Changing Focus when Starting to Print

Frank just migrated from Office 2007 to Office 365. In Word 2007 when he pressed Ctrl+P, the focus would be in the Copies field and he could simply type the number of copies to print. In Office 365 the focus is on the Print button, not the Copies field. This change slows down the way that Frank prints documents, so he wonders if there is any way to change the focus back to the Copies field, by default.

There are times when I'm convinced that Microsoft changes things—small, seemingly simple things—just to see if users are awake. This may be one of those instances. Frank's frustration is understandable, but there is no way to change what has initial focus. Perhaps the easiest way to handle the situation is to simply remember to press Tab immediately after pressing Ctrl+P. The addition of the single keystroke moves the focus to the Copies field, and the number of copies can then be entered as was traditionally done.

If that is still too frustrating, you could create a macro that will pull up the Print options and press Tab for you. The following macro will do a trick:

Sub StartPrint()
    Dim sTemp As String

    sTemp = "^p{TAB}"
    SendKeys (sTemp)
End Sub

To make it work without slowing you down, you can assign the macro to the Quick Access Toolbar or to a keyboard shortcut. If you choose the latter approach, you will want to make sure that you don't assign it to the Ctrl+P shortcut. Doing so will cause you to quickly realize your mistake, as once you press Ctrl+P, the macro will go into an endless loop as it issues a Ctrl+P just as if you had. Instead, assign it to a different keyboard shortcut and you should have no such problem.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13830) applies to Microsoft Word Word in Microsoft 365.