Word 2016/365 (Mac) won't print

Again the issue was that File > Print in Word 365 (Mac) did nothing. This was in Yosemite 10.10.5 and also on my brand new computer running High Sierra. (I didn't know that part at the time.)

Microsoft Support took over my Yosemite computer and did several unhelpful things that did not work. I won't go into that now.

It was the next day when I discovered the same issue on my new Mac, that I began to troubleshoot. It was a printer issue of a sort, but kind of weird.

BACK STORY

My printer was Xerox Phaser 4400 PostScript III, purchased in December 2003. It worked on my old computer, and I knew I would not be able to get it to run on the new one with High Sierra, except with printing through my network. Although the printer works perfectly, the drivers are not being updated for new operating systems, and I had just found out that they don't make ink cartridges for it anymore. A new printer had been ordered from B&H Photo, but had not yet arrived.

SOLUTION

I changed my default printer to a shared printer in my husband's office. My next steps were:

• File > Print, which now brought up the dialog box
• Change the printer from the default printer (his) to my Xerox Phaser
• Print successfully to my printer (that part surprised me!)

This worked both on Yosemite and High Sierra, old and new Macs.

REALLY? TESTING...

I couldn't believe this, so I had to test. I changed the default printer back to my Phaser. File > Print in Word did nothing. I could still print in Excel, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat. But I couldn't even get a dialog box with Word. (Same thing with Cmd + P, toolbar, etc.)

I changed my default printer back to his and could continue to print to my Phaser by changing it in the Print dialog box.

And later that afternoon my new printer arrived and it is now my default. I can still print to my Phaser, as long as it is not my default printer.

Maybe this will help someone who reads it down the line. Or maybe someone can shed light on why Mac Word did this (and not Excel or even Word for Windows, which I run with VMware Fusion.

But I can print now without Saving to PDF or Placing it in InDesign, so I am good!