Print options — print preview, printing all/single/multiple pages

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. You need only page three of a twenty page project, but the printer prints all twenty. Paper, ink and money are wasted. How do you avoid it? Today we will learn print preview and how to print all pages, a single page, or chosen pages.

First, some words. Printing means putting your document on paper using a printer. A printed copy is called a hard copy, and the file on the computer is a soft copy. Always check the document on screen before printing, because paper cannot be undone. And print only the pages you really need, to save paper and ink.

Print preview shows how the pages will look on paper, before you print. In Writer, open File, then Print Preview, or press Ctrl, Shift and O. In Word, the preview appears on the right side of the File, Print screen, and Ctrl and F2 opens it too. Close the preview to go back to editing.

What should you look for in print preview? Check that margins and page breaks look right. Check that there is no extra, almost blank page at the end, often caused by extra Enters. Check that no picture or table is cut badly across two pages. Finally, look at the page count, so you know how many sheets will print.

To print, open File, then Print, or press Ctrl and P in both programs. First choose the printer, because a computer may know more than one. Then choose the number of copies. Next choose which pages to print, which we will see now. You can also check the orientation, portrait for tall pages or landscape for wide pages.

The Print dialog lets you choose exactly which pages print. All pages prints the whole document, from the first page to the last. Pages lets you type the page numbers you want. Selection prints only the text you selected before opening the dialog. In Word, Current page prints only the page where your cursor is. Word keeps these choices in the first box under Settings.

Here is how to type page numbers, and it works in Writer and in Word. Type a single number, like three, to print one page. Use a hyphen for a range, so two hyphen five prints pages two to five. Use commas for separate pages, so one comma four comma nine prints three pages. You can mix both, so one hyphen three comma seven prints pages one, two, three and seven.

Here is a good printing habit as a flowchart. First, open print preview. The diamond asks, does everything look correct? If yes, press Ctrl and P, choose the pages, and print. If no, go back, fix the problem, and preview again before printing.

Now pause and predict. A report has twelve pages. In the Pages box, you type two hyphen four comma ten. Copies is set to two. So how many sheets print, printing on one side only? Pages two, three, four and ten make four pages, and two copies make eight sheets.

Let us revise what we learned today. Always check print preview first, which is Ctrl, Shift and O in Writer. Open the Print dialog with Ctrl and P. All pages prints the whole document. Type three for one page, two hyphen five for a range, and commas for separate pages. Selection and current page print even less, and save paper. Practise by printing only page one of your next assignment.