Word 2003 – no dialog box after Control-P

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A friend started having a weird problem today. They can use Control-P to get the standard print dialog box for most programs, but NOT in Microsoft Word.

When they use File / Menu /Print (or Control-P), the entire document prints immediately. They typically only want to print the current page … I tried Googling for this problem, but no success.

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They may have a macro which hijacks the Print Command. Such a macro could be in any of the active documents or addins.

To eliminate this possibility, have the start Word in Safe Mode and try printing. If they see the usual dialog then you just need to find where the rogue macro is hiding.

To start Word in Safe Mode see http://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-start-microsoft-word-2010-in-safe-mode

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OK, I will try this when I visit her tomorrow.

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A friend started having a weird problem today.

Are you saying that yesterday, Ctrl-P would bring up the print dialog for her?

If yes, then culprit is likely to be some change to her system between yesterday and today.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Are you saying that yesterday, Ctrl-P would bring up the print dialog for her?

If yes, then culprit is likely to be some change to her system between yesterday and today.

I asked about her about that possibility. She has LOTS of Word macros, but did not remember making any changes to them. It will take some hands-on investigation to find the culprit.

Worst case is that I can’t figure it out – then I plan to restore her 06/19 backup image.

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I assumed Windows was corrupt, so my final solution was to restore from an earlier Acronis backup. I chose the May 20, 2016 backup image. After 30 minutes, the PC booted up fine. After all her startup programs loaded, we tried Control-P in Word, and finally got to see the print dialog. I thought that was the end, but I was wrong …

There were several other computer mysteries to unravel, and one of them involved printing some photographs. After going through printer maintenance (nozzle check and head cleaning), we loaded up the Word document with two embedded photos. We hit Control-P, and the document printed immediately!! I have no idea how, but within one hour of restoring from backup, the Print dialog in MS Word stopped working properly.

As a last gasp, I tried the MS Office 2003 “Detect and Repair” procedure, but it did not work. It acted like there was no disk in the drive. I have NO idea how to proceed from here.

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It sounds to me like [Control-P] is going to the Quick Print command. Quick Print does an immediate print to the default printer with all (user) default options active. Among other things that means the entire document prints and not just the current page.

You reverted to a May 20 image and the [Control-P] also reverted to Full Print functionality. That largely proves the idea that [Control-P] used to invoke Full Print. I’m willing to accept that anyway.

Then within an hour [Control-P] reverted again to Quick Print. This is suggestive, very suggestive indeed. The probable culprit is an online update. The question is, an update to what specifically? It could the Windows, Word, or the printer driver. I’m going to say I don’t think a Windows update would do this. That leaves an update to Word or the printer driver.

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Does the file with the embedded photos contain ANY macros? What about it’s attached template?

Also, as suggested by BHarder, did any Word updates get installed in the hour of fiddling around.

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Does the file with the embedded photos contain ANY macros? What about it’s attached template?

Also, as suggested by BHarder, did any Word updates get installed in the hour of fiddling around.

No, I did not see anything unusual in that Word document. And no updates were installed, even though the computer was VERY busy – still not sure what exactly was happening in the background.

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Cross-posted at: http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=23892&sid=5fb58a3ccfb300ba9865e9d162c5b1f2
For cross-posting etiquette, please read: http://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?184

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Looks like we finally found the source of the problem:
http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=23892&p=185553#p185553

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There may be an active macro FilePrint in an Add-In. This would intercept the command. A person can and likely will have Add-Ins even though they did not (intentionally) install them.

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There may be an active macro FilePrint in an Add-In. This would intercept the command. A person can and likely will have Add-Ins even though they did not (intentionally) install them.

I forgot to note this, but I did check for that possibility.

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Word 2003? What command is CTRL+P associated with (Tools > Customize > Keyboard)?

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Word 2003? What command is CTRL+P associated with (Tools > Customize > Keyboard)?

We checked this, and it showed that Control-P was correctly mapped to the FilePrint dialog.

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***

When they use File / Menu /Print (or Control-P), the entire document prints immediately. They typically only want to print the current page … I tried Googling for this problem, but no success.

Again, this indicates to me that there is a macro named FilePrint. This is the only thing I can think of that gives this result with both Ctrl+P and File > Print. Use Alt+F8 to look at the list of macros and see if you can find one with that name. If you do and cannot “Step Into” it or Edit it, you have found a macro in an Add-In.

44897-00-deleteme-1

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They can use Control-P to get the standard print dialog box for most programs, but NOT in Microsoft Word.

Is Ctrl-P still working normally in other programs after the restore? Specifically, in any other Office programs she has.

If yes, then I can’t see anything else other than Charles’ conclusion, a macro.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Is Ctrl-P still working normally in other programs after the restore? Specifically, in any other Office programs she has.

If yes, then I can’t see anything else other than Charles’ conclusion, a macro.

Yes, Control-P shows the print dialog for everything else. And I agree that the logical conclusion is some sort of macro. But after looking at this for an hour (on Tuesday), I never found the “suspect macro”.

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Have you gotten it to run in Safe mode?
When you hold the Ctrl key down and double-click on a Word document, then release the Ctrl key, you should get the indicated message.

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Have you gotten it to run in Safe mode?
When you hold the Ctrl key down and double-click on a Word document, then release the Ctrl key, you should get the indicated message.

It did not work for me last week. I will try again next week when I visit her.

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I have not heard of a single instance in more than 20 years where Word could be started but could not be started is safe mode.

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I have not heard of a single instance in more than 20 years where Word could be started but could not be started is safe mode.

Very simple – user error!

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