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Alternative to Office 2010 Print pane

Finding a true Print Preview in Word 2010.

Hank S. writes: “Is there any way to remove the approximately left half of the screen (File/Options display) so a print preview may be seen at full size? The new print pane is really handy, but there are times when I want to see how the newsletter I am creating looks. Previous versions had this handy feature. I’d like to see it return but still have the new ‘Backstage’ available.

The new print pane in Backstage view (the File menu) does have some flexibility. On the bottom of the print pane there are options to switch between pages and change the zoom level.

Word 2010 - not a Print Preview.jpg image from Alternative to Office 2010 Print pane at Office-Watch.com

The nearest equivalent to the old larger size Print Preview is the Print Layout view (View | Print Layout).

Keep in mind that the Print Pane backstage view is not a print preview. Microsoft is (usually) careful not to describe the Backstage pane as a ‘Preview’. You can see this for yourself quite easily, change the ‘Pages per sheet’ option (ie 2 pages per sheet) and the print pane view will not alter to reflect that change.

The Print Layout view is smarter these days because it should customize the view according to the current default printer driver.  This makes the preview closer to actual page output, however there will inevitably be small differences between preview and paper, especially when the formatting gets complicated.

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