Word documents won't print double-sided

[pine man]

I used to have a Canon TS8050 printer/scanner connected to both my iMacs by Apple AirPrint with no Canon software installed. A while back, and I can’t remember when, I noticed that when I tried to print a Word document with several pages I was not being offered ‘double-sided’. The only way round it was to save the document as a .pdf file and then I got the ‘double-sided’ option.

That printer recently bit the dust and I now have an Epson XP-7100 printer/scanner. It is connected to both iMacs by Apple AirPrint and no Epson software is installed.

I am getting exactly the same behaviour as I did with the Canon. Multiple paged Word documents do not offer me ‘double sided’ printing.

It doesn’t matter whether I use the Catalina iMac or the Monterey iMac. If I save the document as a .pdf I am offered ‘double-sided’. If I open the Word document with Apple Pages, I am also offered ‘double-sided’.

Both iMacs are up to date and I’m using the latest version of Office 365 for Mac.

I must be missing something somewhere but what?

 

[ferrarr]

Does it only happen with Microsoft apps, or is it across other apps as well? Did you look at page setup or print setup, I forget what it's called.

 

[MacInWin]

In the print dialog box, click on the third option down, which has no label. Select "Layout" and in the resulting options is a box for "Two Sided." The options there are on/off.

I'm using Word from MS365, macOS 12.5.

Here is a screenshot:

 

[pine man]

Thanks Jake, here's what mine showed and it should have worked.

So I went to Two-Sided and turned it off and then selected Long-Edge binding again and then it actually worked. However when I started from scratch again I was not offered two-sided so clearly for some reason the printer settings are not remembering the settings - maybe. Still it's quicker than saving all my Word docs as .pdf.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[pine man]

Here's what I get if I try to print a .pdf file



....and here's what I get if I try to print the same file as a Word document.

 

[pigoo3]

In the last attachment where you mentioned "try to print the same file as a Word document"...it's still showing "PDF" in the bottom left corner (maybe this needs to be adjusted):

 

[pigoo3]

Also maybe as a test...try un-checking "collated".

 

[pine man]

t's still showing "PDF" in the bottom left corner (maybe this needs to be adjusted):

Thanks for your thoughts. The PDF button merely contains options for dealing with any document as a pdf file and can be used, for example, to save a Word document as a pdf file rather than print it.

Unchecking collated doesn't make any difference.

From all the research I have been doing it appears that Word documents open a different print window to other formats and require the user to go a stage further to initiate two-sided printing by turning off two-sided and then back on again, every time, as that setting is not remembered. It also seems that this may have appeared at the time of Catalina

I would hasten to add that this reflects what other users have found and almost certainly not as it was designed!

 

[pm-r]

I would hasten to add that this reflects what other users have found and almost certainly not as it was designed!

I wonder if this might help???:

Mac Cannot Print Double Sided - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

I didn't check out any of the other hits I got with a search at:

Google Search

www.google.com

At least you are not alone with the problem at seems. But still rather frustrating when things don't work as they should... ;-)



- Patrick
=======

 

[pine man]

I wonder if this might help???:

Thanks for the links Patrick but unfortunately none resolved the issue. At least I have found a work round to do it without having to change the document format first.

 

[pm-r]

Thanks for the links Patrick but unfortunately none resolved the issue. At least I have found a work round to do it without having to change the document format first.

Well at least you have a work around that works, and I sure don't have a recent version of that application to try experimenting but I can't help wondering if there is something Goofy in your starting template when you create something "started from scratch" which seems to be where your problem originates.

Can you create I knew template that incorporates double-sided printing that you want and see if it doesn't work better???

PS: did you try the printer reset suggestion that was suggested that seems to have worked for the poster:

Mac Cannot Print Double Sided - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Also: you might want to check this out if you need another suggestion that seems to have fixed their same MS Word double-sided printing problem:

can not print double sided in microsoft w… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Good luck. It's nice if things will work as they are supposed to.



- Patrick
=======

 

[pine man]

I can't help wondering if there is something Goofy

Me too!!

I've been fiddling all day and I'm no further forward.

I've tried the reset suggestion, and confirming the size of the paper - no joy.

I used a new microsoft template with multiple pages - no joy.

I used some very old documents that had been sent to me using Word - no joy.

