Some things to consider

• 1. Could it be a damaged ("corrupt") document or template? This is often more likely than a printer problem. See Repairing WordPerfect documents and templates - How to find and fix common problems.
• 2. Is it On? Is it available? Please understand that WordPerfect makes much heavier use of the printer (actually the printer driver; see below) than most other programs. Check to make sure the printer is turned on and it is available to your computer. (Hint: Windows allows setting up User Profiles. Some use this to set up a separate profile for when printers are not available, such as when disconnected from a network.)
• 3. Could it be a font problem? Some "printer" problems might be due to a missing or corrupt font. Fonts can be hardware (i.e., built into the printer) or software. If a font is missing, WordPerfect will substitute what it thinks is a close match; this might not be obvious until something appears "strange" -- such as text "pushed together," or text that extends beyond the margin, or text justification that is not what you expect. And fonts can be specified in the body text of the document as well as "upstream" in the default template. (WordPerfect is a "stream oriented" program, where codes take effect until discontinued, replaced, or removed by another code.) For other formatting issues see Why some documents seem to "spontaneously" or automatically reformat themselves when they are opened, printed, faxed, or shared between users. There are settings in WordPerfect that can cause reformatting, which can be mistaken for a problem with the printer.
• 4. Is your WordPerfect program up to date ("patched")? Updating to the latest version and "build" of WordPerfect Office may solve some printer issues. Information on updating may be found here.
• 5. Could it be a custom print setting in WordPerfect? Most versions of WordPerfect have an option to save various printer settings via an option on the Print dialog (File, Print, Settings (and Edit Settings)). Sometimes these are set by users and then forgotten until something seems to go wrong in printing, or until another user tries to print without knowing what custom settings are in effect. Search your WordPerfect Help (F1 key) for "saving print settings." (WordPerfect X5 has an updated Reference Center that contains a PDF User Guide with more information.) For example, to restore the program's default print settings: Click File, Print, and click the Main tab. In the Settings list box, choose Application default. Click the Edit settings button, and click on Restore.
• 6. Could it be an automatic reformatting issue in WordPerfect? See Why some documents seem to "spontaneously" or automatically reformat themselves when they are opened, printed, faxed, or shared between users.
• 7. Finally ... Could it be the printer or printer driver? For problems that might involve the printer itself, such as a slow opening (loading) of the program or documents, failure to load, low (or insufficient) memory error messages when starting WordPerfect (see article 3521 in the Corel database), or strange video (or video-vs-printout) problems see the Corel support site's Knowledgebase. [UPDATE April 2011: The Knowledgebase is now at http://corel.force.com/index.]
  • Some examples:
  • WordPerfect is slow launching. [Corel Knowledgebase article 3510] "This can happen when there is at least one printer in the Windows Control Panel listed as Offline or Not Ready. This is due to WordPerfect trying to aquire page definitions from a printer that it cannot connect to but [is] listed on your Control Panel as installed. To resolve this issue, remove the reference to the offline printer(s) from your Windows Control Panel." [Again, since WordPerfect makes greater use of printer drivers than many other programs to produce true WYSIWYG output to your screen, it can be affected by printer driver issues that the other programs might not notice.]
  • Troubleshooting Printing problems with WordPerfect. [Corel Knowledgebase article 3546] This article, for WordPerfect 9 and later, contains various solutions (see the article for details) such as:
    • clear the print queue because "a jammed print queue will prevent WordPerfect from opening or will cause the application to stall while attempting to print";
    • remove any offline printers;
    • restore WordPerfect stored printer information;
    • add an emulation (printer) driver;
    • (for WP10+) add a shortcut to the WordPerfect print engine in the Windows Start folder; and
    • remove and reinstall your printer's printer driver.
      • A printer driver is a small software module supplied by the printer manufacturer and is installed when you install your printer. Printer drivers function to "talk" to a specific printer and are also heavily used by WordPerfect to match the screen display with the printer's output to produce true WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") on your monitor. Printer driver information, along with a lot of other information, is stored with the document.
