Microsoft Word includes a useful feature called background printing that allows you to continue working on a document while it prints. This can save time compared to waiting for the document to finish printing before you can do anything else in Word.
How does background printing work?
When you print a document in Word, the default behavior is for Word to pause all other actions and send the file to your printer. Nothing else can happen in the Word application until the printing is completed. This can take awhile for large documents.
Background printing changes this behavior. Instead of pausing everything to print, Word will send the job to the printer and then immediately return control back to you. You can then continue working on the document or do other tasks in Word while the printing occurs in the background.
Enabling background printing
Background printing is disabled by default in Word, so you’ll need to enable it first:
- Go to the Word File menu and choose Options.
- Click on Advanced in the left sidebar.
- In the Printing options section, check the box next to “Print in background”.
- Click OK to save the change.
Once enabled, background printing will be turned on by default anytime you print in Word.
Using background printing
With background printing enabled, printing a document is easy:
- Open the document you want to print in Word.
- Go to File > Print to open the print dialog.
- Select your printer and make any other settings changes you need.
- Click Print.
Word will immediately send the job to the printer queue and return to the document. You can then continue working or editing the document even as it prints in the background.
Monitoring background printing jobs
Since the printing happens in the background, how can you check the status? Word provides a few ways to monitor background print jobs:
- Printing icon – An icon will appear in the Windows notification area while background printing is underway. You can check this for print status.
- Print queue – Open the Windows print queue (START > Printers & Scanners) to view current print jobs.
- Print dialog box – The main Word Print dialog box will display the status of your last background printing job.
These options let you see if a job is still printing, paused, completed, or if any errors have occurred.
Pausing, restarting, and canceling prints
From the print notifications or print queue, you can control background printing jobs:
- Pause – Pauses the current print job but leaves it in the queue.
- Restart – Resumes a paused print job.
- Cancel – Cancels the print job and removes it from the queue.
If you need to pause a long job to let other prints go through, or cancel accidentally printing the wrong document, these controls make it easy to manage background jobs.
Why use background printing?
Here are some of the benefits of using background printing in Word:
- Work while printing – Continue editing or reading a document while it prints.
- Print large documents – Print docs over 100 pages without long delays.
- Multiple prints – Queue up multiple prints and work while they run.
- Faster workflow – Don’t waste time waiting on prints to finish.
For big documents or busy multitasking, background printing can optimize your Word workflow.
Potential issues
Background printing is very useful, but there are a couple caveats:
- Slower printing – Background jobs won’t completely freeze Word, but may still slow it down a bit.
- Print errors – If a job fails, you may not notice right away without the print dialog.
- Access restrictions – May not work on restricted networks. Check with your IT staff.
As long as you periodically check print statuses, these issues are generally minor compared to the time savings.
Troubleshooting problems
If background printing is not working properly, here are some things to try:
- Confirm background print is enabled in Word options.
- Check that your printer supports background printing.
- Try printing with background off to isolate the issue.
- Restart the print spooler service in Windows.
- Update your printer drivers.
- Make sure Word has permissions to print.
Checking these common causes may help get background printing functioning again.
Conclusion
Background printing is a useful productivity feature in Word. It allows you to work on other tasks while long documents print in the background. To use it, enable background printing in Word’s options, and then print documents as normal.
The benefits include being able to print large files without delays, queue multiple print jobs, and avoiding wasted time waiting for printing to finish. Just be sure to check the status periodically, as background jobs can fail without disrupting your work.
With a few clicks, background printing can optimize your document workflow and save you significant time. Turn it on and give it a try next time you need to print a long report, proposal, or other large document in Word!
