Forum Discussion
Printing a range of pages in a multi-section document stopped working
Hi, we recently encountered problems with printing multi-section documents.
For example:
a document with 3 sections, 10 pages each. I want to print pages from 5 to 15.
Print >Settings > [Custom Print] > Pages: 5-15 > Print. Done.
That always worked but it stopped now. The pages are not printed at all and there is no error message nor anything else.
[Print All Pages] works. [Print Current Page] works. No problems with documents without sections. All other programs print normally as usual.
The only solution I figured so far is to specify section numbers like p5s1-p15s2. But it is tedious and almost impossible with big documents having many sections.
As a workaround it can be printed from a PDF export but there are some minor quality issues. The prints don't look the same.
The same problem appeared on several computers. I don't know exactly when it started. Probably with some updates at the start of the year 2021.
Is it some kind of intentional change or a bug?
Is there any way to just print range of pages regardless of sections?
Version: MS Office Professional Plus 2016 (16.0.13530.20132) 64bit
Thanks.
42 Replies
- We have receive a report that this issue has been fixed, so if you are still having the problem, close ALL Office applications and then re-open Word.
Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP Yes I can confirm that it's working for me again in Version 2201 (Build 14827.20088). Thanks.
- I have this problem again with newest version of Word 16.0.14, it looks like they again broke it with some version
Alestos I have found a fix with this as I was working with an engineer from Microsoft as my MSP pays for support. What you will need to do is change the channel to semi-annual. Once I changed the channel and pushed it through our remote management tool, I was able to fix sectional printing for our end-user. Here is a doc on how to change the update channel:
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/change-update-channels
It seems like once Microsoft rolls out a new update, we (end-users, techs, etc.) are the ones beta testing for them, so reverting to a previous channel gives them time to fix the more current bugs in their new updates. I hope this helps.
- Look at my recent response.
As a work around until the bug is solved you can export the pages via File / Export / PDF and print the PDF file afterwards. You can specify a page range in the export options and strange as it may seem there it will work as expected.
Above all I am happy its a bug and not a feature.
As reported in the Microsoft Community (see for example https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/microsoft-word-m365-specific-pagecustom-range/560ee184-32a7-4e2b-bab8-1f7b480bd15a), Microsoft has recognized this issue as a bug and it is being investigated.
Hi
I'm writing a novel and thus I need to print off page ranges to give to agents and publishers. Can you tell me roughly when this page range bug will be sorted? Thankyou Stefan_Blom
Hi John Paul,
This may help in the interim. I found that the problem occurs for me when I have page numbering in the form 'page x of y'. I get around the problem by having just 'page x'.
Good luck with your novel.
Simon
In more detail, here is how to trigger the problem and how to get around it (but not how to fix it) .
Step 1.
From scratch, create a simple document in Word. For example, the text ‘page One’, a page break, and the text ‘Page Two’.
Insert, Page Number, Bottom of Page, Page X of Y (Bold Numbers 1).
Save the document.
Step 2.
Attempt to print.
Select to print just page 1.
It will not. Nor page 2.
Step 3.
Edit the footer.
Remove page number.
Add page number.
This time, just the plain number. (That is ‘page x’, not ‘page x of y’.)
Save the document.
Step 4.
Attempt to print.
Select to print just page 1.
It prints.
And also for just page 2.
The bug with the p#s# syntax should now be fixed. Update Office and restart the programs.
This is apparently not a new issue.
See this: https://www.howtogeek.com/367996/how-to-print-a-range-of-pages-in-a-multi-section-word-document/
The bug is certainly new.
What definitely isn't new is that you have to use specific syntax for printing a range of pages that span across multiple sections (see https://wordmvp.com/FAQs/Formatting/PrintMultipleSections.htm).
Unfortunately the bug appears to happen again with an update-to-date version:
Microsoft® Word 2016 MSO (16.0.14326.20062) 32-Bit
That is certainly bad news. 😞 Make sure that you report the (new) bug via the feedback facility in Word (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11).
Note that Word usually requires that you specify both the page and the section numbers when you are printing a range that spans more than one section. That said, recently a bug has been reported that concerns printing page ranges. See I can't print a range of pages with Word Office 365 - Microsoft Community.
