# MS Word Question #2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038 "2018-02-18T10:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/1 "2018-02-18T10:14:40Z")
MS Word Question #2: Over thirty years ago I had word processing programs that were smart enough to–when you selected a paragraph from a document and entered a print command,–to know to print just the paragraph. But even today (at least in Word 13) Word has to be told to print only the selected text. Otherwise it prints he entire document. Is there a setting to make Word as smart as the thirty-year old programs? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/2 "2018-02-18T23:33:12Z")
In 30 years, programs (or programmers) have gotten smart enough to realize that it’s much more common for people to want to print a whole document rather than just the paragraph that happens to be highlighted. So they have programmed it so that when the print command is invoked, the default selected is to print the whole thing. For the rare occasions where the user wants to print only the selected text, they can easily click that option. That’s why it works this way. I don’t know if there is a way to change the proint defaults; I’ve never wanted to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/3 "2018-02-18T23:42:22Z")
A bit of searching shows that it appears the Word Print option is generated on the fly, and there is no way to change the the default that is selected. But you could create a macro to print only your selected paragraph, and use that for printing. Here’s a sample macro that prints the whole document; you could write a version to do just a paragraph. > [@](#): > > Sub PrintDoc() > Application.PrintOut Range:=wdPrintAllDocument, \_ > Item:=wdPrintDocumentContent, Copies:=1 > End Sub ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/4 "2018-02-19T14:43:33Z")
The information below applies to Word 2007 or later. I have 2016. This will print just the selection. You can put this macro in the macros for the Normal document, which is the template that is open whenever Word is open. Then you can create a custom button in your Quick Access Toolbar or the ribbon based on this. Then one click will print the selection. ```auto Sub PrintDoc() Application.PrintOut Range:=wdPrintSelection End Sub ``` Although people have complained every time the version of any software program is upgraded, on balance Word is incredibly more powerful than anything available 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Estes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Steven\_Estes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Estes)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/5 "2018-02-19T16:40:17Z")
Join Date writes: “In 30 years, programs (or programmers) have gotten smart enough to realize that it’s much more common for people to want to print a whole document rather than just the paragraph that happens to be highlighted. So they have programmed it so that when the print command is invoked, the default selected is to print the whole thing. For the rare occasions where the user wants to print only the selected text, they can easily click that option. That’s why it works this way.” It may, indeed, be relatively rare for one to want a selected section printed (compared to entire document), but such rare cases are the only ones relevant to my question. If one wants the entire document printed, it gets printed because nothing is selected. IF something IS selected, then the program should be smart enough to recognize this and print only the selected material–as some programs did thirty years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/6 "2018-02-19T16:45:17Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > It may, indeed, be relatively rare for one to want a selected section printed (compared to entire document), but such rare cases are the only ones relevant to my question. > If one wants the entire document printed, it gets printed because nothing is selected. > IF something IS selected, then the program should be smart enough to recognize this and print only the selected material–as some programs did thirty years ago. I agree. For 40 years, I have been teaching students the mantra “Select-\>Perform”, and this new concept violates that. However, I can see an option box allowing all/selected to be printed; either during the print dialogue or a global setting. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/7 "2018-02-19T16:45:48Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > Join Date writes:… Join Date? Do you mean **[t-bonham@scc.net](mailto:t-bonham@scc.net)**? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/8 "2018-02-20T00:29:42Z")
> [@Steven\_Estes](#): > > If one wants the entire document printed, it gets printed because nothing is selected. > IF something IS selected, then the program should be smart enough to recognize this and print only the selected material–as some programs did thirty years ago. For me, I often pull up an existing document, make some editing changes, and then save & print a new copy of the whole document. So it’s common to have the last paragraph I edited still selected. But I guess the way people use software differs. We now have various ways to customize software to our individual preferences, like macros. That’s an improvement. (But it also makes it hard when updating software – often those individual customizations are not saved in an update. I’ve often delayed updating because of this.) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-question-2/809038/9 "2018-02-20T04:09:11Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > often those individual customizations are not saved in an update. I’ve often delayed updating because of this.) In Office applications customizations are supposed to be preserved across updates, at _least_ when both from and to versions are 2007 or later. It is possible and easy to export customizations (macros, Quick Access Toolbar, Ribbon) and re-import them in case they are lost in an update or reinstall. I do this all the time to move customizations from one machine with Office 2013 to another with Office 2016.