Writers

Use the Writers screen to view printer status and change the status of the printer writers.

The Writers screen is accessed from the Printer Output screen by clicking the Click here to work with writers link.

The search field on the Writers screen is:

Field	Description
Search for Printer	Enter the name of the printer you are searching for.

The fields on the Writers screen are:

Field	Description
Printer	The name of the printer. Hover over the Printer name and select a status from the drop-down list (e.g. start, hold, end or release) to change the status of the printer.
Status	The status of the printer writer (e.g. started, ended, hold message and release). If the printer has a Message status, click the Message link to view or respond to the message.
Printer Description	A brief description of the printer.

The available writer statuses are:

Writer Status
Field	Description
Start	Starts a spooling writer to the specified printer. The writer, which is a system job, takes spooled files from an output queue and produces (writes) the output on the printer device.
Hold	Stops the specified writer at the end of a record, spooled file or printed page. If multiple copies of a file are produced, the writer can be held at the end of the copy currently being produced. The writer remains inactive until it is released or ended. The data is not lost when a writer is held. If changes are made while the writer is on hold status, the changes do not take effect until after the writer is released.
End	Ends the specified spooling writer and makes its associated output device available to the system. The writer can be ended immediately; the writer stops writing the file and the file is made available again on the output queue.
Release	Releases a held writer so that files on the output queue can now be processed.

Click the Click here to refresh list link to refresh the printer list.

Hover over a Printer Name and select a status from the pop-up menu to change the Status of a printer.

Click Close to close the Writers screen and return to the Printer Output screen.

Revision: 2026.01