Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 22, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Abdul works in an office where he has access to five printers from his computer. When he prints a document, he wants the footer to contain the name of the printer on which the document was printed, as in "Printed on: HP LaserJet 1320."
Provided that the document is being sent to a specific printer and not to a printer pool to which all five printers belong, the necessary footer information can be added through the use of a macro. The reason that it cannot be done if the printers are in a pool is because divvying up the print jobs to individual printers in a print pool is done by Windows itself, not by Word.
For an example of a macro you could use, consider this one:
Sub AddPrinterName() Dim sPName As String ' Get the printer name sPName = Trim(Left(ActivePrinter, InStr(ActivePrinter, " on "))) ' Close any special pane If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close End If ' Activate print view If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView _ Or ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView End If ' Open header/footer ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader ' Switch to footer If Selection.HeaderFooter.IsHeader = True Then ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageFooter Else ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader End If ' Insert text and printer Selection.TypeText Text:="Printed on: " & sPName ' Tidy up ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument End Sub
This macro will insert the active printer's name into the footer. You can, if desired, trigger this macro from the DocumentBeforePrint event and you'll be sure that the footer has the required information in it whenever you choose to print. If you do so, of course, you'll want to make sure that you modify the macro slightly so that it selects any previously placed footer information and deletes it before inserting the new footer information.
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (372) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Including a Printer's Name in a Footer.
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