How to Print Double Sided on Word 2007

By Shannon Kempe

Updated February 10, 2017

i paper feed image by Glenn Jenkinson from Fotolia.com

When your printer has double-sided printing capabilities, otherwise known as automatic duplex printing, it’s a feature often preferred to conserve paper. The little printer icon at the top of the Microsoft Word screen is a very handy feature to quickly print the document you are working on. It, however, does not provide you with any options for as printing on both sides of paper. Luckily, there's an easy way to print double-sided pages.

For Printers with Double-Sided Printing Capabilities

Click the round Office button on the upper-left-hand corner of your Word document. On the left side is a list of icons and their description; on the right side is a list of “Recent Documents”.

Click the seventh icon down (in the shape of a printer) with the word “Print” next to it. Do not worry about the arrow and list of options that appear when you place your mouse over this icon. Simply clicking the icon will take you where you need to go. A small “Print” screen will pop up.

Click “Properties” in the upper-right side of the print screen. A new screen will appear, and this screen will be different for every printer, as it comes from the printer software instead of from Word.

Look for an option on all tabs labeled "duplex printing", "double-sided printing" or "two-sided printing". Select the option appropriately. If you cannot find such a feature, your printer does not support double-sided printing.

For Printers Without Double-Sided Printing Capabilities

Perform steps 1 and 2 from the above section to open the “Print” screen.

Click the radial button next to “Pages:” in the “Page Range” section on the middle-left side of the print screen. Type in a single page number to print in the box to the right of “Pages:”. Print the page.

Reload the printed page into the printer. Place the blank side up of the printed page on top of the printer paper supply, making it the next piece of paper to be printed on. Note which way you have the printed side facing in the paper tray even though it is face down.

Repeat steps one through two, and type the next sequential page number in the box to the right of “Pages:” to the page you just printed. For example, if you just printed page 1, type in the number 2. This will print the second page on the back of the first page. Check to determine if the alignment is correct between the front and the back. Did the printer print the second side upside down? If so, print page 1 again. Place the page blank side up in the printer changing the direction the printed side is facing to correct alignment.

Continue repeating steps until full document is printed.

×