Printer tray confusion

[Marion G]

I've been using Word for years, but something about printer trays still
confuses me. Can someone please explain the difference between "Printer Auto
Select", "Automatically Select" and "Default Tray (Automatically Select)". I
tend to use whichever one at random and cross my fingers, but I'd love to
have a more scientific method.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This dropdown is populated by your printer driver, so the choices will vary
depending on what printer you have selected. In my case, the top option is
Default tray (Auto Select), followed by Auto Select, Manual Feed, Tray, 1,
Tray 2, etc., for the LJ 4100. If I switch printers to the DJ6122, I get
Default Tray (Upper Tray), Upper Tray, Lower Tray, and Automatic (which is
kind of interesting since there's only one tray, and the bypass feed is
above it).

The point is that when you select "Default tray," you are selecting whatever
tray is selected in your printer as the default. In most cases, this
probably will be some variation on Auto Select. The only reason for changing
this is to select Manual Feed for labels or to specify trays for letterhead
and second sheets.

 

[Marion G]

Thanks Suzanne, but I still don't get it. I understand the concept of Tray 1,
Tray 2 etc, it's the "automatic" stuff that's sending me into a spin. In my
mind, something that's automatically selected is the default option, so what
I can't get my head around is the difference between Auto Select and Default
Tray (Auto Select). And if they both mean "I'm going to print on the default
tray as per the printer settings" then what the Sam Hill does Printer Auto
Select do differently? I don't know whether I'm having blonde moments or
senior moments or both!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When your printer is set to Auto Select, it makes the choice of tray to use
based on what's available. For example, my LaserJet has a paper drawer at
the bottom that contains Letter-sized paper. It also has a Multi-Purpose
tray that opens on the front in which you can feed Letter, Legal, envelopes,
small paper stock, labels, etc. The printer is set to draw from the bottom
tray (Tray 2) unless there is something in the MP tray (Tray 1). In Word I
can specify Tray 1 or Tray 2 to force the printer to use that tray (and this
is necessary for Letter-sized labels, which might otherwise be printed from
Tray 2 if Tray 1 ran out of label sheets), but for most documents I want the
default tray to be whichever one the printer automatically chooses. This
allows me to, for example, print the front side of a sheet from Tray 2 and
then feed the printed sheets back through Tray 1 to print the second side.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Marion,

Word lists 2 things in the Page Setup=>Paper dialog.

1. All of the 'trays'/paper sources your printer offers under

File=>Print=>[Properties]=>Paper/Source

or in Word 2007

Office Button=>Print=>Print=>[Properties]=>Paper/Source

2. "Default" (name of your current selection in #1, above.

In some cases, you'll see

'Default(Default Tray)'
'Default Tray'

In others
'Default (Automatically Select)'
'Paper Casette'
'MP Tray'
'Envelopes'
'Automatically Select'

In the first example, there is only one tray and it's named 'Default Tray'.

In the 2nd example, as in the HP Laser Suzanne mentioned, it has a 'tray' named 'Automatically select'.

You have the choice to choose 'agree' to use whatever the default is set for the printer at the time of printing (i.e. you could
change that via
File=>Print=>Printer
or you can choose in Page Layout to select a particular tray that should ignore any changes to the printer 'default' selection.

===========
Thanks Suzanne, but I still don't get it. I understand the concept of Tray 1,
Tray 2 etc, it's the "automatic" stuff that's sending me into a spin. In my
mind, something that's automatically selected is the default option, so what
I can't get my head around is the difference between Auto Select and Default
Tray (Auto Select). And if they both mean "I'm going to print on the default
tray as per the printer settings" then what the Sam Hill does Printer Auto
Select do differently? I don't know whether I'm having blonde moments or
senior moments or both! >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*