collating on an HP 8500--SOLVED

[Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>]

Folks,

For those who have from time to time shared my frustration in sending
collated jobs from Acrobat to an HP 8500 on an NT network, here is how
you can access the "mopier" (RIP once, print many) function for a PDF
file:

1. Print a single copy TO FILE from Acrobat, after setting up desisred 
   printing parameters (paper size, tray, output bin, etc). 

2. Name the file mydoc.prn (i.e, keep it to 8.3 format), and place it 
   in a directory you can get to easily from a command prompt 
   (C:\temp, for example)

2. Open the PRN file in Wordpad

	The first few lines will look something like this:

	_%-12345X -at- PJL JOB
	@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT 
	%!PS-Adobe-3.0


3. Insert a new second line:

	@PJL SET QTY=4 

	(substituting whatever number of copies you actually 
	want for the "4")

	The first few lines should now look something like this:

	_%-12345X -at- PJL JOB
	@PJL SET QTY=4
	@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT 
	%!PS-Adobe-3.0

4. In a DOS command window, navigate to the directory where you stored 
   the mydoc.prn file

5. Type the following command:

	copy mydoc.prn \\servername\printername

	and then press Return (servername and printername will be a
	maximum of 8 characters; you should be able to figure out 
	servername by looking in Network Neighborhood; you may need 
	to get printername from your system admin)

The LCD panel should display "Printing set 1 of 4 [or whatever],"
indicating that you have accomplished what you set out to do.

Thanks to Arlen Walker, who suggested the approach of printing to file
from Word and from Acrobat and then inspecting the results to find the
needed workaround.