When I print a Word document with multiple pages I don't get the option to select Two-Sided so I checked the default settings, which acknowledge that it is a Word document and two-side edge binding is one of the settings, see below

When I print a .pdf document I do get the option to select Two-Sided and checking the default settings it looks exactly the same as above but acknowledges that it is being printed from Preview, see below


As far as I can make out it appears that everything is set correctly but the settings for a Word document won't fully take effect unless I turn Two-Sided off and then on again under Layout.

I feel the need for some strong drink!!

Thanks ever so much for the interest you have shown in my problem.

I'm not giving up on this - yet.

 

[pm-r]

As far as I can make out it appears that everything is set correctly but the settings for a Word document won't fully take effect unless I turn Two-Sided off and then on again under Layout.

That makes me think that the particular preference file is possibly corrupt not getting read properly, at least not the first time.

I wonder if it can be trashed in order to check and I would suspect that a new one would be created.

Maybe...???


- Patrick
=======

 

[Randy B. Singer]

So I went to Two-Sided and turned it off and then selected Long-Edge binding again and then it actually worked. However when I started from scratch again I was not offered two-sided so clearly for some reason the printer settings are not remembering the settings...

You should be able to save your preferred print settings as a preset:

Save frequently used print settings for routine printing on Mac

On your Mac, save your print settings as a preset so you can quickly use the same settings again.

support.apple.com

 

[pine man]

I wonder if it can be trashed in order to check and I would suspect that a new one would be created.

I have removed the printer from settings and re-installed it without any joy.
My previous Canon printer exhibited the same problem and when I trashed it, every reference to that printer and its settings was removed. When I set up the Epson printer I did not install any Epson software, as advised by Apple, and it is running solely on AirPrint. I have removed Epson from Library/Printers and reset it without any Joy

You should be able to save your preferred print settings as a preset:

The problem with that is that the settings are correct, see images above, but I did try creating a new set of presets but no joy with that.

I can't help feeling that it is something to do with the OS as it exhibited the same issues on my previous printer and on previous OSs, but I cannot remember how far back it started misbehaving.

I'm pretty sure that two-sided printing has worked at sometime in the past - well I think so anyway!

One thing I haven't yet tried is installing some Epson drivers to see if they override some settings in Apple AirPrint?

 

[pine man]

YeeeeHaaaa!

I fixed it, well sort of, by ticking the box Scale to fit paper size, shown below. Now when I print a multiple Word document it prints Two-Sided by default.

The down side is that the initial Print dialogue box still doesn't contain the Two-Side option but I can live with that.

It clearly is something to do with Apple and Microsoft not playing nicely together!

Thanks to everybody for your reponses and advice.

 

[MacInWin]

if you click where it says "Paper Handling" and change that to "Layout" the two sided option is there.

 

[pine man]

if you click where it says "Paper Handling" and change that to "Layout" the two sided option is there.

Thanks for pointing that out but it is actually set to Two-Sided. However it still doesn't print Two-Sided unless you turn it off and then on again. Having done that it doesn't remember what you have done and the operation has to be repeated each time you print multiple page Word documents. Whatever I do I never get the Two-Sided option in the initial print dialogue box.

At least the work round at #16 is remembered and gives me Two-Sided printing of Word documents by default but still no Two-Sided option in the initial print dialogue box. There is also the issue of what to do if I don't want Two-Sided printing!!

I hasten to add that this issue only affects Word documents. No problems at all with .pdf files, Pages documents or Web pages.

Before posting this I thought I'd just give Excel a bash. guess what, it works perfectly and offers Two-Sided printing!!

 

[MacInWin]

Hmm, well, what I would do in your situation is to uninstall Word completely, then reinstall it. Something seems to have gone south in Word. It's not fully MS because Excel works, and it's not the OS, or every person using Office would be screaming. Which leaves it to be something unique in your installation. So, delete Word completely and reinstall from scratch.

Or live with it.

 

[pine man]

So, delete Word completely and reinstall from scratch.

I did think of that but I have a 365 subscription, which is right up to date on this M1 Monterey iMac and, I also have it installed on a different Intel Catalina iMac, which does exactly the same.
Still I might give it a go and see what happens.

Edit - Just tried it on my iPhone and I get the Two-Sided option.