I'm exploring the new HealthVault beta from Microsoft.  Every document on the MSDN site regarding HealthVault is downloadable as an .xps file.  In my attempt to print a document, I've read numerous blogs posts this morning about how XPS (Xml Paper Specification) is supposed to be superior to PDF but I would strongly disagree.  Here's my experience trying to simply print a .xps document (which hopefully you won't experience):

• Click on download link (using Firefox), I'm then asked if I'd like to open the .xps document with "XPS Viewer" to which I say yes, only to find that another tab is opened in FireFox asking me the question again.  Another affirmative answer opens another blank tab asking the question again, you can see where this is going.
• I'm smart, so I'll save the .xps document to my desktop and open in IE.  Sure enough, the file opens and I can read it fine.  I go to print however and I only have 3 printers to choose from, none of which are my actual printers (you know the things that spit out paper and have cryptic messages like "PC Load Letter" .  Normally I have nine printers, but now I have three, so I start seeing what I can do with these:
  • Microsoft Office Document Image Writer - This "printer" is there but selecting it disables the print button.
  • Microsoft XPS Document Writer - This "printer" asks me where I want to save my file...as another .xps document.
  • PrimoPDF - When choosing to "print" to a pdf file I encounter an error.
• Now I'm at the point where I'm googling for a solution.  I can't find squat, maybe this problem is limited to me.  I do find a pack to download the viewer on Microsoft's site, so I try to download a viewer, hoping that the problems I have may be fixed in a new version.  The installation comes in the .NET 3.0 redistributable, and low and behold it fails to install, saying I already have the .NET 3.0 redist.
• So I find another option on the Microsoft XPS page for the "Microsoft XPS Essentials Pack".  Mind you there's a nice note telling me the option explored in the previous step is "recommended for your system configuration."  I download and install the "Essentials" pack with no problems.
• Now I open the .xps file in the standalone xps viewer and am please to see that when I go to print that all of my printers are there.  So I attempt to print to the default printer and everything seemingly works...until I see that only 11 pages print of the 58 pages.  I print to a different printer, this time 19 pages.  Better...but still wildly deficient.  Next I try printing to pdf, I open the PDF and all 58 pages are there.  I print from my PDF reader and all 58 pages come out of the printer.

That's it...simple.  What I don't get is why people are so afraid to embrace new technology?

So to summarize, here is how to print a .xps file:

1. Download the "Microsoft XPS Essentials Pack".
1. Make sure you have the .net 3.0 redistributable.
1. You first need the .net 2.0 and .net 1.1 before you can install the 3.0
2. Change the default program to handle .xps documents.
3. Print your file, selecting the "PrimoPDF" printer.
   1. Install PrimoPDF if not installed.
4. Now open the result PDF in your reader of choice.
5. Print your file, selecting the hardware printer of your chioce.

There it is, easy as 1...1a...1aI..2...3...3a....4....5