Unsaved information is lost when printing from operating system shell in MS Word

[Steyn]

Hello everyone,
Many times it happens that when I open document from the operating system shell instead of Microsoft Word and give the print command, then the unsaved information is lost. This usually happens when I drag a document icon from Windows Explorer to a printer shortcut icon. I have tried many different ways but I am getting the same results. Please help me by providing solutions for an unsaved information that is lost when printing from operating system shell in MS Word.

[JonathanD]

Printing from the operating system shell command invokes a series of dynamic data exchange (DDE) from the registry. These commands DDE tell Word to open the document, print the document and close the document without saving changes. So if you can make changes in this registry then you may fix this issue of losing an unsaved information. But do it only if you are having good knowledge about the registries, otherwise you will have to install your whole operating system if anything goes wrong.

[Macarenas]

To avoid this problem, print from within the Word program or save the document before you print from the operating system shell. Or, DDE can change this behavior by modifying the registry entries that tell Word to close the document without saving changes. If the document has unsaved changes, do some workarounds prompt before closing the Word document.

[ThoMas321]

To change the registry entry for Word prompts to save changes when you drag the icon for the document to a printer icon, follow these steps :

1. Exit Word.
2. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, then click OK.
3. Locate the following registry subkey :
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Word.Document.8 \ shell \ printto \ ddeexec
4. In the right pane, click Default.
5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6. Replace the value data with the information below and then click OK :
   [REM _DDE_Minimize] [FileOpen (\ "% 1 \")] [t = IsDocumentDirty ()] [FilePrint 0] [SetDocumentDirty t] [DocClose]

[Kirmiac]

The registry subkey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Word.Document.8 \ shell \ printto \ ddeexec will work for. Doc files in Word 2007. However, this subkey will not work for. Docx files in Word 2007. For. Docx, locate the following registry subkey :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Word.Document.12 \ shell \ Printto \ ddeexec
These keys contain the set of DDE commands that are used to print a document from the operating system shell.

[DANIEL 602]

Several fields are updated when you print the document, including the date fields and fields page numbers. If you modify the registry, I would suggest you to save any document that contains the dates and page numbers when you print from the operating system shell. After doing the steps mentioned by the 'ThoMas321', when you print a document from the operating system shell, you must save the changes if the document contains unsaved changes.