Windows® 7 for Dummies®

Chapter 7. Printing Your Work

In This Chapter

• Printing files, envelopes, and Web pages

• Adjusting how your work fits on a page

• Troubleshooting printer problems

Occasionally you'll want to slip something away from your PC's whirling electrons and onto something more permanent: a piece of paper.

This chapter tackles that job by explaining all you need to know about printing. Here, you find out how to make that troublesome document fit on a piece of paper without hanging off the edge.

I also cover the mysterious print queue, a little-known area that lets you cancel documents mistakenly sent to the printer — before they waste all your paper.

Printing Your Masterpiece

Windows 7 shuttles your work off to the printer in any of a half-dozen different ways. Chances are good that you'll be using these methods most often:

• Choose Print from your program's File menu.

• Click the program's Print icon, usually a tiny printer.

• Right-click your document icon and choose Print.

• Click the Print button on a program's toolbar.

• Drag and drop a document's icon onto your printer's icon.

If a dialog box appears, click the OK button, and Windows 7 immediately begins sending your pages to the printer. Take a minute or so to refresh your coffee. If the printer is turned on (and still has paper and ink), Windows handles everything automatically. If your coffee cup is still full, keep on working or playing FreeCell. Windows prints your work in the background.

If the printed pages don't look quite right — perhaps the information ...