Vista / Win 7 Duplex Printing Troubleshooting Guide

[Wildebill]

As described in my Jan 27 post, some versions of Word 2010 do not permit automatic two side printing with the printer's duplexer.  There are posts at sites all over the Web about this problem.  I think that it won't be solved until someone pays for Microsoft support and is able to convince them to solve the problem with an update.  I may make this call and hope that if Microsoft accepts that it is their issue they will not charge for the call. 

[regepost]

Thanks for the quick reply. Just wanted to let you know that Office 2010 (Word/Powerpoint etc) works fine with my duplexer, as long as the last page of the document is not blank. For instance, if I print a 14 page document doublesided, and page 14 is not blank, then the document prints out fine. With the same document, if I delete page 14 (leaving 13 pages) and try printing double-sided, it only prints page 13, and stops!

[Bart7974]

Hello regepost,

very interesting .

There are Word 2010  users who confirm that word 2010 and auto duplex does not function (same as I). You confirm that Word 2010 and auto duplex function as long as the last page is not blank.

now  it would be interesting to know:

1) which OS (Win 7 , Vista , ...) you use

2)  which type/make of printer do you use

I  use

-Win 7 , 64B

-HP LJ Pro P1606dn

[Wildebill]

Bart7974,

I have Win 7 and an HP Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless printer.  See my Jan 27 post for more details.  My printer duplex function works fine in other programs, just not with my version of Word 2010 which is the program for which this function is most important. 

Wildebill

[muj851]

Hi Bart,

So I’m assuming that you have checked all duplex setting which I posted previously.

Here are my finding and observation as per your situation which i understood and I am pretty much sure this will fix the problem.

As you mentioned in you post that you are able to print from excel and other programs but you are not able to print in automatic duplex mode from Word 2010 as it always shows print on both side (manual) as shown in the figure below. Figure 1

Try opening any word document 2010 when you click on file print -> select default printer   --> printer properties->Printing Preferences->Finishing tab   and now you will see only print on both side (manual)

This is because the paper size is not set  or defined Figure 2

click on the i mark (features tip) which I have circled in red,  it will point you to go to Paper/Quality to define or set the default paper size ( as there was no default paper size selected) this is the reason it only shows Pint on both side (Manually) After you select the paper size go back to finishing tab to verify, you should be having (Automatic Duplexing enabled) In excel as you mentioned the default paper size is already set, so it shows up in finishing tab.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Make it easier for other people to find solutions,If my post resolved your problem, please mark it as "Accepted as Solution"

+++++Say thanks by clicking the Kudos Star in the post++++++

Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.

[regepost]

Hello, Bart! I use Windows 7 (32 bit) and have a HP OfficeJet J6480 all-in-one. As I previously mentioned, the automatic duplex function works well except when the last (even) page is blank. It took me forever to realize this - I just thought it was hit or miss. One of the other things I noticed is that all my documents (Word or Powerpoint) always prints the last page first - no matter what my setting is in printer properties. However, when I use Adobe Acrobat to print doublesided, it prints first page first. Adobe doesn't have the problem with last page being blank. Hopefully, there is a fix for this soon, as it is a pain to turn all the documents into PDF. Thanks for the reply!

[Bart7974]

Hi muj851,

your solution (set papersize) worked fantastic!!!.

Supper!  thank you very much.

I hope Microsoft (or HP?) will change this, because everytime I want to auto duplex print, in a new  document ,I have to set the papersize. Obviously Word2010 or the HP printerdriver  does not remember the last settings of the papersize. No matter it works fine now and hope that your solution is a solution for all other people with the same problem.

thanks

Bart

[Bart7974]

Hi muj851 

your solution for the “auto duplex problem”  worked fine , I printed 2 or 3 documents with 2 pages in auto duplex without problem now, however I continued and did the following:

In Word2010 I compared 2 documents (with the compare function), the compared result was saved (in .doc format  not .docx) and printed in auto duplex mode, this was printed without any problem.

Then again I compared 2 other documents with the compare function , the compared result was saved and I tried to print this doc in auto duplex mode , here however the printer did not print , there was no error message, nothing . Then I tried to print 2 pages from this document, again no printing possible. No reaction no error message. No print job visible  in “see what’s printing”  in the printer menu. Even printing one page of this doc was not possible.
 I closed this “compared” file opened another file in Word2010 ,  printed in auto duplex again and this without any problem and I had a nice print out.

I  opened the “compared” problem file again and again no printing possible.

Summary:
I am struggeling for 4 month now with the  auto duplex print. But yesterday I followed the
the clear instructions of message 395 of this thread and ..surprise ..it worked !
However  in the case I described above  after setting the page size the first time printing possible the second time however  there was no printing  possible at all for only one specific doc (until now) . Other docs have no printing problem so far.

I will investigate this as soon as I have more time
For me it is not clear if it has something to do with the paper size setting or the “compare “ function results or….

Any suggestions ?


My configuration:
Win7 , 64bit, Office 2010, printer HP LaserJet 1606dn IP connected

Bart

[Bart7974]

Hello,

I did some experiments.

I printed the "compared doc", see my post above,

- on a vista PC, word 2003, Laserjet 1010 ( laserjet 1015 Driver :))  ---> result print out , no problem

- on a vista PC, word 2003, the same Laserjet 1606  , same IP connection as mentioned above , ---> result print out no problem.

- The only print problem, with this specific Doc excists when I print with Word 2010

After this I changed the margins( top, bottom, left , right) of the page layout and now I managed to print .

Conclusion :

This new problem has nothing to do with duplex printing.

The word 2010 Printer driver is obviously very sensitive for "wrong" page lay out margins.

Because I had no time to do more  experiments I don#t know which margin caused the problem.

It is also very strange that there is no error message in the case of margin prpblems

Any inputs ?

Bart

[abysslake]

It turns out that there was no problem with the Duplex Printing.  The Nero program I was using was inserting it's own print menu that would not allow Duplex Printing unless you discover a small check box that needs to be checked.  Then it is necessary to manipulate how to print the pages.  No more help needed.  No Kudos involved since I already knew how to do duplex printing with the HP  program.  There is also no need to accept a solution for the same reason.  You can stop e-mailing me solutions, as there was no problem with the HP set up to start with.  Thank you for you interest and you help anyway.

Abyss Lake