How to use multifunction printer?

Getting started with your office’s multifunction printer doesn’t need to be complicated, though I’ll admit the first time I walked up to one of those massive Xerox machines in 2019, I stood there for a good three minutes just staring at the touchscreen. These devices – you might also hear them called MFPs or all-in-one printers – combine printing, scanning, copying, and usually faxing (yes, some places still fax) into one unit.

Most offices have either gone with brands like HP, Canon, Ricoh, or Xerox. The one sitting in my current office is a Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE, and while the interface looks different from the HP LaserJet we had before, the basic principles stay pretty much the same once you know what you’re doing.

The basics you’ll actually use

Walk up to the machine and you’ll see a touchscreen – they’re all touchscreens now, aren’t they? The home screen typically shows your main functions. Don’t overthink it. For straightforward copying, you place your document face-down on the glass (there’s usually a small diagram showing which corner), close the lid, select Copy on the screen, punch in how many copies you need, and hit the green Start button. That’s it for basic copying.

Now here’s where people get tripped up: the automatic document feeder, or ADF, that tray sitting on top of the machine. You can stack multiple pages there instead of lifting the lid for each page. Face-up or face-down? Check the little icon near the feeder – it’ll show you. On most machines I’ve used, documents go face-up in the ADF, but Canon’s older models sometimes want them face-down. When in doubt, test it with one page first.

Scanning takes an extra step

Scanning is where these machines really earn their keep, but it’s also where I see people standing around looking lost. You’ve got options: scan to email, scan to a network folder, scan to USB drive, or scan to your computer if you’ve got the software installed.

For email scanning – probably the most common way people do it – you need to authenticate first. That means entering your email address and password, or in some offices, tapping your ID badge on the card reader. The IT department should have set this up when they installed the machine, but if it doesn’t work, you’ll need to call them. I learned this the hard way during my first week at a new job when I spent 20 minutes trying to scan something before realizing nobody had added my email to the system yet.

Place your document in the ADF or on the glass, select Scan, choose “Scan to Email,” enter the recipient’s address (the touchscreen keyboard works like your phone), and select whether you want PDF or JPEG format. PDF is usually what you want for documents. Then hit Send or Start, depending on your machine’s terminology.

Print jobs and the queue

Printing from your computer should be straightforward – you send the job, walk over to the printer, and it’s waiting for you. Except when it’s not. Print jobs get stuck, they pile up in the queue, or they disappear entirely. Every office has that one person who knows how to clear a jammed queue. Be that person.

On the printer’s touchscreen, there’s usually a Job Status or Job Queue button. If your document didn’t print, check there first. You might see it listed as “Waiting” or “On Hold.” Sometimes you’ll need to authenticate again by entering your username and password on the printer itself, especially if your office has secure printing enabled (which means documents won’t print until you physically go to the machine and release them).

Paper jams happen. The machine will show you where the jam is – usually with a diagram indicating tray 1, tray 2, or inside the duplex unit. Open that section, pull out any stuck paper (pull it in the direction the paper normally travels, not backward), close everything back up, and the printer should resume. If you yank paper out the wrong way, you’ll just tear it and make things worse.

Settings people forget about

Double-sided printing – also called duplex – saves paper. Your office probably wants you using it. When you print from your computer, look for the “Print on both sides” option in the print dialog. On the physical machine, if you’re copying, there should be a duplex or 2-sided button. You can choose whether to flip on the long edge (like a book) or short edge (like a notepad).

Color or black-and-white matters for cost. Color toner cartridges are expensive. If you don’t actually need color, switch to black-and-white or grayscale in your print settings. On some machines, like our old Ricoh, the default was always color until someone from accounting finally changed it because we were burning through cyan cartridges for documents that didn’t need any color at all.

Reduce or enlarge when copying: Legal-size documents don’t fit on letter-size paper at 100%. Select the “Reduce/Enlarge” option and choose a preset (like “Legal to Letter”) or enter a custom percentage. I keep a Post-it note on my desk that says 78% reduces letter-size documents to fit nicely in a small binder, because I got tired of calculating it every time.

When things go wrong

Error messages pop up. Sometimes they’re helpful (“Tray 2 is empty – load paper”), sometimes they’re cryptic (“Error Code 024-371”). For the cryptic ones, write down the exact code and search for it online with your printer’s model number. The manufacturer’s support site usually has a database of error codes. Or call your IT support – that’s what they’re there for.

The machine says it’s out of toner but prints look fine? This is the printer trying to get you to order new toner before you actually run out. You probably have a few hundred more pages left. There should be an option to override the warning and keep printing. But don’t push your luck – actually order that toner soon.

Someone sent a 300-page job by accident and it’s holding up everyone else? Find the Cancel button on the touchscreen, or if you’re quick, there might be a physical Stop/Cancel button on the machine itself. If the job already started printing, you might need to cancel it from both the printer’s control panel and from the person’s computer.

Features you might not know about

Most multifunction printers can save frequently-used settings as presets. If you regularly make 2-sided copies that need to be stapled in the corner, you can save that as “My Stapled Copies” or whatever you want to call it. The next time, just select your preset instead of going through all the menus again. Check the Settings or User Tools menu to set these up.

ID card copying is built into many machines. You place your ID card on the glass, select the ID Card Copy function, scan the front, flip it over, scan the back, and the machine prints both sides on one page. Handy for expense reports.

Some offices have print accounting codes, which means you need to enter a code before your job will print. This is how departments track printing costs. The machine will prompt you for the code – if you don’t have one, check with your supervisor.

Maintenance isn’t your problem (usually)

You’re not expected to replace toner cartridges or fix mechanical issues. That’s for the service technician. However, you can help prevent problems: don’t overload the paper trays, don’t force paper into feeders, and keep paper clips and sticky notes away from the scanner glass.

If the touchscreen is covered in fingerprints and smudges, wipe it with a microfiber cloth. Don’t spray cleaner directly on the screen – spray it on the cloth first. Same goes for the scanner glass, though you can be a little less careful there.

The machine will occasionally run a “cleaning cycle” on its own, usually when you’re in a hurry to print something important. This is normal. It takes a minute or two. Let it finish.

Most office workers never read the manual that came with these machines, and honestly, you don’t need to. You learn by doing. Next time you’re at the printer and someone’s standing there looking confused, show them what to do. That’s how this knowledge gets passed around in every office I’ve ever worked in.