old copy.
A direct link to the QA4PRT.EXE file is at:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/q&a/ver4_dos/updates/qa4prt.exe
Then go to UTILITIES, INSTALL PRINTER in Q&A. Go ahead and re-install over your current printer option ( Printer
A, Printer B, etc ... ), and install the Basic Vanilla non-laser driver. After doing that, then go back a second
time, and install yet again. This time, install the appropriate printer driver you want. Doing this will insure
that old driver settings are removed, and replaced by the newer driver.
In addition, you would want to also get our font file for use with this HP LJ 4 driver if this printer was not
already shown available in your copy of Q&A. To get this, download the file HP4FON.EXE from our file library.
Then place this file in your Q&A program directory, and run it to unzip the font file. Then follow the instructions
in your manual starting on page 5-58 to assign fonts.
And you can get HP4FON.EXE at:
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/q&a/ver4_dos/updates/hp4fon.exe
Once you have downloaded and installed these updates, you will have the most current ( and last ) revision of Q&A
4.0 for DOS. There are a number of subtle updates and fixes included in these updates, so they are well worth the
time downloading and installing.
Good luck, and let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Lance Jacobs
Senior Product Support Analyst
for Q&A Database Software
Symantec Online Services
There are some big problems in supporting the newer HP DeskJets with Q&A for DOS. We do not have drivers available
to specifically support these newer model DeskJet printers. In general, you will get best results using fixed width
fonts. Proportional fonts will many times run into spacing difficulties where characters are bunched together.
I can tell you that the HP DJ 550c driver is indeed the one that should still be used with the later models as
well. So the first thing to do is to make sure you see the HP DJ 550c printer listed in Q&A, and be sure to
use it.
We do have a tech note available for downloading which gives troubleshooting info on using Q&A DOS with newer
HP DJ printers. This was originally developed for the HP DJ540, but also applies to all later HP DJ models.
You can get this tech note at this web page:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/qa1.nsf/82ccdcc52b272dba85256483006e3c73/492f1a523b30dd0588256461004a74b5?OpenDocument
All of the above are somewhat of workarounds at best, I'm afraid. If you would like better support for the DeskJet
printers, another option you could consider would be buying an upgrade package to Q&A Windows.
So if you are also running any version of Windows, another option would be to get our Q&A Windows cross-grade.
Quite a number of users prefer to keep their Q&A databases running in DOS, but like to use the Q&A Windows
Write and Report programs to print out their documents and reports. Since they use the Windows printer driver,
they are fully compatible, and allow you to easily add things like color and graphics into your printouts. This
is all possible because the most current release of Q&A 4.0 for DOS is database file compatible with the Windows
version. The Q&A Windows Upgrade package even includes a patch disk that will update older revs of Q&A
4.0 to DOS to this last release.
Users like to do this, as the database itself runs faster in the DOS version, and you can still use macros and
custom menus, which are not available in the Windows database. But your documents will look much better in Windows,
as you can use all of your Windows fonts, and see them in full time in WYSIWYG mode.
So if you do have Windows available, this would have much to offer as a Q&A add-on and enhancement, and give
you far better looking printouts. The cross-grade sells for $89.95 when ordered direct from Symantec at 1-800-441-7234.
If you are already using Q&A for Windows, then it just uses the Windows printer driver that HP provides. So
if that is the case here, you can download the necessary Windows printer driver for this printer from HP's web
site at:
http://www.hp.com
Good luck, and let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Lance Jacobs
Senior Product Support Analyst
for Q&A Database Software
Symantec Online Services