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PowerPoint gets very cranky if you don't have a reliable printer driver installed on your computer and set as the default printer. If you don't, you may run into a variety of problems including slow text editing, badly spaced or cut-off characters and more.
In order to find out if a PowerPoint problem is printer-driver related, you need to install a known-good printer driver in the recommended way as a test. You needn't use it to print anything, you don't even need the actual printer, and once you're done with the test, you can delete the driver if you like.
IMPORTANT
Follow the instructions below exactly. If you skip steps, choose a different driver or use a different method of installing the driver, the test won't be useful. You'll be wasting your time.
- Quit PowerPoint if it's already running.
- Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
- Double-click "Printers & Faxes"
- Double-click "Add Printer" to start the Add Printer Wizard
The Add Printer Wizard Welcome screen
Local or Network Printer
- Click "Local Printer"
- Make sure there's NO checkmark next to "Automatically detect and install ..."
- Click Next
Select a Printer Port
- Since you're installing this driver only as a test, choose LPT1: or FILE: (it doesn't really matter, since you'll never actually print to the port)
- Click Next
Install Printer Software
- Choose the HP LaserJet 4V/4MV as we've done here. If you use Windows VISTA, it may be way at the bottom of the listing of HP LaserJet 4 drivers.
- Click Next
Name Your Printer
- Give the printer a name (this is the name you'll use to select it later)
- Since you're installing the driver as a test, you might want to give it a name that indicates it isn't a real physical printer (PPT Pacifier, or the like)
- Click "Yes" under "Do you want to use this printer as the default printer" (this option may not appear in all Windows versions; see Notes below)
- Click Next
Printer Sharing
- Click "Do not share this printer"
- Click Next
Print Test Page
Completing the Add Printer Wizard
- Review your choices. Click Back if you need to change anything
- Click Finish
If you don't see "Use this printer as the default printer" in the "Name printer" screen, finish installing the printer, then click Start, Settings, Printers; rightclick the printer you just installed and click "Set as default printer" from the pop-up menu that appears.
Once you've installed the printer driver and set it as your default printer, start PowerPoint again and test to see if the previous problems still occur.
If the problems have not gone away, it means that your original printer driver and setup were not at fault. You can delete the test printer driver if you like.
If the problems no longer occur, it means that there was a problem with your previous printer driver or with the way it was installed. To pursue the issue further:
- Make sure that the original printer driver was installed on your computer, not on a network server. The printer itself can be on the network, so long as the driver is locally installed.
- Check the printer manufacturer's web site for updated drivers
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Contents © 1995-2008 Stephen Rindsberg, Rindsberg Photography, Inc. and members of the MS PowerPoint MVP team. You may link to this page but any form of unauthorized reproduction of this page's contents is expressly forbidden.
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