Printing

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Printing' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding a Diagonal Watermark with a PostScript Printer
If you have a printer that understands PostScript, you can add your own watermark to each printed page. This tip explains how to create a large diagonal watermark on the page.

Adding a Horizontal Watermark with a PostScript Printer
If you have a printer that understands PostScript commands, you can use the code in this tip to add a horizontal watermark behind the text of your page. This is a power (and easy) way to get just the right type of watermark on printouts, without changing the way the document appears on-screen.

Adding One More Line
It always seems to happen—you print a document and then discover that you should have included one more line of text at the end of the document. Here's a way to print just that line, without redoing the entire page or the entire document.

Always Printing Drawing Objects
Add a bunch of drawing objects to your document, and you may wonder how to make sure they all appear on a printout. How you handle it depends on the version of Word you are using.

Automatic Font Color Won't Print Properly
Imagine that you go to print your document, and all the text you can see on the screen just isn't there on the printout—it's as if the text is invisible! If this happens to you, the problem is most likely due to your printer driver, as described in this tip.

Booklet Printing in Word
Need to create a booklet with Word? Depending on your version, it could be as easy as changing how you print your final output.

Canceling Printing
Word can either print your document in the foreground or in the background. If you want to stop a print job that is in progress, the way you do it depends on which way you are printing the document. This tip explains the differences.

Changing Page Orientation
Learn about different page orientations and how to change them.

Changing Print Dialog Box Defaults
Word doesn't really remember the settings in the Print dialog box very long. Here's how to get around that limitation and make the dialog box default to the settings you want.

Changing the Default 'Print What' Setting
By default, Word automatically changes the "Print What" setting in the Print dialog box to reflect what it thinks should be printed. Here's how you can affect the default setting.

Check Your Letterhead in Your Laser Printer
You should always make sure that your letterhead and printer are compatible.

Chopped Off Page Borders
When you print a document that is formatted with a page border, does the border print properly, or is it chopped off on the top and bottom of the page? This tip describes a few settings that can affect how your page borders are printed.

Collating Copies
When printing multiple copies of a document, Word can print it either collated (complete sets, in page-number order) or uncollated (multiple copies of each page, in turn). All it takes to control this printing process is to change one check box on the Print dialog box. This tip explains the ramifications of making such changes.

Controlling the Printing of Highlighting
Got highlighted text in your document? If you don't want it to show up on the printout, all you need to do is configure Word so that highlighting doesn't display. This tip explains how you do that.

Controlling Where a Full-page Border is Printed
When you add full-page borders to your document, you may be bothered to find out that one or more sides of the border don't actually appear on the printout. If this happens to you, then you can apply the techniques in this tip to make sure that the border prints as desired.

Correct Line Numbers When Printing Selections
Line numbers are, for some types of documents, a necessity. Line numbers are usually sequential for a page or for the entire document. If you choose to print just a portion of the page or document, Word actually renumbers the lines on the printed page as if that portion were, in reality, the entire document. If you want the printed page to reflect the line numbers as they would appear if the entire document were printed, the macros in this tip will come in handy.

Creating a Full-Page Border Using PostScript
With a PostScript printer, you can create a full-page border, even if your version of Word doesn't support full-page borders.

Dealing with the X of Y Bug
Have you ever printed a document, only to see that the page numbers are incorrect on the printout? If so, it could be due to the "x of y" bug, which has hounded Word for years.

Defining Default Printers on a Document Level
Word doesn't allow you to specify a default printer on a document-by-document basis. This tip covers a couple of ways you can work around this limitation.

Disabling Printer Notifications
Do you see a notification balloon pop up from your System Tray whenever you print a document? If this bothers you, then you can put the information in this tip to immediate use to turn off the notification.

Documents Printing Out of Order
When printing documents under the control of a macro, you may notice that the documents print out of order for some reason. Here's a discussion of why this may happen and what you can do about it.

Double-Spacing Your Document
Need to produce a quick double-spaced printout of your document? You can do it by using the simple steps in this tip.

Duplex by Default
Many printers these days have the capability to print on both sides of a piece of paper. You may want Word to use this capability, by default. It cannot, however. Here's why and here's what you can do about it.

