I recently had to turn to HP’s online help documentation while setting up a networked color inkjet printer for a Faculty member at work. I always dread visiting HP’s website, but on this particular day my experience was unusually heinous.
The page in question is titled HP Printers – Mac OS: Print only HP Drivers (non-Postscript) built into Mac OS X v10.4 but let’s start at the top, shall we. The first heading on the page tells me that I am reading an “HP Support document.” I like that. It’s brief and to the point. As with many first-headings-on-the-page I didn’t even notice it until I decided to write this article and re-visited the site. It was a wonder I even found the page again, as you will know if you’ve ever had to navigate HP’s website. I’m not saying that other sites where you tend to go for documentation and driver downloads are any better. Definetely not saying that.
But HP.com is pretty bad. For example the list of Mac drivers for the DesktJet 6127 goes something like this: After choosing your operating system, you have the following wonderful headings to guide you:
- “Driver”
- “Driver – Printer,”
- “CD-ROM order page”
I know I can safely ignore the last one, because I want to download a driver, not order a CD. But what’s the difference between “Driver” and “Driver – Printer.” Well, either one sounds good, so let’s look at what links are listed under both these categories. We have:
- “DeskJet Software for Mac OS X”
- “Tiger – Mac OS X v10.4 update information”
- “hp deskjet 6127 driver for Mac OS X 10.1.5 and OS X 10.2”
- “HP Inkjet Driver (Universal Binary)”
How is one to choose? I leave out the third option becuase it appears to only apply to older versions of Mac OS X (the machine is running Tiger). I’m on an Intel mac, so the Universal Binary option might be a good choice, but the other two choices also sound good, although they don’t specifically mention anything related to Intel-based Macs. I should point out that although you must specify one of seven versions of Windows before getting to the equivalent place for Windows help, there are only two Mac choices: Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. So I guess for Mac using HP customers, you just have to live with everything getting thrown in together. But, I digress. I ultimately choose to go with the second—Tiger mentioning—link since I was not given a finer-grained choice regarding operating systems earlier on. And because I had already installed one of the other drivers and that hadn’t changed anything except my mood.
This is where things get really ugly. Recall, the document is titled “HP Printers – Mac OS: Print only HP Drivers (non-Postscript) built into Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger).” This seems to be referring to how Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) has a bunch of printer drivers built in, and you don’t have to install anything. That sounds familiar. It also alludes to the fact that some printers don’t speak Postscript (PS). That also sounds familiar. I tried setting up the networked printer with the generic PS printer driver but that didn’t work and that’s why I’m reading this document in the first place. So we seem to be off to a good albeit rather wordy start.
Lucky me, there’s a secondary heading just below the first one. It reads “Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger and HP Drivers.” Okay, this document has to do with Tiger and printer drivers. Got it. Let’s move on.
The latest HP printer driver for this device is built into Tiger for print only functionality and does not require a download or reinstallation of any HP software to print.
“Print only” is emphasized, so I’m begining to wonder what else this printer is capable of. Perhaps recieving print jobs over the network from a computer? Or is that not considered “print only functionality”? What the heck does “print only funcitonality” mean? And what function other than printing am I likely to be interested in if I am reading this document?
This document applies to raster (non-Postscript) HP Designjet, Deskjet, Business Inkjet, and LaserJet printers.
Good. Good. That’s why I’m here, baby. Show me some love.
In order to best take advantage of the latest HP driver and new Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger features, it is recommended that you delete original HP printer queues from Printer Setup Utility and create a new HP printer queue.
No thanks, I’ll pass on that recommendation. There are about 6 other printers set up on this Mac, and I really don’t want to have to install all of them again, just to get this one working. Moving on to the instructions now, even though I’m not sure what the goal is yet.
1. Upgrade install from Mac OS X v10.1, 10.2, 10.3 – select ‘Reset Printing System“ option (from the Printer Setup Utility pull down menu) to delete all previous printer queues. The HP printer queue can also be deleted manually from Printer Setup Utility.
What? Come again? What does “upgrade install” mean? Am I supposed to upgrade to 10.4 again, just to get this printer working? Hmm, maybe not since it says there that the “queue can also be deleted manually from Printer Setup Utility.” Right, but again, I’m not interested in that.
2. From Printer Setup Utility, click on Add, select connection type (e.g. All, Bonjour, USB, Appletalk) and create new HP printer queue. The Printer Setup Utility is found in the Applications/Utilities folder.
Funny, in my Printer Setup Utility, there’s no “connection type” listed anywhere on the main screen for adding new printers. There is a “protocol” that needs to be set, but the examples given are not options. Also, you may notice that the instructions do not tell me which is the correct option. Basically, they are assuming that I already know the answer to the question I am seeking an answer for: “How do I properly set up a networked non-postsciprt HP inkjet in Tiger?” All I know now is that maybe I will have better luck if I delete all the printers that are set up and working just fine. There is one more step:
3. Clean install – If there is a clean install of Tiger, follow step 2 to add a new HP printer queue.
So maybe there is a problem with a Tiger installation that is not “clean.” If there are any printers set up, you cannot add any new HP printers? This makes no sense. But if it really were the problem why couldn’t the documentation just say that? Just say: “There’s this problem in Tiger that can sometimes happen where you have to delete all your printer queues just to set up another printer. We reallize that kind of sucks, but at least it will get your printer up and running. Hopefully Apple will fix this sometime soon, or we can find a way to, but for now, here’s what to do…”
But since they didn’t come out and say that, and since the directions they did give are either unacceptable to me (especially since I’m not convicnced deleting the other printer queues is going to work) or simply don’t apply to what I see on my screen here in “reality land”, I’m going to give up on this help document. Oh, but there’s one more peice of advice.
NOTE: Please note that Stuffit Expander is no longer included with Tiger, .sit file downloads will require downloading Stuffit at URL http://www.stuffit.com/mac/ . This link will take you outside the Hewlett-Packard web site. HP does not control and is not responsible for information outside the HP web site.
Okay. That might be helpful if there were any driver downloads in .sit format on this page. But there aren’t! There aren’t any downloads on this page. As the last menu so helpfully pointed out, this document didn’t have a version, or a size (i.e. no driver, just some text, I had correctly guessed).
Well, right underneath the very usefull Stuffit Expander disclaimer is a “content feedback” form where I can vent my frustration and hopefully someone at HP will take a look and write up some better documentation. So I filled out the form. I tried to be constructive. I pointed out that “upgrade install” didn’t make much sense and that removing all the printers wasn’t the most user friendly approach.
“This is good,” I’m thinking. “I’m making a difference.” I clicked submit. Oops, page not found. I guess I should have read the very bottom of the page before I clicked submit:
Please note this form is for feedback only, so you will not receive a response.
The sad thing is, this little document is just the tip of the iceburg. HP: your printer driver documenation for Mac OS X Sucks.