Word won't print in black & white

[Bob-Lo]

All of a sudden, all my Word documents print in red ink. I can't find a
tool to change this. I know it's a Word problem because other programs
(Appleworks) print in black and white. The problem is limited to Word.
I'm a writer and I can't send out manuscripts printed in red ink. Can
anyone tell me how to fix this. Thanks.

 

[daiya.mitchell]

A guess, but the last time I guessed it no one complained.

Word has a "black" font setting and an "Automatic" font setting, which
is usually black (but say, "Automatic" text on a dark brown background
will turn to white automatically). Try changing the font setting from
Automatic to actual black.

Word using red for Automatic *might* indicate that you are running low
on a color, if your printer combines colors to get black.

 

[Bob-Lo]

A guess, but the last time I guessed it no one complained.

Word has a "black" font setting and an "Automatic" font setting, which
is usually black (but say, "Automatic" text on a dark brown background
will turn to white automatically). Try changing the font setting from
Automatic to actual black.

Word using red for Automatic *might* indicate that you are running low
on a color, if your printer combines colors to get black.

Thanks. A very logical suggestion. But it didn't work. It printed red
even after being set to black. This is really weird.

 

[CyberTaz]

I've seen several references to the same type of problem & it
invariably relates back to a driver problem - HP printer?

It usually follows an update to Office or some updates of the OS. Check
the printer mfr's site for a more recent driver. If there isn't a new
one available, reinstall a fresh copy of the current one & see if that
resolves the issue.

There are also cases where reinstalling an *older* driver or even one
for a different printer model fixes the issue.

Regards |:>)

 

[Bob-Lo]

I thought you were on to something since it is an HP printer. So I
installed the lates driver for my model---It still prints in red. I
suppose I can try another model's driver, but won't that just mess up
everything?

 

[CyberTaz]

That was just a last resort & wouldn't be recommended unless you have
verification from the mfr that the driver *would* be compatible.

I would first try locating the printer's preferences file (most likely in
~UserName:Libraryreferences & delete those that pertain. Restart & try
again. Before you do...

Have you gone to the Print dialog box, accessed the 3rd list & specify Black
rather than Color in the Print Settings dialog? What happens if you print
from Text Edit or Preview?

Regards |:>)

 

[Bob-Lo]

All of the above----Still red!

 

[Sidney San Martín]

All of a sudden, all my Word documents print in red ink. I can't find a
tool to change this. I know it's a Word problem because other programs
(Appleworks) print in black and white. The problem is limited to Word.
I'm a writer and I can't send out manuscripts printed in red ink. Can
anyone tell me how to fix this. Thanks.

Try pressing Preview in the print dialog, so the document opens in the
Preview application. Is it red there? Try pressing print at the bottom
of the window if not. Does the text come out red?

 

[Bob-Lo]

Sidney

It shows black on screen in Preview, but prints in red.

**************************

John

I am getting a message that the ink in the color cartridge is getting
low--although it is still printing bright red text. No surprise since
printing everything in red must be using up the color ink cartridge.

I don't undertand how low ink in the color cartridge will cause the
printer to ignore the black cartridge. The black cartridge is almost
full. No surprise since it is obviously not being used by the printer.

Again, if I print in any program but Word, it prints in black. The
problem is only in Word. Very strange.

 

[picardmeister]

Odd...

Do you possibly have track changes turned on? It's under Tools > Track
Changes.

Also, have you tried going to File > Print > Microsoft Word (underneath
the Presets dropdown) and changing Print What: to Document? Does that
fix it? I'm guessing that maybe you have it set to Document showing
markup.

 

[Bob-Lo]

No to both possibilities that you raise. More mystery: I tried printing
with the same laptop and an Epson printer I have at another location
and No Problem! The text prints black. So the problem only exists with
the HP printer. I'm in touch with the HP support folks, but they don't
seem to have a clue. I may have to trash the HP printer to solve this
one. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Bob:

Somehow, the printer is either reading black as red, or thinks the cartridge
in the red slot contains black ink.

I don't suppose the kids could have swapped the printer cartridges around,
now could they?

I assume you have tried deleting and re-creatign that printer definition?

Cheers

No to both possibilities that you raise. More mystery: I tried printing
with the same laptop and an Epson printer I have at another location
and No Problem! The text prints black. So the problem only exists with
the HP printer. I'm in touch with the HP support folks, but they don't
seem to have a clue. I may have to trash the HP printer to solve this
one. Thanks for your thoughts.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Bob-Lo]

Hello John

I'm sure no one swapped the cartridges==no kids live with us! But I
haven't tried deleting and recreating the printer definition. It's
worth a shot. Only problem now is that the printer is at my other home
and I won't be there again for many months. But I'll try this when I
can. Thanks much.