It’s hard to believe there was a time when you’d have to go to a print shop if you wanted a hard copy of a document. Nowadays there’s a dedicated printer in every home and office across the country. No wonder UK manufacturers sold more than £70 million’s worth of printers in 2022.
Yet setting up an office computer can be confusing if you’ve never done one before. So, what do you need to do?
In this article, we’ll explain how to easily set up your office printer.
Setting up a wireless printer
The best modern printers are wireless, allowing you to print from anywhere in the office without needing to use a cable. You can set up a wireless printer using the following steps:
- Choose a location near your router
When selecting where to put your printer, pick a location in the office with a power socket and that’s easily accessible for your employees. But bear in mind that wireless printers use Wi-Fi, so you need to position it as close to your office router as possible to ensure it has a strong connection.
- Connect the printer to your network
Next you need to connect the printer to your Wi-Fi network. You’ll need to know the name and password for the network in order to do this. Modern printers typically have small screens you can use to do this. Refer to the manual if you’re having difficulties.
- Add the printer to your device
Turn on your computer or laptop. Go into the settings and find the devices section. You should be able to see the printer displayed under devices with its make and model. Find it and click add device.
Setting up a wired printer
Still using a wired printer? You’re not alone. Though new printers are mostly wireless, many businesses continue to use older models. And why not? They do the same job.
You can set up a wired printer using the following steps:
- Choose a location near a power socket
Similarly to when setting up a wireless printer, you need to choose a location that’s close to a power socket and that’s easily accessible to your employees.
Spend some time considering the different possible locations. But don’t worry if you chosen position isn’t working well later on. You can always re-evaluate and choose a different location.
When you’re decided, plug the printer into the power socket and press the power button to turn it on.
- Connect the USB cable
Switch on your computer or laptop, then connect the device and printer using a USB cable. These usually come with the printer. But if you don’t have one for any reason, you can always buy a new one. After connecting with a computer via a USB, many printers automatically begin setting up. If this happens, you shouldn’t need to do anything else. The printer will get itself ready to use.
- Add the printer to your device
If your printer doesn’t automatically being setting up after you connect it to a computer, you’ll need to do this manually. You can achieve this by following the same steps outlined above for a wireless printer.
Setting up your office printer might seem confusing. But after following the steps outlined above, your employees will be printing in next to no time.
