Test printing with Development Mode in the BizPrint dashboard

This page shows you how to use Development Mode in the BizPrint dashboard to test your setup without mixing test printouts with real ones. It is for merchants, staff and developers who print to a station running the BizPrint desktop app, whether the orders come from WooCommerce, Shopify, or your own app.

What Development Mode does

When Development Mode is on, new print jobs that print from the BizPrint desktop app are marked so nobody mistakes them for real orders:

Web page printouts (such as receipts and tickets): the first letter of every word is replaced with a % sign, so the text is hard to read on purpose. A banner that says DEVELOPMENT MODE ENABLED is added at the top and the bottom of the printout.
PDF printouts: a large “Development Mode” watermark is placed across each page, and the same banner is added at the top and the bottom.

The marking is added when the desktop app prints the job. The printout still goes to the real printer, on real paper, so use it only when you want to see a test come out.

This page describes printouts from the desktop app. It does not describe how the BizPrint Android app prints.

Turn Development Mode on

Sign in to the BizPrint dashboard.
Click Settings in the menu. It is the gear icon, and its name appears when you point at it.
Switch on Development Mode.
Click Save.

While Development Mode is on, the dashboard shows an orange banner that says Development Mode Active, with a Settings link to turn it off.

Check before you print an order again

A WooCommerce Test print prints your newest real order again, and a reprint prints a job again. Before you send either one, make sure the order does not print twice by mistake:

Look at the printer for paper and for printouts that already came out.
Check the job’s status on the Print Jobs page in the dashboard.
Wait for the station to finish anything it is still printing, whatever status the job shows.
Go to WooCommerce > Print Manager in WordPress, if the order came from WooCommerce.
Click the Support tab.
Check Queue Status in Print Job Queue.
Wait for any pending or processing jobs to finish.

Test a printout

Do the checks in Check before you print an order again, if you will use Test print or reprint a job.
Turn on Development Mode.
Send a print job the way you normally would, for example with a new test order, or follow Send a test print from a BizPrint printer location in WooCommerce.
Look at the printout. Marked text and the DEVELOPMENT MODE ENABLED banner (or the watermark on a PDF) show that the test worked.
Check the job’s status on the Print Jobs page, as described in View print jobs and their status in the BizPrint dashboard.

Turn Development Mode off before real orders

Development Mode applies to every new print job on your account, not only the ones you want to test. Customers’ receipts and kitchen tickets are marked too while it is on, so turn it off when you finish testing.

Sign in to the BizPrint dashboard.
Click Settings in the menu, or click the Settings link in the Development Mode Active banner.
Switch off Development Mode.
Click Save.
Confirm that the Development Mode Active banner is gone.
Send one real or test order.
Check that the printout is normal, with no % signs, banner or watermark.

A job keeps the marking it was created with. If you reprint a job that was created while Development Mode was on, the reprint is still marked, even after you turn the setting off. Before you reprint, do the checks in Check before you print an order again.

For more about reprinting, see Reprint a print job from the BizPrint dashboard.

If real printouts still look marked

If real printouts show % signs, a banner or a watermark, Development Mode is probably still on. See BizPrint printouts show % signs or a “Development Mode” watermark.

Need help? Contact BizPrint support at https://getbizprint.com/support/.