Word for print again

Try the following options to help determine the problem:

In this article we’ll assume that you’ve already checked a few of the obvious things such as:

• Is the printer turned on?

• Is there paper, ink and/or toner in the printer?

• All cables to the printer and the computer are securely connected?

Note: If your printer is displaying an error message please contact the manufacturer of the printer for support of that specific error message.

This article is for troubleshooting when you can’t get your document to print at all. If you have questions about how to print a document in Office for Mac or how to do special things like print on both sides of the page (duplex) see Print a document in Word for Mac.

If your Microsoft Office Word documents are not printing correctly or properly, here are some solutions you can try to fix the problem. The problem could be a driver issue, font problem, the Word document itself, or even a general PC issue. However, before we go ahead, we suggest you go to System > Troubleshoot > Other Troubleshooters. Click the Printer Troubleshooter option, and then click on the Run button. Then try to print and see if it works. If it doesn’t, go ahead with the advanced troubleshooting.

Follow these suggestions if the Microsoft Office Word documents are not printing correctly or properly:

1. Test printing of other documents
2. Test in WordPad
3. Test printing from other programs
4. Repair Office
5. Test for problems in Windows
6. Test printing with different printer drivers

You will need an administrator account to get this done.

1] Test printing of other documents

If your documents or graphics contain damaged fonts, this can cause printing problems in Microsoft Word. Before reinstalling your drivers or software, try testing Word’s printing ability. You can achieve this by testing in a new word document.

• Open Word, and then click the new blank document template.
• To insert ten paragraphs of sample text on the document’s first line, type =rand(10) and press Enter.
• Turn on the Printer, and use Ctrl + P to check if the document prints.
• If the document prints, then you need to try with different objects that Word supports. The list includes
  • Clip art, a table
  • Drawing object
  • Fonts
  • Online Photos and so on.
• Try to print again and check if this works.

These tests determine whether Microsoft Word can print documents correctly. They may also reveal issues with specific fonts or graphics not printing correctly.

If you are not receiving any errors when trying to print a document, but the document will not print, the document may be damaged. Even if you can print the same document on another computer, this may be due to file damage that is not apparent on all computers. In this case, check out how you can fix the damaged Word documents.

Additionally, if the printer works when you change the font, you must remove it from the PC and reinstall it to check. If it doesn’t, choose a different font.

If none of these works, check out the second method.

2] Test in WordPad

• Click on the Start button.
• In the Search box, type Wordpad.
• In the list of programs, click on WordPad.
• In the WordPad document, type some random words
• On the File menu, click Print.
• In the Print dialog box, click OK or Print.

If this is the first time you use WordPad, you may be prompted to select the printer. Done that, you can also add images and other supported objects to check if the print works.

If this doesn’t work, we need to check if the print is working from another program.

3] Test printing from other programs

After you finish creating the document in WordPad, you can test the print functions in your web browser or another Office program. You can also try to print a test page for your printer. To print a text page, follow these steps:

• Open Windows Settings using Win + I
• Navigate to Bluetooth and devices > Printers and Scanners
• Select your printer to expand the option
• Click on select Print Test Page.

If this doesn’t work, then the issue is with the printer. You must reinstall the printer driver and check if the issue is resolved. However, if this solution works, you can print from anywhere except Microsoft Word. Check out the following suggestion to fix the issue.

4] Repair Office

If the printing problem continues, follow these steps to run the repair program and reinstall any missing or damaged program files.

• Exit all Office programs.
• Open Windows Settings, navigate to Apps > Apps & features list,
• Locate, and select the Office and then click on the three-dot menu and click on Advanced Options
• Scroll, look for the Repair button, click on it, and let the wizard complete the process.

Once done, open Word again and check if you can print.

5] Test for problems in Windows

To troubleshoot potential issues with your device drivers or memory-resident programs, you can start Windows in safe mode and test printing to a file in Word. To start Windows in safe mode, follow the steps below.

1. Remove all USB devices from your computer, and then restart your computer.
2. Restart your PC, and press the F8 keys as the computer boots.
3. Keep it pressed unless you see the  Advanced Boot Options screen
4. You can then navigate to Safe Mode by going to Troubleshoot
5. Log on to your PC, and try printing from Word again.

If you don’t experience the Word printing problem when you start Windows in safe mode, you can use the same steps to troubleshoot after you do a clean start. It will help you determine the source of the problem.

6]  Test printing with different printer drivers

To determine whether the printer driver is the cause of the problem, you can test different drivers. You can start by updating the printer driver, and if that doesn’t work, you need to use the generic, text-only printer driver to test printing from Word. To do this, follow these steps:

• Open Power Menu using Win + X
• Click on Device Manager
• Expand the Printers section, and select the printer
• Right-click and click on Update driver > Browser for drivers on your computer
• Then click on Let me pick from the list of available drivers on my computer
• Uncheck Show Compatible Hardware
• Click on Generic and then select Generic / Text only
• Click next to apply the changes, and then try to print.

