when opening some word document i get the message: The printer ha.

[freddyprinze]

When opening some Word documents, I get an error message saying: "Printer has
not yet responded, but Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed
without printer information. Do you want to continue to wait for the
printer?" I respond "no" and the document then appears. Sometimes I do not
get this message but the document takes a very long time to load.

I just added a new Brother MFC210 all in one printer. Note that I am not
attempting to print anything and that I am just trying to open a Word
document at the time.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Have you installed the printer driver locally? Selected it as the default?
Word needs to have access to a printer driver to know how to format your
document.

 

[freddyprinze]

Thanks Suzanne. I have two printers installed to one computer: an old Epson
installed via printer cable and the Brother installed via USB. The Brother is
the default printer (checkmark near its icon in control panel printers). I
normally have the Brother machine powered off. On deeper investigation, I
found that if my Brother machine is powered on, I do not get this message.
When you ask if the printer driver is installed locally, I assume you mean I
have one computer not a network. I have only one computer and the Brother is
the default. I guess it's necessary to have the Brother printer powered on
all the time or before I open Word documents?

 

[Beth Melton]

If the printer driver is installed locally, IOW you added the printer
using the Add Printer Wizard, then I'd say you will need to leave it
powered on if it is set as your default printer. We've found a few
other printers that fall into this category as well.

The reason for this is Word queries the printer driver when it starts
in order to obtain the printable area, font information, etc so it can
accurately display the document as it will look when printed on the
screen.

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Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[freddyprinze]

Thanks Beth & Suzanne. I thought I was going crazy and then others suggested
my machine had a virus! Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If power on/off makes the difference in Freddy's case, then perhaps that's
the solution, but I've never had any problem using Word with my printer(s)
turned off, so long as Word has access to the driver (which is, after all,
on the HD, not in the printer).

 

[Beth Melton]

There have been a couple of other reports on the same issue. I seem to
recall it was an HP all-in-one type of printer or it may have been a
Brother too. What I do recall is thinking the need to keep the printer
turned on was not good!

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/