Word printout doesn’t match the preview: troubleshooting tips to resolve the issue

There are times when users of Microsoft Word have experienced issues when printing out their document, where the printout doesn’t match the preview of the document. One of the biggest differences between the printout and the preview that users have been experiencing when seeing the printout version, is that the page breaks appear to be in a different place to the preview. There could be many reasons for the difference in preview and print out. It may take some time to troubleshoot the problem and you may have to try changing a number of settings before you can find a way to resolve the issue. In this blog post, I will highlight three steps you can take to find the solution, with an easy to follow step by step guide on how you can do this. 

Troubleshooting Word printout not matching the preview: 

Step 1: Disable any third party Office Add-ins you might have

  1. Go to ‘File’ in the top left hand corner of Word
  2. Select ‘options’
  3. Click on the ‘Add-ins’ tab 
  4. At the bottom, make sure ‘COM Add-ins’ is selected and click on ‘Go’
  5. Deselect/ uncheck the Add-ins
  6. Restart Microsoft Word

Step 2: Reinstall your printer

Uninstall the printer from your computer, then reinstall it ensuring it is the latest driver version for the model of your printer. If your document is still not printing as it should, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Change the ‘Scale contents’ options

  1. Open word and click on ‘File’
  2. Select ‘Options’
  3. Choose ‘Advanced’
  4. Scroll down to the ‘Print’ section
  5. Uncheck the box for the option ‘Scale content for A4 or 8.5″x11″ paper sizes’
  6. Click ‘OK’

These are three of the most common solutions to fixing this particular problem. Whether the issue is with page breaks or any other placement errors, one of the three steps usually tends to fix the issue.

Step by step process – Word printout not matching the preview::

Step 1: Disable any third party Office Add-ins you might have

  1. Go to ‘File’ in the top left hand corner of Word

Open up Microsoft work and go to the document you want to print. The from top panel, select ‘File’

  1. Select ‘options’

When the window appears, click on ‘Options’ from the bottom left hand side.

  1. Click on the ‘Add-ins’ tab 

Then another smaller wisdom will appear. From here, select the ‘Add-ins’ tab from the left hand side panel. 

  1. At the bottom, make sure ‘COM Add-ins’ is selected and click on ‘Go’

Ensure that at the bootn window the option for ‘COM Add-ins’ has been selected, then click on ‘Go’

  1. Deselect/ uncheck the Add-ins

In the next window, a list of all the available Add-ins will appear. Click on the boxes to uncheck the ones you would like to disable. In order for this step to resolve the printing issue, it is recommended that all third party Add-ins are disabled. 

  1. Restart Microsoft Word

After the Add-ins have been disables, close down Microsoft Word and restart it to update the changes that have been to the settings. Then, try to print the document again. If the issue still persists, continue to step two of the troubleshooting.

Step 2: Reinstall your printer

Uninstall the printer from your computer, then reinstall it ensuring it is the latest driver version for the model of your printer. If your document is still not printing as it should, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Change the ‘Scale contents’ options

  1. Open word and click on ‘File’

Open up Microsoft work and go to the document you want to print. The from top panel, select ‘File’

  1. Select ‘Options’

When the window appears, click on ‘Options’ from the bottom left hand side.

  1. Choose ‘Advanced’

Then another smaller wisdom will appear. From here, select the ‘Advanced’’ tab from the left hand side panel. 

  1. Scroll down to the ‘Print’ section

A long list of setting options will then appear. Keep scrolling until you find the section for ‘Print’.

  1. Uncheck the box for the option ‘Scale content for A4 or 8.5″x11″ paper sizes’

Click on the box next to ‘Scale content for A4 or 8.5″x11″ paper sizes’ to uncheck it.

  1. Click ‘OK’

Finally, Click on ‘OK’ to save the changes that you made.

After trying all three of these steps, the issue with the printout not matching the preview should be resolved. 

Thank you for reading. We hope these troubleshooting tips help to resolve the issue. If you have any further questions about this blog post and if you have any other comments, feel free to leave them below and we’ll be happy to help.

John Gleave

John Gleave has been a researcher, content writer, and senior editor at Business Tech Planet since 2022. John was formerly a data analyst and web designer with expertise in several programming languages, such as JavaScript, JQuery, PHP, CSS, SQL, and more! With a passion for writing and technology, he has now focused his skills on crafting tech guides for BTP. You can connect with John on LinkedIn.

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