Word 2013 forgets printer settings

Anonymous
2013-05-19T14:17:35+00:00

In past versions I would set the printer settings for a document and it would remember it so reprints default to the last used settings.  How do I set Word 2013 to do the same?

In particular I like to use double sided printing.

Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-06-22T22:42:39+00:00

    No, I'm afraid you're mistaken. Word retains (some) settings in the Print dialog (notably the choice of an active printer and its properties) during a given Word session, but restarting Word resets everything to the Windows defaults. I've been using Word since Word for Windows 2.0, and this has always been the case.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-22T23:08:48+00:00

    I have to agree with suzanne.

    I understand and sympathize with your  concern, but there had to be something else working to "save printer settings". Is it possible you had some sort of special addin (I haven't heard of any that do this, but ...) that somehow saved printer settings for you?  An addin that was NOT upgraded to 2013.  Maybe a utility from your network printer company or the printer company?

    My 20+ years experiece using Word has been that it has NEVER "saved" settings.  As a matter of fact, when my employer forced me to use Word in place of the much better WordPerfect for DOS, that was one of my (many) pet peeves.  WP DID save printer settings in the document. MS explicitly designed Windows to take control of Printers and printer settings away from the applications and files.

    Sorry. the only way I know of that settings could be saved in Word and Windows is via macros.

    One way I have simulated "saving settings" has been to define more than one logical printer pointing to the same physical printer if I wanted to partially automate things like printing 2-sided vs 1-sided, or telling it to use a special tray for first page and any other printer (driver) specific setting.

    ie Boss HP printer 2-sided

       Boss HP printer 1-sided

      Secretary printer letterhead drawer ....

      Secretary printer plain

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-22T23:24:34+00:00

    Word 2003 still prints double sided without the need to change settings and Word 2013 does not.  If you don't believe it then download a VM and give it a try.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-22T23:27:02+00:00

    Just tried it with Word 2003 in a VM and it remembers settings between sessions, in particular double sided printing.  Must be magic.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-06-23T00:02:32+00:00

    Aha!

    It is the VM that is remembering state when you shut down the VM normally! Not Windows, not Word!

    Try 2013 in a VM.

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