How to create a Local printer / Frontend Printer / Desktop Printer

Creating a Local aka Frontend Printer aka Desktop Printer

Local or frontend printing is sometimes confusing in concept but actually very easy to understand. As a rule, local printer is simply another way of saying that the user is going to print to the default printer designated on his/her workstation. You probably do this all the time with Windows to printer spreadsheets, Word documents, etc without thinking about it. You can do the same thing using SAP.

1.  Log on to any client in the appropriate SAP system.

2.  Go to transaction SPAD.

3.  On the Spool Administration: Initial Screenscreen, click the Output Devices

    button. 

4.  On the Spool Administration: List of Output Devicesscreen, click the

    Change button and then the Create button.

5.  On the Spool Administration: Create Output Devicescreen, fill in the

    Output Name and Short name - I normally use a short name of “DESK” for

    “Desktop Printing” but alot of people use a Short name “SWIN” or “LOCL”

    as well. Use the following DeviceAttributes fields:

            Device type = SWIN
            Device Class = standard printer

    And the following Access Method fields:

            Host spool access method = F: Printing on frontend computer                   Host printer = __DEFAULT. That is _ _ D E F A U L T

    Save the printer.

6.  You may now leave the SPAD transaction.

Using this printer will cause print to go to SAPLPD which will use the default printer of the current workstation.