Adding a Windows shared printer to Mac OSX

I had a client in Encinitas who needed to print to a USB printer connected and shared to a Windows PC... all the other Windows PC's had no trouble connecting (Vista and 7), but the Macbook Pro was having trouble... it's not very straightforward in the "Add Printer" windows... here's how you do it. This goes for OSX 10.5+, by the way, and is similar in older versions.

Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Choose Print & Fax from the View menu. Click the + button to add a printer. Press the Control key while clicking the "Default" icon (or any other icon on the toolbar), then choose Customize Toolbar from the contextual menu that appears. Drag the Advanced (gear) icon to the toolbar.Click Done. Click the Advanced icon that was added to the toolbar. Choose Windows from the Type pop-up menu. In the URL field, type the printer's address in one of the following formats:smb://workgroup/server/sharenamesmb://server/sharenameNote: "workgroup" is the name of the Windows workgroup that the computer sharing the printer belongs to. "server" is the name of the computer sharing the printer (or its IP address). "sharename" is the shared Windows printer's share name. If the share name contains spaces, replace each space with "%20" (without quotation marks).Tip: You don't need a "workgroup" when specifying the IP address of the computer (such as when the printer is on a different subnet), or if your Mac belongs to the same Windows (SMB) workgroup.In the Name field, type the name you would like to use for this printer in Mac OS X. Choose the appropriate PPD or printer driver from the "Print Using" pop-up menu. Click Add.Best Regards, 

Kyle B. Hanson 
Mobile Computer Wizard 

619-796-4629 Mobile 
858-345-0382 Office 
www.mobilecomputerwizard.com