The printing order typically starts from page 1 and proceeds up to the last page. Printed papers that emerge from the printer come out with the last page on top and the first page at the bottom of the pile. If your document had only about 5-10 pages, sorting them manually—to bring page one on the top—is no major task.
Now, instead of a few pages, what if your document was actually a book with a few hundred pages?
After you have printed all the pages, sorting them to bring page 1 on the top could soon become a tedious exercise.
Well, the solution is very simple—why not start the printing process beginning with the last page and finish with page one?
The process is termed printing in reverse order, and the printer you are using may allow doing so because of a built-in functionality.
However, all printers may not possess that facility, so you can set up Microsoft Word to do that for you.
We will guide you through the process of printing your Word document in reverse order following a few simple steps. In fact, you can do that in two ways.
- Set Word to print in reverse order by default.
- Reverse print the document using custom print options.
Lets start.
Method #1: Set Reverse Printing as default
This method will set up Word to print any document in the reverse order—very useful if you are working steadily on a single large document and not switching documents frequently.
Step #1: Open Microsoft Word
Start Microsoft Word.
Step #2: Open Word Options
In the bottom left corner, click on Options. This will open the Word Options page.
Step #3: Set Print in Reverse Order
- Click on the Advanced tab on the left side. Scroll down the right side until you reach the section Print.
- Click on Print pages in reverse order, making sure that a tick-mark appears inside the small square immediately in the left.
- Click on OK to exit.
The above steps set up Word to print in the reverse order of pages for any document you open from now onwards.
To go back to printing starting from page 1, simply follow the above steps again, and make sure there is no tick-mark against Print pages in reverse order in Word Options.
Method #2: Reverse Printing using Printer Options
Use this method if you print several different Word documents frequently, and only some require printing in reverse order.
Step #1: Open a Word Document
Open a Word document. Click on the File tab on the top menu bar. The File dialog will open.
Step #2: Set Up the Print Dialog
- Click on the Print tab on the left. The Print dialog will now open, showing a print preview of the document on the right side.
- Under Settings, click on Print All Pages. An options menu will drop.
- Click on Custom Print. The options menu will close with the cursor blinking inside a blank field.
Step #3: Set Up Custom Print to print in reverse order.
Word offers hints for filling up the blank field. You can see these hints if you hover the mouse pointer on the Instructions icon to the right of the blank field.
To print in reverse order, type the number of the last page with which you want to start the printing, followed by a hyphen, and then the number of the page on which you want the printing to end.
For instance, you may type 5-1, or 8-4, or other, depending on your requirement.
Word displays the current page and the total number of pages at the bottom for your convenience and reference.
Step #4: Print
Click the Print icon to start printing. Once printing has completed, Word will revert to printing all pages in regular order for other documents when you open them next.
Conclusion
If your printer is capable of printing in reverse order, you may use that specific feature. However, it is possible to reverse print with any printer, and Word allows you to do that in two ways—one for all documents, and the other for the current document. We have explained both methods in simple steps.