Word 2013 forgets printer settings

Like many others I find 2013 frustrating in this regard, whether or not it has changed (I think  it has too!).

A workaround is available in a shareware macro here:

http://www.gmayor.com/Associate_Printer.htm

You put the template in your Word startup folder and it adds a macro that allows you to associate docs with printers. 

It works fine for me. You lose the printing options of the usual dialog box, but I find it useful for printing labels to my little label printer, as it prevents me printing them on my A4 printer or, worse, printing loads of useless labels when I just wanted a letter!

The problem we were experiencing is actually with Outlook, not Word.

Different Office programs handle printing differently. Ask in the Outlook forum at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/outlook?sort=lastreplydate&dir=desc&tab=Threads.

You may want to repost this in the Outlook forum since it's off-topic here.

The problem we were experiencing is actually with Outlook, not Word. However, it looks like I may have found a work around.

The secret is to bypass the Print Preview screen and use the old Print Options feature.

To get to this, you need to customize the Quick Access Toolbar

• Click File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar
• Choose Commands from "File Tab"
• Select "Print Options" and click Add
• Click OK to close the options page

If you use this button to print, it seems to retain any preferences.

Many users don't keep Word open. They just open a single document (which starts Word) and then close it, quitting Word.  Open another, then close it. And so on. So of course Word reverts to the default printer every time (since printer settings are not saved with the document as in Publisher). But if Word 2013 isn't remembering printer settings even within a given session, then this is indeed a problem. FWIW, I'm seeing Word 2013 remembering my printer setting between documents.