      • Note: Most printer manufacturers give instructions on their sites about deleting old drivers and installing new ones. Generally, installing a new or updated printer driver is as easy as downloading a file from the manufacturer and double-clicking on it. Typically it then will set up some files in a separate (temporary) folder and install the printer driver from there. Usually this takes only a minute or two.
        • Caveat: Sometimes reverting to an earlier version of the driver is better. For example, Many users find that the HP PCL 5e driver works better than the HP PCL 6 driver (but this author has found at least one case where the opposite was true). Both versions usually can be installed at the same time; they will show up in the File, Print dialog as separate entries.
      • More precisely, here is a way to do delete and reinstall a printer driver in Windows XP (note that the procedure may differ slightly in other operating systems -- see Footnote 1 below for methods reported to work in removing old printer drivers in Windows 7 -- so if you are unsure of how to proceed you should check the printer manufacturer's website and/or the Microsoft support site for instructions):
        • First, obtain the latest printer driver for your model of printer and for your operating system from the printer manufacturer's web site. (The installation CD that came with the printer might be out of date -- especially for Windows 7 systems.)
        • In Windows XP (for Windows 7 see footnote below):
          • Open the Windows Control Panel with Start, Settings, Control Panel. In the Printers and Faxes module, click on the printer icon or name. [In Windows XP you can also click Start, Settings, Printers and Faxes.]
          • Press <Delete> to delete the printer name (or icon).
          • Still in the Printers and Faxes dialog, click File, Server Properties, Drivers tab, and delete the printer driver. (This second step deletes the actual printer driver.)
          • Exit from the Control Panel, back to the Windows desktop.
          • Re-install the printer using the updated printer driver.
  • The Print button is greyed (grayed) out. [See also the next section below, which has been reported to fix this problem] If you try to select (or set options for) a printer with no document on screen, WordPerfect will automatically enable the checkbox, "Document on disk," in File, Print, Advanced tab. As 'CyndyZ' stated (here) on WordPerfect Universe: "[This] is exactly what should happen when you bring up the Print dialog when there is a new blank document on screen - WP knows there is nothing there to print, so it will (or should) offer to print a document on disk" instead - it checks that box and waits for you to pick a document to print (use the browse button to the right of that field); when you do that, the Print button would become available. This should not happen, of course, if there is a document on-screen when you bring up the Print dialog." [Update 6/21/11: The problem with the "Document on Disk" checkbox retaining its enabled state has been resolved in WPX5, Service Pack 2 (i.e., version 15.0.0.505).]
  • How to re-establish the communication between WordPerfect and your printer. [Corel Knowledgebase article 4346]
    • To re-establish the communications between the printer and WP:
    • Reset the PrintEngine:
      1. Close all applications, including WordPerfect.
      2. Click Start, Run. In the Open text box, type: Regedit and click OK.
      3. This will bring you into the Windows Registry. Click File, Export (or Registry, Export).
      4. In the text box, Save in: select Desktop or My Documents.
      5. Towards the bottom where it says File Name, type in the word: Backup.
      6. Below to the left, under Export Range, select All and click Save.
      The cursor will change to an hour glass and will return to a pointed arrow.
      7. Double click the folder HKey_Current_User to expand it.
      8. Double click the folder Software to expand it.
      9. Double click the folder Corel to expand it.
      10. Right-click the folder PrintEngine and select Rename. Rename it to PrintEngine1.
      11. Press the X at the top right corner to close the Windows registry. [Ed.: Apparently, this simply causes WordPerfect Office to create a new print engine.]
    • Delete the printer drivers:
    • 12. Click Start, Printers & Faxes (or Start, Settings, Control Panel, Printers).
      13. Select your printer drivers and delete them. (All of them).
    • Disable the items in the startup:
      14. Click Start, Run.
      15. In the box, type: MSCONFIG and press OK.
      16. From the System Configuration Utility dialog, select the Startup tab.
      17. From the Startup tab, click Disable All, click Apply, click OK.
    • Shutdown and reboot the computer.
      18. Shutdown your computer, wait 10 seconds and restart it. (This way your local printer will reinstall automatically).
      19. Close the System Configuration Utility dialog and press the X at the top right corner to close the box.
      20. Install your printer driver if Windows did not install your printer.
      21. Start WordPerfect and test.