If you see an error message when you try to print a file that only contains text but not when you use the generic, text-only printer driver, your printer driver may be damaged. In this case, contact the manufacturer to help remove the printer driver and install an updated version.

Why is my Microsoft Word not opening?

When Word’s document cannot be opened, it may be because of corrupted documents or mistakes like using a picture as a document’s icon. Other reasons include using Word with other programs and add-ons.

Where are unsaved Word documents stored?

These Word files can be found via File > Open and click the Recover Unsaved Documents button at the bottom of the Recent File List.

Does your printer produce Microsoft Word documents with strange fonts, jumbled paragraphs, missing text, or almost nothing? Try these potential fixes.

There are many reasons for Microsoft Word documents to print out strangely. Some involve errors with the program; others could hint at more far-reaching issues.

If your Microsoft Word documents are printing out incorrectly on Windows, try these troubleshooting options to get perfect prints every time.

Finding Out What the Problem Is

Before we begin, you should know that a few of these troubleshooting techniques to find out why Microsoft Word isn’t printing correctly involve some test printing. If you want to conserve printer toner or ink, here’s how to change settings to make Microsoft Word print in black and white.

Print a Test Page

Before you try any other potential fix, it’s best to rule out an error with your printer. This will give you an idea of where the issue lies. Follow these steps to print a test page on your printer.

1. Click on the Start menu and type ‘control panel.’
2. Click on the Control Panel app.
3. In Category view, look under Hardware and Sound for the View devices and printers option. In Icon view, it is called Devices and Printers.
4. Right-click on your printer and select Printer properties. (Make sure your printer is connected to your computer and switched on. The printer will be grayed out if it is not.)
5. Under the General tab, click on the Print Test Page button.

The test page should tell you whether your printer has been installed correctly. If there is an issue with your printer, this guide on what to do when your printer is not working should help you resolve the issue.

If the test page prints out correctly, the issue is probably not with your printer. It could be Microsoft Word or even Windows that is causing the print error.

Fixes You Can Try to Fix Printing Issues in Microsoft Word

1. Print Other Microsoft Word Documents

Is the problem with a specific document? A particular file may have corrupted contents, or the file itself may be corrupted. This could cause printing errors with Microsoft Word. Try the following fix:

1. Open a new Microsoft Word file.
2. Copy and paste your text and other data into the new Word document.
3. Print the newly created document.

If your document prints out as desired, it may be an error with the original file. This probably means that the print error was an isolated issue, and this should resolve it.

If the page doesn’t print out correctly, it could be an issue with Microsoft Word or some of its settings.

2. Print Documents in Other Formats

To know whether the printing issue you are having is Microsoft Word-specific, try printing another document on your computer, maybe a PDF file or even a website. Pressing Ctrl + P on most web pages should pull up the print options.

If PDF documents print out correctly, here’s a temporary fix: When you’ve finalized the contents in your Microsoft Word document, covert it to PDF and print that instead.

Here’s how to convert a Microsoft Word document into a PDF document. In Microsoft Word on Windows, simply go to File > Save As, then choose PDF at the Save as type dropdown.

Here’s a helpful article on how to convert Word files to PDF on a Mac computer.

3. Check Printer Drivers

If other documents are printing out correctly, a potential fix may be to uninstall and reinstall either your printer drivers or your printer, or both. As Microsoft themselves put it, “Word is a very printer-intensive program. Therefore, a minor problem in the printer driver tends to affect Word before it affects other programs.”

Here’s a guide on fixing printer driver issues and getting your printer functioning normally again on Windows.

4. Check for Problems With Windows

The problem might be add-ons that you’ve installed with Microsoft Word or even misbehaving device drivers. Follow this guide to get in and out of Safe Mode in Windows 10 to test why Microsoft Word won’t print documents correctly.

If you are able to print properly in Safe Mode, you may want to perform a clean boot to isolate and identify the cause of your problem.

5. Scaled Printing Issue

A less common issue is when pages print at a fraction of the actual size, taking up only a small portion of the printed paper. This is possibly a problem with scaling factors. Here’s how to check and remove the scaling on Microsoft Word documents when printing.

1. Press Ctrl + P or go to File > Print when working in the Word document.
2. Click on Printer Properties under your printer.
3. Under the Page Setup tab, in the Page Layout section, make sure the Scaled option isn’t selected. If it is, switch it to Normal-size.

This should make the pages print at full size, with text and any graphics filling the entire page.

6. Check for Hidden Text

Microsoft Word affords the option of hiding text on the page. The hidden text has the same properties as formatting marks, which are characters that take up space in a document but don’t appear when printed, such as spaces, line breaks, and tab characters.

