Graham,
I'm not "dismissing" the macro solution lightly, or because I'm too lazy to
copy the macros you've so kindly provided. The fact is, there's something
wrong here. I don't have a situation where Word keeps the last used printer
setting during a session, which would be fine with me. (And I don't use
Outlook, BTW.) The problem is that when I close Word, then go to another
application, I discover (sometimes too late) that Word has changed the system
default printer. That's why the macros don't solve my problem. The change of
setting affects more than Word or Office programs; it affects all my
programs.
The other thing is that different printers have different font metrics, and
if the default printer has been changed without my knowledge, and I'm doing
some final formatting, I might be dealing with misleading font metrics
onscreen.
For instance, I use 3 centered em-dashes as a marker for "section" changes
in my final copies -- not Word section boundaries, but places in the text
where I want the thought to break. My default printer is a black-and-white
laser printer. With that driver active, the 3 centered em-dashes print (and
show onscreen) as a single short line, which is what I want. The inkjet which
I use as a temporary printer -- for printing markups in color -- prints them
as 3 separate em-dashes. There are other differences as well. Text lines
break in different places, and so on.
The same difficulties arise in other programs. What I am now forced to do,
which I never had to do in all the years I used Word 2000, is double-check
which printer is active whenever I try to print in any program I'm using.
Since you say Word shouldn't be changing the default system printer, it must
be a bug. Am I the only one experiencing the problem? I assume Microsoft will
continue servicing and updating Word 2003 for a while longer, even though
they've come out with 2007. Is there any way of converting this thread to a
"notify Microsoft" thread, so they are aware of it?
Maybe the bug only happens with certain printers. My inkjet is an Epson
2000P, and my laser is a Brother MFC-7820N.
"Graham Mayor" wrote:
Word has always retained the last used printer setting - the *Active*
Printer - until Word is closed (which will mean closing Outlook also if you
have Word as your e-mail editor) It should not change the Windows *default*
printer. The macro solution that you dismiss will return the *active*
printer to what it was before the print job.
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
Nyco_ork wrote:
I'm having the problem I've seen others report here; I use three
different printers (2 hardware, 1 software PDF creator), and whenever
I use one of the non-default printers for two or three print jobs
from inside Word, it resets the system default printer to the one I'm
using temporarily. Word 2000 never did this. Neither does
Wordperfect. Firefox keeps the last printer used as its own, internal
default printer, but it doesn't change the system default printer.
Why does Microsoft have to assail us with these infuriating bugs?
Graham, I've seen your macro toolbar workaround, and it's not what I
need
for this situation. I need to know if there's some way to keep Word
from resetting the default printer, which it has no business doing.
I'm on SP2 of Office 2003. Have any of the hotfixes issued since SP2
addressed this problem?
RB