Microsoft Office 2010: Word 2010’s print dialog

Tim Danton August 3, 2009

I’ve already blogged today about the excellent new meeting request view in Outlook 2010, so I hope you’ll forgive a second Office 2010 entry for the day. However, I had to share this (note – to get a clearer picture, click on the screenshot):

Microsoft Office 2010: Word 2010's print dialog

Microsoft Office Word 2010 print dialog

There are a number of things I like about this dialog, which is what you’ll see if you press Ctrl + P or click File |Print, where File is the new-style Office icon that sits at the top-left of the Word window.

And prime among them is the automatic print preview feature.

Previously, you’d have to click an extra button for this, and as most people don’t bother they won’t notice that they’re accidentally printing in landscape when they meant to print in portrait, and vice versa.

It also makes it incredibly clear which printer is being used, and makes it easier to collate multiple copies and select one-sided or duplex printer options.

If you scroll down the window, you’ll see the rest of the options. You can quickly select different margin options, different paper sizes (I don’t want Letter, for instance) and how many pages get squeezed onto each sheet of paper.

Choosing the different options is a simple matter of clicking on the dropdown arrow and selecting the relevant choice.

There’s little to criticise, certainly on first sight, but one area Microsoft could still improve is the print preview. In particular, the preview should be showing that the HP LaserJet I’ve chosen doesn’t support colour, so the blue hyperlink will be printed out grey.

Aside from this, though, Word 2010’s print dialog is a big improvement on what any previous version of Word has to offer.