Easily Changing Print Order
You can change the order in which pages are printed (normal or reversed) using the Print dialog box. What if you want a way to specify the order without using the dialog box? The macros in this tip will make quick work of changing the print order.

Errors While Printing
Printing a document is a common task in Word. What if you get an error message while printing? Tracking down the cause can be an exercise in creative detective work.

Fitting to a Single Page
It can be frustrating when a single-page document actually prints of two pages, depending on the system that is doing the printing. This tip describes some of the reasons for this problem and quickly introduces some of the ways you can try to fix it.

Fonts Unavailable in Word
If you have some fonts that don't show up as available in Word, their exclusion can be confusing. Here's a discussion of why these fonts may go missing.

Forcing Printouts to Black and White
If you want to force Word to print some of its colors in black and white, you may be out of luck. One bright spot , as mentioned in this tip, is that you can rely on the capabilities built into many printers.

Formatting Differences between Word Versions
Create a document in one version of Word on one machine and then open that document in a different version of Word on a different machine and you may be surprised at the results. There can be lots of things that affect how the same document is rendered, displayed, and printed on each system. This tip discusses some of the things you can do to minimize the differences between systems.

Getting a Double-Spaced Printout
Printing a double-spaced document without completely changing your document layout.

Getting a Warning for Markup
Many people, when collaborating on a document with others, use the Track Changes feature to show the effects of their editing. When printing your document, you may not want Word to include these changes in the printout. You can instruct the program to warn you if you try to print and there are any tracked changes or comments in the document.

Great Gray Tones from a Black and White Printer
Your laser printer probably does a great job in putting black type on the paper. If you want to print gray tones, the results might not be so great. Here is a tip on a way you might be able to get even better looking gray tones from that printer.

Guidelines for Laser Printer Letterhead
Things you need to be aware of when using letterhead with laser printers.

Headings On Your Printout
If you've got a table that spans multiple printed pages, you probably want to repeat a row or two of that table as a heading on each page. Here's the easy way to set up those repeating rows.

Including a Printer's Name in a Footer
Many people like to customize their printouts to include specialized information in the footer. It is not uncommon to see dates, page numbers, and file locations in the footer. One item you may want to include is which printer the document was printed on. If you know how to grab the information from Word, then including it in the footer is a snap.

Left and Right Aligned on One Line in a Label
If you need to put information on a label that has both left- and right-aligned information on the same line, it can be frustrating to get the formatting just right. Here's the steps you need to follow to get just what you need.

Making Sure a Document Always Has an Even Number of Pages
For some documents, you may want to make sure that a printout always has an even number of pages. Word has no intrinsic way to do this, but you can work around this apparent limitation using the techniques in this tip.

Margins Incorrect When Printing
If you notice that the margins on a printout aren't the same as those you have set within Word, there could be any number of reasons. This tip provides some guidance on how you can start to track down the problem.

Misbehaving Leader Dots
What do you do if your leader dots don't print out correctly?

Multiple Pages Per Sheet
You can save on paper on your printouts by instructing Word to print multiple pages on a single sheet of paper. In fact, you can put up to 16 pages on a single piece of paper, as described in this tip.

Non-Printing Hyperlinks
Karen is having problems getting hyperlinks to print in a document on her home computer. There are only a limited number of reasons why this would be a problem, as described in this tip.

Only Inline Figures can be Seen and Printed
Do you have graphics in your document that you cannot see and that won't print out? This tip provides some ideas as to why you may be having troubles with the pictures.

Opening and Printing a Document
Want a quick, fast way to print a Word document? Here's a way that can't be beat!

Peculiar Font Differences
Understanding why fonts look different on one system as compared to another.

Preparing Files for a Commerical Printer
Many people use Word not just to create their own documents, but also to create information that will be used by others with high-end printing or typesetting equipment. When preparing your documents for this type of output, there are a number of things you can keep in mind that will make the process smoother.

Preventing Printing
When dealing with determined users, it is virtually impossible to prevent information in your document from being printed. This tip explains why this is the case.

Previewing Before You Print
Print Preview is a feature built into Word that allows you to see what your printed output will look like before you commit it to paper. This feature is easy to use and helps to save on printing costs.

