Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Printing an Outline.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 31, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365
Outline view allows you to easily see the heading levels that you've used in your document. (You switch to Outline view by using the Outline tool on the View tab of the ribbon.) If you do a lot of work in Outline view, you may want to print just the outline at some time.
This is easier to do in Word than you may suspect. All you need to do is to switch to Outline view and then make sure you are viewing just the heading levels that you want to print. Then, press Ctrl+P. Word displays the Print area of the back office. (If you are using Word 2007, then the Print dialog box is displayed.) Click the Print button, and your outline is printed.
There is a real chance for confusion here, though. When you press Ctrl+P, Word makes it look as if you are going to print the whole document. In fact, the whole document is shown in the Print Preview area. Despite this, when you click the Print button, only the outline—what you had displayed before you pressed Ctrl+P—is sent to the printer.
Microsoft could obviously make this less confusing, but it has not chosen to do so. Understand that you should press Ctrl+P and then immediately click Print. If you make any changes to settings after you press Ctrl+P, then you'll override printing of the outline and may, instead, end up printing the entire document.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10806) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Printing an Outline.
Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!
Don't like the formatting that appears when looking at your document in Outline view? You can turn off the formatting and ...
Discover MoreWhen working on an outline of your document, you may want to demote a heading so that it is treated just like your body ...
Discover MoreWhen working on a document in Outline view, you may need to change regular body text to a heading in the outline. It's ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2024-09-03 00:35:14
jms
Hi Allen,
I tried your suggestion regarding printing outline view "Despite this, when you click the Print button, only the outline—what you had displayed before you pressed Ctrl+P—is sent to the printer." and it would not print the outline. It only gave me my full document.
I even tried print selection only and sill, the result was the entire document. jms
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here:
Comments