If your prints are missing part of your soft copy text, here’s how to check whether you have text hidden in the document.

1. In the Word document you want to check, click on File > Options.
2. Under the Display tab, make sure the Hidden text option in unchecked.
3. 

   Print the document to see if this fixes the problem.

This informative article gives more background on non-printing or invisible characters in word processors.

7. Check Form Data Print Options

A not-so-common occurrence is table borders not showing up in final prints. This can be easily remedied.

1. In the Word document, go to File > Options.
2. Under the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Print section.
3. Make sure that the checkbox for printing only the data from a form is unchecked.

8. Print Directly to the Printer

Some errors when printing Microsoft Word documents causes pages to have only portions of text. This might be because of a spooling issue.

1. Open the Control Panel app.
2. Click on the option for devices and printers.
3. Right-click on your printer and select Printer properties.
4. Under the Advanced tab, select Print directly to the printer.

If your computer is connected directly to a printer, you don’t need the spool print option turned on. However, turning it off may slow down your PC when printing.

9. Repair Microsoft Office Suite

If you’ve tried all these potential fixes for Microsoft Word not printing properly and the issue persists, repairing your copy of Microsoft Word might solve the problem. To detect problems and repair Word on your Windows PC, do the following:

1. Click on the Start menu and type «control panel.”
2. Click on the Uninstall a program option under the Program heading in Category view, or the Programs and Features option in Icon view.
3. Search for your Microsoft Office suite or Word program; right-click it and select Change or Modify.
4. Select the Repair option and click Continue.

This will reset the settings on the 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 editions of Microsoft Word.

Get Printing Again

Hopefully, one of these troubleshooting tips should serve its purpose and resolve your printing issue, and you’ll be printing error-free pages just as you see them on your computer.

The printing order typically starts from page 1 and proceeds up to the last page. Printed papers that emerge from the printer come out with the last page on top and the first page at the bottom of the pile. If your document had only about 5-10 pages, sorting them manually—to bring page one on the top—is no major task.

Now, instead of a few pages, what if your document was actually a book with a few hundred pages?

After you have printed all the pages, sorting them to bring page 1 on the top could soon become a tedious exercise.

Well, the solution is very simple—why not start the printing process beginning with the last page and finish with page one?

The process is termed printing in reverse order, and the printer you are using may allow doing so because of a built-in functionality.

However, all printers may not possess that facility, so you can set up Microsoft Word to do that for you.

We will guide you through the process of printing your Word document in reverse order following a few simple steps. In fact, you can do that in two ways.

• Set Word to print in reverse order by default.
• Reverse print the document using custom print options.

Lets start.

Method #1: Set Reverse Printing as default

This method will set up Word to print any document in the reverse order—very useful if you are working steadily on a single large document and not switching documents frequently.

Step #1: Open Microsoft Word

Start Microsoft Word.

Step #2: Open Word Options

In the bottom left corner, click on Options. This will open the Word Options page.

Step #3: Set Print in Reverse Order

1. Click on the Advanced tab on the left side. Scroll down the right side until you reach the section Print.
2. Click on Print pages in reverse order, making sure that a tick-mark appears inside the small square immediately in the left.
3. Click on OK to exit.

The above steps set up Word to print in the reverse order of pages for any document you open from now onwards.

To go back to printing starting from page 1, simply follow the above steps again, and make sure there is no tick-mark against Print pages in reverse order in Word Options.

Method #2: Reverse Printing using Printer Options

Use this method if you print several different Word documents frequently, and only some require printing in reverse order.

Step #1: Open a Word Document

Open a Word document. Click on the File tab on the top menu bar. The File dialog will open.

Step #2: Set Up the Print Dialog

1. Click on the Print tab on the left. The Print dialog will now open, showing a print preview of the document on the right side.
2. Under Settings, click on Print All Pages. An options menu will drop.
3. Click on Custom Print. The options menu will close with the cursor blinking inside a blank field.

Step #3: Set Up Custom Print to print in reverse order.

Word offers hints for filling up the blank field. You can see these hints if you hover the mouse pointer on the Instructions icon to the right of the blank field.

To print in reverse order, type the number of the last page with which you want to start the printing, followed by a hyphen, and then the number of the page on which you want the printing to end.

For instance, you may type 5-1, or 8-4, or other, depending on your requirement.

Word displays the current page and the total number of pages at the bottom for your convenience and reference.

Step #4: Print

Click the Print icon to start printing. Once printing has completed, Word will revert to printing all pages in regular order for other documents when you open them next.

Conclusion

If your printer is capable of printing in reverse order, you may use that specific feature. However, it is possible to reverse print with any printer, and Word allows you to do that in two ways—one for all documents, and the other for the current document. We have explained both methods in simple steps.