Printer Name on the Status Bar
Got multiple printers available to your system? The only way to tell which printer a document will go to is to display the Print dialog box (which means the Print tool is almost worthless). This tip discusses ways you can make printing to different printers easier.

Printer Won't Print Envelope Font
In Word 2007 the default font used for envelopes is called Callibri. What do you do if you cannot print that font on your printer? Here's some ideas.

Printing a Bookmark List
You can define and use bookmarks to reference all sorts of text and text positions within a document. If, at some point, you want to print a list of the bookmarks you've created, you'll be interested in the macro in this tip. It provides a very simple way to create a list and then print it.

Printing a Bookmark List with WordBasic
Need to know what bookmarks you have defined? Use this WordBasic macro to print a list of bookmarks.

Printing a Box Using PostScript
If you have a PostScript printer, here's code you can use to print a box on a page of your document.

Printing a Circle Using PostScript
With a printer (and printer driver) that understand PostScript, you can do some nifty drawings directly to the paper, without the need of them appearing in your document at all. Here's how to create a circle according to your specifications.

Printing a Document's Mirror Image
For some applications—such as creating silk-screening masters—you may want to create a "mirrored" output of a document. Word doesn't include this capability, but there are ways you can get what you need.

Printing a Draft of a Document
Need to print a copy of a document but you don't care if it looks as "pretty" as you want the final printout to look? You need to print a draft copy, as described in this tip.

Printing a File List
Do you need a quick list of all the files in a particular folder? Here's a couple of different ways you can get the information you need.

Printing a Font List
Do you need to get a list of all the fonts available on your system? It's easy with the macro included in this tip.

Printing a Font List with WordBasic
Want a sample list of all the fonts on your system? Here's a WordBasic macro that will do the trick.

Printing a Full Style Sheet
Word supports the use of styles (they are very powerful), but it doesn't provide a way to get a full-featured style sheet printed. This tip examines ways you can create your own style sheets for printing.

Printing a Key Assignment List
Many people customize Word so that macros, styles, and various commands are assigned to specific shortcut keys. This tip explains how you can get a printout of what key assignments have been made on your system.

Printing a List of AutoCorrect Entries
The AutoCorrect feature in Word is used quite extensively by some people. If you use it a lot, you may want to print out a list of AutoCorrect entries for reference purposes. This tip explains how you can use a macro to print the desired information.

Printing a Short Selection
Want to print just a selection from within your document? It's easy to do when you print using the Print dialog box.

Printing a Style Sheet
Styles are a fantastic way to format your documents easily and consistently. At some point you may want to print out a list of styles available for a particular document. Here's how to do it.

Printing All Open Documents
Have a bunch of documents you need to print? If all the documents are open, you can use a handy little macro to print them all at once.

Printing All Open Documents with WordBasic
Got a bunch of open documents? Want to print them all? Here's a handy WordBasic macro that will do the trick.

Printing an Outline
Outlining is a great way to develop the content of your document. If you need to, you can even print the outline and only the outline—without all the content.

Printing and Exiting Word in a Macro
When you print a document, Word remains busy in the background until the printing is done. If you try to end the program before printing is done, you can cause problems for your printout. This tip explains how to bypass the potential problem by making just a small change to how the document is printed.

Printing AutoCorrect Entries
If you want to print a list of all the AutoCorrect entries in your document, Word doesn't provide a method. You can use the macro in this tip to create your own list for printing, however.

Printing AutoText Entries
If you want to print a list of the AutoText entries on your system, you can do so quickly by making one change on the Print dialog box. Just use the Print What drop-down list to indicate what you actually want to print.

Printing Close to the Edge
Word allows you to specify all sorts of paper sizes and margins for your documents. If your margins result in trying to print on an area of the paper that your printer can't handle, then you'll be notified of the problem, as discussed in this tip.

Printing Color Separations with VBA
When printing in color (at a commercial printer) it is necessary to print different colors of your document in different passes. For this purpose, commercial printers often deal with color separations, or separating a document into its component colors. Word can't perform such a complex task, but there is a way you can simulate color separations in simple documents.

Printing Color Separations with WordBasic
While Word doesn't have an intrinsic function to print color separations, a macro can do some simple separating.

