Friday, March 28, 2014

Old Print Preview in Word 2010 or Word 2013

Backstory: A colleague at work posed me an interesting question this morning that went something like this, "I used to use the "Shrink one page" feature in Word 2007, but I can't find it in Word 2010... and ideas?"

So I found the feature in Word 2007 - which looks like this:



So I opened up Word 2010 confidently, knowing I would be able to track this beast down. 10 Minutes later, I opened up Google confidently, knowing I would be able to track this beast down...

Here's what I found. Word 2010 has a new feature called the Backstage which includes a preview that is automatically presented when you click on the File Tab in the ribbon and choose options such as Info or Print.'

Backstage for Printing looks like this:


So... that Print Backstage feature is awesome for whipping up quick margins and quick collation features like duplexing. However, it doesn't have it all... for example, where is the "shrink one page" button?!?!?!

Microsoft sometimes pushes old features into the background in order to encourage the use of new features that require building new habits. The simple fix for many "where is it" type problems is the Quick Access Toolbar (also sometimes shortened to QAT). If you go back to the images above, you'll see it on the title bar next to the Word Icon. The drop down menu on the end lets you add shortcuts to your favorite commands without having to navigate the ribbon to find them. It even has options that aren't on the ribbon!

The fix for my friends problem then was to go to the "more commands" option in the drop down of the QAT, which opens up this dialog box. From the dropdown list that I show opened, you will almost always want to choose "All Commands" Which will then give you an alphabetical list of every possible command to add to the ribbon!



After choosing "All Commands" you can scroll down alphabetically and add "Shrink One Page" if that is all you are after. But what if you wanted a classic Print Preview window?  Sliding to the "P" section shows us the following:





As you can see, there is more than one "Print Preview" related option!  If you want the old Print Preview style interface choose "Print Preview Edit Mode". The others open up shortcuts to more standard ribbon based options.

Yah-hoo for the QAT! (By the way, is QAT a homonym for cat?)

PS: This workaround still applies in Word 2013
 

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