Often the entire purpose of using Word is to create a printed product, so it may be frustrating if you run into issues along the way. Understanding what is involved in the printing process will help narrow down what the issue may be when it arises. The following articles list dozens of problems you may encounter and how to work around them.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

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

   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.

   Bookmark Error when Printing
Bookmarks are commonly used in Word documents as a way to cross-reference information. If the bookmark referenced by the cross-reference can't be found, Word gets confused and lets you know about its confusion. Here's why you may see an error message about bookmarks.

   Centering a Custom Paper Size on a Piece of Letter-Sized Paper
Sometimes getting your printed output to match your expectations can be a challenge. Such is the case when you want to print a custom paper size on a regular piece of paper. This tip explains how to actually set up your page layout to get exactly what you expect.

   Changing Focus when Starting to Print
Sometimes small changes between versions of Word can affect how we do our work. (And, thereby, bug the heck out of us.) This tip looks at one small change and discusses how to get around it.

   Discovering Printer Drift
How accurate is your printer when it comes to placing information on the printed page? The simple technique described in this tip will help you to discover how precisely your printer handles paper and prints your information.

   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.

   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.

   Images Won't Print
Documents can contain images, as you already know. What if you spend a lot of time adding images to your documents, but those images don't appear when you print? Here's some ideas on why that may happen.

   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 for the problem. This tip provides some guidance on how you can start to track down a solution.

   Missing Left Border
Ever wonder why a border around a graphic doesn't print the way it looks on the screen? There are several ways to add and edit borders. Here's where to look to find the problem, along with other useful information about printing.

   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.

   Non-printing Page Borders
With your page border in place, you might be surprised if you don't see one side of the border (or all sides) print out with your document. Here's the reason for the missing border sides and what you can do about it.

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

   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 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't print in white and what you can do if you really do need to print in white.

   Printing Multiple Documents in a Sorted Order
Both Word and Windows provide ways you can print multiple documents in a single batch. Getting those documents printed in the order you desire, however, can be a bit challenging.

   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 here are some things you can try to reduce that curl.

   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.

   Specifying the Exact Pages to Print
If you have multiple sections in your document, it can be frustrating to print out a limited selection of pages from that document. This tip describes such a scenario and helps you understand how to print out exactly what you want.

   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).

   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 Vertical Lines in a Table
When you print a table that includes borders, those borders should be crisp and clear on the printout. If you get some unexpected lines around the borders, there could be a number of different reasons.