Printing Comments
Comments are a great way to share, well, comments with other people looking through your documents. If you want to print just a list of your document comments, you may be out of luck—unless you use the ideas presented in this tip.

Printing Copy Numbers
Copy 1, Copy 2, Copy 3... Do you want to mark your printouts so that they are numbered? Here's how you can do it.

Printing Custom Properties
Do you use custom document properties? They can be very helpful, but sometimes hard to get at. This tip shows a way you can print out the names and values of your custom properties, using a handy macro.

Printing Document Properties
Word maintains quite a bit of information about a document in a special collection of items called "properties." You can print these properties whenever you print your document, if you so desire. Here's how to do it.

Printing Documents in a Folder
If you want to print a group of documents at the same time there are a couple of ways you can accomplish the task. Here's two easy ones you can use.

Printing Documents without Markup
If you have a document with Track Changes turned on, you can accumulate quite a bit of "markup" in it. Here's how you can print the document without that markup showing up.

Printing Field Codes
Field codes allow dynamic information to be included in documents and can be a great boon. At some point you may want to print a copy of your document with field codes displayed. Here's how to do it.

Printing Graphic Borders
How to make sure that graphic borders print as you expect.

Printing Hidden Text
One of the formatting attributes you can add to text is to make it "hidden," which means you can control whether it is displayed or printed. This tip explains how you can control the printing of hidden text, independent of whether it is displayed or not.

Printing in White
Word allows you to print in every color of the rainbow, but not in white. (Bad comparison; white is not a color of the rainbow.) Here's why you can print in white and what you can do if you really do need to print in white.

Printing More Than One Copy
If you need to print more than one copy of your document, you need to become familiar with the options in the Print dialog box. This tip explains how you can instruct Word to print as many copies of a document as you need.

Printing Multiple Label Copies When Merging
When merging data into a Word document to create labels, you may want a way to create multiple copies of individual labels. There are two approaches you can take, as described in this tip.

Printing Non-Printing Characters
Serious users of Word often display non-printing characters on-screen so they can see them easier. If you want those characters actually printed, you may be out of luck. Here's the reason why, along with some ideas you can use.

Printing Odd or Even Pages
You can instruct Word, when printing your document, to print only the odd- or even-numbered pages. This tip explains how you do this.

Printing On Both Sides of the Paper
A VBA macro to allow duplex printing.

Printing Only Changed Pages
Turn Track Changes on, and you can easily see where you've made changes throughout a document. If you want to print only those pages on which changes have been made, you are out of luck, however. Here's a way you can get around this limitation, however.

Printing Only Selected Pages
I often need to print only select pages of a document, rather than the whole thing. Word makes it easy to be judicious in what you print. Here's how you can specify just those pages that need to be sent to the printer.

Printing Personalized Copies of a Document
Do you need to print individualized copies of documents for a series of individuals? This tip describes how to do just that, without using mail merge. Individual names are pulled from a text file and placed in the header of each document as it is printed.

Printing Reversed Images
Depending on the printer driver you are using with Word, you can force the printout to be a "negative" of itself. This tip explains how to achieve this special effect using a couple of different example drivers.

Printing Shortcut Key Assignments
Shortcut keys are great timesavers when you don't want to remove your hands from the keyboard to mess with the mouse. Word even lets you define your own shortcut keys to augment the rich selection provided by the program. You may, for reference purposes, want to print out a list of all the assignments. You can do so by using the steps outlined in this tip.

Printing Shortcut Key Assignments from a Macro
Adding a line to your Macro to print out your shortcut keys is as easy as one line.

Printing Show/Hide Characters
Non-printing characters are very handy to view when editing a document. But what if you want those characters to no longer be "non-printing?" Here's some ideas on how you can simulate those characters on your printouts.

Printing Style Sheets
Styles are used extensively in some documents. This tip explains how you can easily print a list of all the styles used in a document.

Printing Styles in a Macro
Using a Macro to print out a list of styles.

Printing Summary Information
When you save a document, Word includes in the document file a lot of summary information related to the document. This information doesn't normally print when you print the document itself, but you may want to print the summary information by following the steps presented here.

Printing Summary Information from a Macro
Part of the information that Word maintains about each of your documents is a summary statement, which you can define in the properties for the document. If you want to print that summary from within a macro, you can use the .PrintOut method, described in this tip.

