The purpose of this document is to assist you in troubleshooting issues you may be experiencing with Banner printing.

Definitions

Banner Printing - People often use the phrase "Banner printing" to refer to any kind of printing that references Banner data, and sometimes even to printing totally unrelated to Banner but which is performed on a printer that is also used for printing data from Banner. In order effectively to troubleshoot problems associated with "Banner printing", you must know exactly what kind of printing you are trying to accomplish. The questions below will help you to determine this.

Clearing a print queue - we are sometimes asked to do this by persons who are experiencing printing issues; however, it is a very specific action that is only used to solve a specific problem, and it does not apply to most issues that are reported to us. When you are experiencing a printing issue and need to report it to us, please describe the issue in your Helpdesk or UTS ticket, and we will diagnose the problem and determine the appropriate course of action.

What am I trying to print?

Please review the following questions, and follow the response that corresponds to your situation.

  • If you are having trouble printing from a client application (e.g. Microsoft Access, Excel, Word, Internet Explorer, Firefox, &c), your printing issue is unrelated to Banner. Please make sure that your printer is turned on, has paper loaded, &c. If it is a network printer, there may be issues with the network or the print server. If you need assistance with this, please contact the Helpdesk.

  • If you are using Internet Native Banner, and you have selected "Print" from the "File" menu, you are performing a "Banner screen print".

    • If printing works but it's slow, you may have too many printers defined on your computer. Please confirm that you have connected to only those printers that you actually use. If you need help with this, please contact the Helpdesk.

    • Try printing from other client applications. If this does not work either, please contact the Helpdesk.

    • If only Banner screen printing does not work, please make sure that you are using the latest version of the Java plugin. Please go to http://java.com and download the recommended Java version for your computer. You should only have one version of Java installed on your computer. If you need help with this, please contact the Helpdesk.

    • If none of the above solutions applies, please contact the Helpdesk.

  • If you are having issues printing transcripts, please refer to the section on Transcript printing issues, found below.

  • If you ran a Banner job (other than transcripts) and directed the output to a printer, but no output was printed, please contact UTS.

Transcript printing issues

Issues related to transcript printing are usually one or more of the following:

  • No transcripts were printed.
  • Some, but not all, of the transcripts I requested were printed.
  • Transcripts that other people requested were printed.

Almost all transcript printing issues are related to parameters that were used when submitting the SHRTRTC job in Banner, either by you, or by someone else. You may be using a saved parameter set, or you may be entering your parameters manually each time you submit the job. In either case, you have the opportunity to modify those parameters, and to save them as a parameter set, if desired.

UTS does NOT have the ability to control which parameters a person uses when submitting this job, so if you discover that you are being affected by someone else's parameter choices, you will need to make that person aware of it. Likewise, if you have printed someone else's transcripts, you should try to determine who requested them, and deliver them to the appropriate person.

When you submit the SHRTRTC job, please make sure that the following parameters are set as described below:

  • Parameter 02 (the Student ID) - if you are requesting a single transcript and you know the student's Grizzly ID, you may enter it here. We recommend that you use a percent sign ("%") so that all unprinted transcripts that you have requested will be printed; however, please be careful, because mistakes in the other parameters listed here may cause you to print transcripts that OTHERS requested.

  • Parameter 03 (the transcript type) - if you always request a specific transcript type (e.g. "ADV"), you may enter it here. If you are not sure of the transcript type, you may enter a percent sign ("%") to capture all transcript types that you requested; however, please be careful: as noted above, this may cause you to print transcripts that OTHERS requested if your other parameters are not correct.

  • Parameter 04 (the printer name) - this parameter should always be the name of YOUR printer (the printer you specified on the SOADEST form). If you use a percent sign here, you will print transcripts that OTHERS have requested. If you do not know the name of your printer, do not submit SHRTRTC.

  • Parameter 06 (the priority and address type) - the student for whom you have requested a transcript MUST have an address of the type listed in this parameter. If they do not, then no transcript will be printed (in reality, an empty file is printed - this may look to you like your printer is not working, but this is usually not the case). This parameter should always be "101", or if you have multiple entries for this parameter, one of them should be "101" and the other should be "200". If you use the default of "1MA", no transcript will be printed.

If you are having issues with printing transcripts and adjusting the parameters does not help, please contact UTS.

Contacts

Helpdesk - send email to [email protected] , or call (248) 370-4357.

UTS - send email to [email protected] .