Print Files from any Mobile Phone using Dropbox

1 Oct

http://www.labnol.org/internet/print-from-mobile-phones/17827/

Here’s a tip that will let you print documents, emails, photos, PDF files, etc. from a mobile phone to your existing printer.

All you need is a printer connected to the computer and a mobile device for sending print jobs – it could be a BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Android or any other web-enabled phone.

To get this thing running on your computer, please follow these easy steps:

Step 1: Make sure that you have Dropbox on the computer that is connected to the printer.

Step 2: To send print jobs from your mobile device to the printer, you have two options.
You can download a Dropbox app on your mobile phone — they have apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Nokia, webOS (Palm), and Android based phones.
Alternatively, you can send files from your mobile phone to Dropbox using email. Just connect your Dropbox account with Habilis and they’ll give you a unique email address – any files or attachments sent to this address will automatically appear in your Dropbox folder.

Step 3: Download this zip file and double-click the eprint.vbs file. It will create a sub-folder inside your main Dropbox folder called PrintQueue where all the mobile print jobs will queue up and another sub-folder called logs where all the completed jobs will be archived.

Step 4: You are now all set to print files from our mobile phone. Just send a test file from your mobile phone to that secret email address, or upload it through the Dropbox mobile app, and your printer will turn it into a hard copy almost instantly.

The utility can also handle multiple files in one go and it should print almost all file formats for which you have an associated application on the computer. If you would like to shut down the eprint utility, launch Windows task manager and end the “wscript.exe” process from the list.

Some upcoming printers will have built-in support for mobile printing via email but with Dropbox, you get the same feature without requiring any new hardware. If you are curious to know how this script works, here’s the full source code. Give it a shot!

Also see: Remotely Monitor your Computer with Dropbox