Printing the Active Document from a Macro
Using VBA macros you can process documents in all sorts of ways. One common task you may need to do is to have your macro print the active document. You can accomplish this task by using the PrintOut method, as shown in this tip.

Printing the Current Page
Want to print just the current page? Word can do it, if you know how.

Printing to a File
Word allows you to send your output to a file instead of to a printer.

Printing Very Large Paper Sizes
Want to print your document on very large pieces of paper? Providing you have the proper printer drivers and printer, you can print on paper up to 22 inches in width and length, as described here.

Printing via Macro without Messages
When you are printing a document, it is not unusual to see messages (dialog boxes) periodically. When you want the printing to be done by a macro, the messages can cause unwanted interruptions. Here's a way to make the messages stop.

Printing without Footnotes
Want to print your document without all those footnotes included? It's not quite as easy as you might think, as this tip discloses.

Printing without Headings
Want some quick and handy ways to not print certain information in your documents, such as headings? This tip outlines a couple of things you can do to banish the unwanted text, at least from the printout.

Printing XML Tags
The latest versions of Word allow you to use and save your information in XML format. If you want to, you can have Word print a documents XML tags when it prints the document. Here's how.

Printout Doesn't Match Preview
Print Preview is used to see how a printed document will really look. What if what you see on-screen doesn't match what you see on the printout? Here's some things you can check.

Problem Printing Quotation Marks
If you go to print a document and find out that your quotation marks aren't printing properly, there could be a number of causes. This tip explains the possible causes and examines what you can do to fix the problems.

Reducing the Curl in Printed Documents
Have you ever printed out a document, only to have the pages curl very badly as they come out of the printer? There's a reason for that, and some things you can try to reduce that curl.

Remembering Copies to Print
If you routinely need to print more than one copy of a document, you'll love the ideas presented in this tip. There's even a way that you can make individual documents "remember" how many copies should be printed.

Removing Blank Pages at the End of Your Document
You go to print out your document, and all of a sudden notice that there was a blank page that printed at the end. This could be caused by "non-printing characters" at the end of your document. Here's how to find out and fix it.

Removing Comment Brackets for Printing
How to remove the brackets indicating commented text before printing your Word document.

Reversing Print Order
Sometimes it is to your benefit to print documents in reverse order—starting with the last page and proceeding to the first. This is especially true if your printer doesn't collate its output very well. Word allows you to specify the order in which pages should be printed by making a single change on the Print tab of the Options dialog box.

Saving in PostScript Format
Word can save your document in PostScript format so that it can be easily processed by other programs that work with PostScript. To get the PostScript file, you simply print using a PostScript printer driver.

Scaling Your Output
One of the lesser-known features of Word is that it allows you to create a document for one page size and scale the output to fit on a different page size. It's easy to do, using the Print dialog box.

Selecting a Paper Size
Your printer may be able to print on many different sizes of paper, but if you don't format your document correctly it will never know which of those paper sizes to use. This tip explains just how easy it is to format your document for a particular paper size.

Selecting a Paper Source
Some printers allow you to print on paper from different sources. For instance, a printer may have multiple paper trays, each bearing a different type of paper. If your printer driver is up to date, you can instruct Word to print to exactly the paper source you want used.

Selecting Different Trays in a Mail Merge
When you create a mail-merged document, you might want some pages of the document printed on paper from one printer tray and other pages printed from paper in a different tray. This can be easily accomplished when you create your merge document to begin with.

Selecting Printing of Color Pictures
Do you want to control whether color pictures in your document are printed or not? It's not quite as easy as it may sound. This tip describes several approaches you can use to accomplish this task.

Sending Printer Commands
You can use the PRINT field to send commands directly to your printer, bypassing any processing by Word. This tip explains how to use the field.

Setting Up Your Printer
Word allows you to take full advantage of the capabilities of your printer. Accessing those capabilities is done through the Print dialog box, as described in this tip.

Small Printing with Different Word Versions
A few places to check if the printout differs from the original document.

Specifying a Paper Tray in a Macro
If your printer uses multiple paper trays, you may want a way to access those trays from a macro. Why? Because you may want the macro to print a part of your document on a particular paper that you have in that tray. This tip describes how you can accomplish the task and explains all the caveats related to the process.

