Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 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 Documents in a Folder.

Printing Documents in a Folder

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 28, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365

Have you collected a bunch of documents in a folder, and you want to print all the documents? There are a couple of quick and easy ways you can do this. The first method involves the use of Windows, not Word. Follow these general steps:

Display the folder that contains all the documents you want to print.
Create a selection set of the documents you want to print. (Select them all, using Ctrl and Shift to help put the selection set together.)
Right-click on one of the selected documents. Windows displays a Context menu.
Choose Print from the Context menu.

Word is automatically started and each document is printed, in turn. There are a couple of caveats to this approach. First, if you are using Windows 7 or Windows 10 you must make sure that you are only trying to print files of like type. As long as all the files are Word documents, you should have no problems. Secondly, you can only print up to 15 documents at a time in this manner.

You can also apply a variation on this approach:

In Word, display the Open dialog box.
Using the controls in the dialog box, display the folder that contains the documents you want to print.
Create a selection set of the documents you want to print.
Right-click any of the selected documents and choose Print from the resulting Context menu.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12036) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Printing Documents in a Folder.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Deleting a View

When you no longer need a view, you can get rid of it by deleting it. Deleting unnecessary views is a good idea because ...

Discover More

Putting Cell Contents in Footers

Referencing information between cells in a worksheet is a piece of cake using some elemental formulas. You cannot, ...

Discover More

Renaming a Workbook

Renaming a workbook from within Excel can seem daunting, but it is actually quite easy. All you need to do is use the ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing the Default File Name

When you first save a new file, Word bases the name of that file on the contents of the start of the first paragraph in ...

Discover More

Determining if a Document is Corrupt

Think you might have a corrupt document? There is no easy way to tell if this is the case, but there are some things you ...

Discover More

Changes to Header Result in a Hung Computer

If you try to perform some actions in a document and those actions result in Word freezing, then your document may well ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is four minus 0?

2018-07-02 14:32:46

SRS

So I have used this method many times in the past. But I have noticed that it does not always print them in the order that they are in the folder. Do others find this to be true for them?

This Site

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.