If you have specific problems not listed on this page or anywhere on this website, you can try posting a question on the Corel Newsgroup for your specific version of WordPerfect (go to www.corel.com and look under "Support" for their news group links), or visit WordPerfect Universe at www.wpuniverse.com. 

See also the WordPerfect Universe FAQs, "Troubleshooting Printing Problems." "Install an Apple Laserwriter printer to troubleshoot," and "Printing, faxing, emailing - avoiding reformatting problems" - the latter is a tip on WordPerfect Universe that recommends using ScanSoft's PaperPort as the default printer, whereupon you can drag a PP file to one of the printer icons on the PP desktop; this should prevent reformatting by the printer. [Before posting a message on either the Corel newsgroups or WordPerfect Universe, you should read "Help Tips," here to learn how to get the most from them.]

See also: Resources for troubleshooting printer issues in Windows XP and Advanced troubleshooting for network printing problems in Windows XP.

Some of the following items were gleaned from the internet with Google Groups, using "wordperfect" in the Search field, along with terms such as "~fax ~reformat" (the tilde in front of the word will cause a search for similar words such as "faxing," etc.).

• See this page.

• Many of WordPerfect problems printing to the "wrong" paper tray are solved by creating or editing paper definitions that point to the proper paper tray. Here is a thread on WordPerfect Universe ("Overcome the WP10 Printer Bug that only allows printing to the Default Tray!") that offers solutions .
• See this WordPerfect Universe thread, "WP 11 and the changing page setup problem," which explains how to use the Current Printer Only setting when creating new label definitions, especially on networked printers.
• See "Print your letterhead page from one printer tray, and second and subsequent pages from another tray."
• See "Merging multiple-page letters using letterhead paper for page 1 and plain paper for subsequent pages."

• Does WordPerfect (version 10 or later) print multiple copies of the document or envelope? Perhaps you have un-ticked (disabled) the print option, "Reset number of copies each time," on the File, Print, Advanced tab. Check that box to force WordPerfect to change back to single copies.
• Can't print selected text in WP11, WP12, WPX3? Disable the "Auto generate" checkbox in Tools, Reference.
• Cursor jumps. When saving a document, does the cursor move to the bottom of the screen in WP11, WP12, WPX3? Same solution as above: Disable the "Auto-generate" checkbox in Tools, Reference.
• "Slow" printing time. Users sometimes notice that it can take several seconds for WordPerfect to start printing a document, which doesn't seem to happen with Microsoft Word.
  • From the Corel WP11 newsgroup (6/1/07, posted by Steve Shattuck):
  • Question:
    • "I've always wondered why, when I click to print a document, WP usually freezes for 3-7 seconds while it gets the printer going. Whereas MS Word does not freeze when you print. Is there a workaround?"
  • Answer:
    • "Actually the answer is that WP makes no attempt to format the printer output until you actually print. Word keeps a printable image of your document formatted in the background. Basically just a difference in programming approach. There are strengths and weaknesses to each approach.
    • Additionally WordPerfect tries to emulate a Desktop Publishing program and as such places each and every letter on a page individually while Word places words, sometimes full pages in a single printer stream. You can validate this if you look at the size of a WordPerfect spool file vs. a Word spool file for the same document. The WordPerfect file is MUCH bigger, and thus takes more time to generate."
• Getting errors when launching WordPerfect? [Answer ID 753726] WordPerfect "hanging" on you? See this Corel support database article (new number: 000003522): http://preview.tinyurl.com/3wut42u.