Stable Layout on Different Printers
Printing a document on different printers can result in different results, particularly when it comes to where lines end and where new pages start. This tip discusses some of the reasons for this, along with a couple of suggestions on how the problem can be minimized.

Suppressing ASK Fields When Printing
When you instruct Word to print a document, one of the routine tasks that the program does is to update all the fields in the document. Normally this is not a problem, but it can be a problem if you have ASK fields in the document. This means that every time you print, Word prompts you with whatever question is associated with the ASK fields. This tip explains a couple of ways you can stop Word from processing these ASK fields when printing.

Table Borders Won't Print
Print a table and you may be surprised if it has no borders. That could be because you actually have the borders turned off. Confused? You don't need to be (read this tip).

Temporarily Changing the Printer in a Macro
If you use a macro to print to a specific printer, that printer becomes the default printer for Word from then on. (Well, at least until you explicitly change the printer.) With the quick technique described in this tip, you can print to any printer you want without the user ever being aware that you had changed from the printer he or she had previously selected.

Text Prints as Bold, but Displays as Regular
What to do when text looks one way on the screen but prints a different way? This tip provides several different approaches you can use to correct the disparity.

Transferring Fonts
Do you want to transfer fonts from one computer system to another? It is relatively easy to do, but there is one important item to which you need to pay attention.

Triple-Spacing Your Document
Print your document with lots of space between each line—triple space it! Here's some quick and easy steps for getting the spacing you want without affecting your document in a lasting manner.

Turning Off Background Repagination
When you use Word, it normally performs several tasks in the background, while you are typing. One of those tasks is to continuously repaginate your document. Depending on the view you are using, you can turn this feature off, if you don't need it.

Two Page Numbers per Physical Page
Does your page layout require you to place two page numbers on a physical page? This tip explains how you can use fields to accomplish this task.

Understanding Background Printing
We click the button to print our document and seldom think of what is happening behind the scenes. Word prints documents, by default, in the background as we continue to work. You can change this behavior, if you desire; here's how.

Understanding Page Sizes
When you create a document, you need to be concerned about the final size of the page you will be creating. Word supports a wide variety of page sizes, and you can change them—at any time—by using the techniques in this tip.

Unwanted Cover Pages with Print Jobs
When you print a document, do you get more than you bargained for? If you get extra pages printed either before or within your document, it could be due to a number of different configuration settings in Windows and Word.

Unwanted Lines on Printout
Do you have strange lines appearing at the corners of your printout? There are a number of reasons this could be happening, each explained in this tip.

Upside-Down Printing
Wanna print answers at the bottom of a page, but upside down?

Upside-Down Text with PostScript
Got a printer that understands PostScript? You can use some simple PostScript coding to turn text completely upside down on your page.

Using Crop Marks with a PostScript Printer
Want to add crop marks to a printout? It's easy to do, provided you are using a PostScript printer.

Using Duplex Printing
If you have the right type of printer and the proper printer driver, you can print duplex documents (printed on both sides) directly from Word. This tip explains how to take advantage of this type of printing.

Using Sequential Document Serial Numbers
It is not uncommon in some companies to need to add unique serial numbers to printed copies of documents. This allows the documents to be "tracked" as to who has which copy. Adding unique serial numbers can either be tedious as you type each one between printing sessions, or you can use the macro in this tip to do the tedious work for you.

Using the Toolbar to Set Up Multiple Printers
A quick WordBasic macro that helps you print to a specific printer.

Using Unique Document Serial Numbers
If you need to include serial numbers in your printed matter (labels, letters, documents, etc.), the best way is through the use of Word's mail-merge capabilities. This tip outlines how you can use this capability to get just the serial numbers you need.

Working With Multiple Printers Using VBA
Some Word users are fortunate enough to have access to multiple printers. This tip provides a quick way you can access those printers through a custom macro that bypasses the need to use the Print dialog box.

Working With Multiple Printers Using WordBasic
Setting up an icon on your toolbar for each Printer you use.

 

More Information

The following are additional topics related to the subject of 'Printing'. A bracketed number after the topic indicates how many articles are related to that subject.