Default to B&W printing when Word starts up - no suggestions actually work!

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Level 1

10 points

Default to B&W printing when Word starts up - no suggestions actually work!

Macbook M1 user here. I want to DEFAULT to printing B&W in Word.

IF I select a preset AND click "Black & White" in the print dialog EACH TIME, sure, that works.

But even if I select the supplied "Black & White" preset it prints COLOR unless I physically select the "Black & White" option in that dang dialog.

This is NOT the behavior I expect from a "preset" or a "default".

I want to SET it to B&W and have it NEVER print color unless I SPECIFICALLY TELL IT somehow.

I have tried ALL the suggestions online, and NONE of them work. It's just not "sticky". Does ANYONE have a simple procedure that ACTUALLY does this? It is clearly an issue that Mac users have been chasing for years and years.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Dec 3, 2025 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 3, 2025 1:49 PM in response to wilsoncpu

Load LibreOffice, and see if that works better.

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Answer 2

wilsoncpu Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 3, 2025 2:09 PM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for the suggestion, but that’s a non-starter. I’m using Word, and in any case, it doesn’t seem like a Word problem so much as a Mac problem. I think I’ve seen lots of similar complaints for just printing in general.

Now, if someone can prove that normal printing (like, say, a PDF) works fine some way or another, cool, even if that doesn’t help Word. Any improvement is better than nothing.

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