Changing Print Dialog Box Defaults

Marie asked for a way to change the defaults in the Print dialog box so that she could, by default, simply print the current page. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the defaults; Word always resets them to its internal settings whenever the Print dialog box is first displayed. However, there are a couple of ways you can work around this problem.

The first method is to simply record a macro that prints the current page. Once recorded you can assign the macro to the toolbar or give it a shortcut key. (How you do these things has been covered in other issues of WordTips.) Now you don't even need to pull up the regular Print dialog box to print the current page—you have your own macro that does the work for you with a single click. The following is an example of such a macro:

Sub PrintCurrentPage()
    Application.PrintOut FileName:="", Range:=wdPrintCurrentPage, _
      Item:= wdPrintDocumentContent, Copies:=1, Pages:="", _
      PageType:=wdPrintAllPages, Collate:=False, _
      Background:=True, PrintToFile:=False
End Sub

If you would like something that really does change the settings in the Print dialog box, you can only do so using a macro. Understand, however, that this approach doesn't change the defaults, but changes the settings. Thus, when you call the macro, the Print dialog box is invoked and the settings changed from the defaults by the macro. This may sound a bit confusing, but it simply means that any number of setting changes are made for you before you have the chance to view the Print dialog box.

Public Sub PrintCurrentPageDialog()
    With Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrint)
        .Range = wdPrintCurrentPage
        .Show
    End With
End Sub

In this case, the macro sets the Range value in the Print dialog box to the current page before showing it. Once the dialog box is shown, the macro is over and you can manually make other dialog box setting changes, as desired.

It is interesting to note that if you name the foregoing macro FilePrint (instead of PrintCurrentPageDialog), then the macro essentially replaces the built-in Word command that comes into play when you select Print from the File menu. Thus, you have changed (ever so slightly) what the built-in Word command does.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1487) 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: Changing Print Dialog Box Defaults.