Help
I need to print a variety of documents on a regular basis, but it's a hassle to open each document in its own application just to print it. There's gotta be a faster way.
Depending on the file type, odds are the feature you want is right at hand. In Explorer, just right-click a document and select Print to send it to the printer.
Now, the printing of documents is the responsibility of individual applications, so if you don't see a Print option for a particular file type, it means there's no application configured for this task. To add a Print option to a file type that doesn't have it, go to View → Folder Options in Explorer, and choose the File Types tab. Select the type in the list, and click the Advanced button. Click New, type Print in the Action field, and then click Browse. Locate the application that opens files of this type (e.g., Notepad for .txt files, Microsoft Word for .doc files), and then click Open. After the path and filename in the "Application used to perform action" field, add a space and then type /p %1.
Note
The %1 is a placeholder, which Explorer will replace with the name of the file you've right-clicked. The
/p
parameter is usually all that is required to instruct the program to print the file, although your application may need a different parameter. Look up "command-line parameters" in your application's documentation for details.
Click OK and then OK again, and click the Close button when you're done. Now, right-click a document that matches the file type you just customized and select Print, and you should get a printout of the file shortly!
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