How to speed up printing?

[Alina]

Hi,

I have got a Word97 file which contains about 7 000 pages.
The task is to find a proper page and print it.
Finding any page is fast.
The problem is that after clicking Print -> Current page
printer performs Buffering which takes really a lot of time.
Then printing itself is fast.
Is there any method to speed up the Buffering?
I use the Win XP Pro SP2 and HP LJ P2015 printer.
The computer is equipped with USB 1.1 and 256 MB RAM.

Could anybody help me?

Regards,
Alina

 

[Tom Willett]

USB 2.0 and more RAM.

| Hi,
|
| I have got a Word97 file which contains about 7 000 pages.
| The task is to find a proper page and print it.
| Finding any page is fast.
| The problem is that after clicking Print -> Current page
| printer performs Buffering which takes really a lot of time.
| Then printing itself is fast.
| Is there any method to speed up the Buffering?
| I use the Win XP Pro SP2 and HP LJ P2015 printer.
| The computer is equipped with USB 1.1 and 256 MB RAM.
|
| Could anybody help me?
|
| Regards,
| Alina
|

 

[Terry Farrell]

Your problem is probably that Word paginates when you execute the print
command. How you are finding the page you want to print and how do you
select it to print?

 

[Alina]

I find the page using Edit -> Find and type a string
which is unique for each page.
I print it using File -> Print -> Current page.

Can I do anything to avoid Word paginating if it is the reason?

Regards,
Alina

 

[Terry Farrell]

Alina

I think probably there's little you can do to stop the repagination. Instead
of using the Print, Current Page option, try entering the S#P# (section
number, page number) instead to see if that is faster, but I doubt it. The
only solutions I can suggest is splitting the document or getting a faster
computer (or both), which isn't a very practical answer.

Terry

 

[Alina]

Terry

Thanks for your answers.

I don't know how to use S#P# instead of Print -> Current Page.
Besides, the time of the whole operation is important and I don't
know if S#P# is as fast as clicking Print -> Current page.

Splitting the document is not a good solution because I have to
search for a proper page in the entire file.

Could you tell me please which computer parameter (processor,
RAM, etc.) is the most important for the speed of printing from Word?
Maybe I could put 512 MB of RAM instead of 256 MB I have now,
but it'd be difficult to change USB port from 1.1 to 2.0.

Regards,
Alina

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm wondering if a Print Selection, perhaps as a macro if Word has to
paginate to bring up the Print dialog, might bypass pagination. Possible?

The printout would not have a page number or be in the correct format,
however, which may not be acceptable to the OP.

 

[Terry Farrell]

To print a page or range of pages in the middle of a document, it is
insufficient to simply enter the page number (unless of course the document
is just a single long continuous section). You have to enter the section and
page numbers.

So for a single page, you would enter s7p15 (section 7 page 15 only) and for
a range of pages you would enter s3p1-s4p8 (print from section 3, page 1 to
section 4 page 8).

It may be faster because Word may stop paginating once it has reached the
requested pages.

Terry

 

[Alina]

Thanks again.

How can I find out what Section and Page corresponds to the page
that was found at the search process?
Then how can I enter the section and the page to print it?

Regards
Alina

 

[Terry Farrell]

Section and page numbers are displayed in the Status Bar.

Terry

 

[Alina]

Yes, I've found it.
How to use the section and page numbers to print the page?
I have looked at the print form and its options but I haven't
noticed any field to put the numbers down.
Could you tell me please how to use the numbers to print
the page?

Regards
Alina

 

[Terry Farrell]

In the File, Print dialog, there is a section 'Page Range'. Simply enter
sxpx in the empty box. (Note that immediately you do that the Pages radio
button will become active.)

tf

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See the "Print specific pages and sections" portion of the "Print a
document" Help topic or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/PrintMultipleSections.htm

 

[Alina]

I have section and page numbers in the Status Bar
when I open a small file only. After opening a big
file, which is the subject of my problem, I have any
squares displayed instead of the numbers there.
I used "random" numbers (as an example) today but
I probably mixed the page and the section numbers
as I didn't get any print out.
I'll keep trying tomorrow.

I also consider borrowing any stronger computer
to perform the task.

Regards
Alina

 

[Alina]

Hi again,

I have got a Word97 file which contains about 7 000 pages.
The task is to find a proper page and print it.
Finding any page is fast.
The problem is that after clicking Print -> Current page
printer performs Buffering which takes really a lot of time.
Then printing itself is fast.
Is there any method to speed up the Buffering?
I use the Win XP Pro SP2 and HP LJ P2015 printer.
The computer is equipped with USB 1.1 and 256 MB RAM.

I tried to print using another computer with USB 2.0 and 1 GB RAM
and it wasn't faster at all.
It was faster on any computer when I divided the file into small parts
but in such case finding a proper page is very difficult and it also
takes time.

However I remember that I had to print pages on dimand from
a big Word97 file a few years ago and it was much faster.
The only difference was that I used Win98SE then.
I used the same Office 97 and even slower laser printer.
Is there is any reason that printing ("random") pages from a big
Word97 file is faster under Win98SE than under WinXP Pro?

Regards
Alina