WORD "forgets" default network printer

[Fred Goodwin, CMA]

Well, maybe "forget" is the wrong term to describe what is happening.

I am using MS WORD 2003 SP3, on an HP-Compaq 5100 running Windows XP
SP2. I've set my default printer in Windows to be a networked HP
LaserJet 4050 PCL 6.

All of my Office apps remember the default printer, but whenever I
load WORD, it hangs saying the printer isn't responding, do I want to
wait? I click "No", then I go into the print menu and reset the blank
printer line to the default printer.

What is causing this behavior? Is there something in my Office or
Windows setup that is incorrect?

I clicked through several WORD menus and cannot find an option to set
the default printer, other than in the Print menu, where I tell it
which printer to use. But the next time I load WORD, I get the same
error.

None of my other applications (Office or otherwise) gets such an error
(waiting on the default printer).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I see this occasionally. I don't get an error message loading Word, but when
I go to print, I'm told that no printer is selected. At one point I think I
figured out what was causing it, but I can't remember whether it was a
matter of starting Word before Windows was quite through loading all the
startup apps or that it happened after creating a PDF (cause of many other
issues) or what.

 

[Fred Goodwin, CMA]

I see this occasionally. I don't get an error message loading Word, but
when I go to print, I'm told that no printer is selected. At one point I
think I figured out what was causing it, but I can't remember whether it
was a matter of starting Word before Windows was quite through loading all
the startup apps or that it happened after creating a PDF (cause of many
other issues) or what.

Yes, now that you mention it, I think it happens to me the next time I
load WORD after printing to PDF. I'll have to pay more attention next
time to see if there is a relationship. I'm using Adobe 8 Pro -- I
don't recall this being a problem with Adobe 7.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'd be happy to blame Adobe. <g>

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you print to the Adobe driver, as opposed to using the add-in tools to
create the PDF, there is a tendency to set Adobe PDF as the default printer
driver. You can overcome this by using a macro to 'print' the document (see
below) and restore the default printer, but it shouldn't happen if you
create pdfs from the add-in tools and the add-in provides additional
functionality so it is advisable to use it anyway.

Sub PrintAdobe()
Dim sPrinter As String
sPrinter = ActivePrinter
ActivePrinter = "Adobe PDF"
Application.PrintOut
ActivePrinter = sPrinter
End Sub

http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I would expect more than a "tendency" to set Adobe PDF as the active (not
default) printer in Word, as that's the way Word works: whichever is the MRU
becomes the active printer for that Word session. But the problem at hand is
the one of having *no* printer set as the default or active printer in Word
(even though one *is* set as the Windows default).

 

[Graham Mayor]

I have been checking further and the behaviour I reported is inconsistent,
but ties in with what the OP says. Creating PDF files from Acrobat 8.1.2 in
Word (2003) will frequently set the *default* printer as Adobe PDF not
merely the ActivePrinter. This can be verified by the check mark against the
Adobe driver in the Print dialog. Thus when Word is restarted the Adobe
printer remains the current printer.

As luck would have it, whilst making these further checks, I found that the
add-in also caused the behaviour. However it doesn't always do so and I
haven't noticed the problem occurring in Word 2007.

It would do so consistently earlier this afternoon, and it also switched off
the Acrobat toolbar, but since opening Normal.dot and ensuring that the
toolbar was displayed before resaving normal.dot it has been working
correctly.

The following macro addresses the issue of the default printer when used to
print to the Adobe driver, but this has no bearing on the problem with the
add-in. Acrobat's add-ins are a strange breed

Sub PrintAdobe()
Dim sPrinter As String
With Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrintSetup)
sPrinter = .Printer
.Printer = "Adobe PDF"
.DoNotSetAsSysDefault = True
.Execute
Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrint).Show
.Printer = sPrinter
.DoNotSetAsSysDefault = False
.Execute
End With
End Sub

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yuck. I'm glad I have only Acrobat 6, I think!