Quick Answer
Go to File > Print (or press Ctrl + P on Windows, Cmd + P on Mac), click the dropdown under Settings that reads Print All Pages, choose Custom Print, and type a range into the Pages box, for example:
4-6
for pages 4 through 6, or:
1,3,9
for three separate pages in one job. The rest of this guide covers every variation: printing just the page you’re looking at, printing highlighted text, printing the right page when a document’s numbering restarts mid-document, and how these steps change on Mac and in Word for the web.
Printing all 40 pages of a document when you need page 4 burns paper, ink, and your patience at the printer tray. Word does have a fix for this, it’s just buried in a dropdown that normally just says “Print All Pages,” so most people never notice it’s there.
Before You Begin
Make sure you have:
- Microsoft 365 or a licensed copy of Word (desktop version, for the full range of options)
- The document open with the pages you want to print visible in Print Preview
- A configured printer, or a PDF printer driver if you’re printing to a file
- For Word for the web: a Microsoft account and a modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari)
Print Specific Pages in Word for Windows
These steps use the Backstage Print pane in Word for Windows.
Step 1: Open the Print pane
Open your document, then go to File > Print, or press Ctrl + P. Word shows a live preview of the document on the right and print settings on the left.
Step 2: Print just the page you’re viewing
Fixed a typo and only need that one page reprinted? Scroll the preview to that page, click the Print All Pages dropdown, and select Print Current Page. Word prints only the page currently shown in the preview pane, so double-check the preview matches the page you want before clicking Print.
Step 3: Print a consecutive page range
For a block of pages, click Print All Pages > Custom Print, then type your range into the Pages field using a hyphen. To print pages 4 through 6:
4-6
Click Print. Word prints only pages 4, 5, and 6, nothing before or after.
Step 4: Print nonconsecutive pages
To print pages that aren’t next to each other (say, page 3 and page 9 for a two-page handout), separate them with a comma:
3,9
You can also mix single pages and ranges in the same field:
1,3,5-12
Word reads the commas as “and” and the hyphens as “through.” Skip the spaces after commas and keep the range tight, like 1,3,5-12 instead of 1, 3, 5-12.
Step 5: Print only text you’ve selected
Need just a paragraph, quote, or table, not the whole page it sits on? Highlight that text in the document first, then open File > Print. The Print Selection option only shows up in the dropdown when text is already selected. If it’s grayed out or missing, close the Print pane, select the text, and reopen it.
Step 6: Print the correct page when section numbering restarts
Long documents, think legal filings, manuscripts, reports with per-chapter numbering, often use section breaks that restart page numbers. That means “page 1” might show up three or four times in the same file. A plain “1” in the Pages field is ambiguous when that happens. Use section syntax instead: p<page>s<section>. To print page 2 of section 3:
p2s3
For a range within a section, or spanning sections:
p1s2-p3s2
This tells Word exactly which physical page to print, regardless of the number displayed on it. Not sure where your section breaks fall? Turn on formatting marks with Ctrl + Shift + 8 to see them right in the document.
Word for Mac: Differences in the Print Dialog
Word for Mac skips the Backstage Print pane and hands off to the native macOS print sheet, with Word’s own page-range controls layered on top. The feature works the same; the layout doesn’t.
Step 1: Open the print sheet
Open your document and go to File > Print, or press Cmd + P. macOS opens its standard print sheet with the printer, copies, and page-range options.
Step 2: Expand the Word settings and set a page range
If the print sheet is collapsed, click Show Details (or the printer preview dropdown, depending on your macOS version) to reveal the full panel. Under Pages, use the From and To fields for a consecutive range like 1 through 3, or check whether your Word build gives you a Page Range field that accepts the same comma-and-hyphen syntax as Windows (e.g., 1,3,5-12).
Step 3: Print
Confirm the correct printer is selected at the top of the sheet, then click Print.
What’s different from Windows: Word for Mac’s Print Current Page, Print Selection, and section-syntax options don’t always show up in the same place. Some are folded into the macOS Pages radio buttons instead of a dedicated dropdown, and where they land can shift between Word updates. Don’t see a Selection option? Highlight your text before opening the print sheet, same as on Windows, since it only appears when something is selected.
Word for the Web: Printing Through Your Browser
Word for the web doesn’t have its own print engine. File > Print generates a print-ready rendering of the document and hands the actual page-range decision to your browser’s print dialog.
Step 1: Trigger the print rendering
Open your document in Word for the web, then click File > Print > Print again in the panel that appears. Word renders the document and opens your browser’s native print dialog on top of it.
Step 2: Use the browser’s Pages field
In the browser dialog (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari), find the Pages field and enter a range using standard syntax, such as 4-6 or 1,3,9.
Here’s the catch: the browser only understands plain numeric ranges. It has no idea what Word’s section syntax (p2s3) means, and there’s no Print Selection option for highlighted text. Word for the web is fine for a quick range like “pages 2 to 4.” For section-aware or selection printing, open the same file in desktop Word instead.
Troubleshooting Common Printing Problems
Extra blank pages print at the end of the range. Section breaks, trailing empty paragraphs, or a table pushing content onto a near-empty page can add pages you didn’t expect. Turn on formatting marks (Ctrl + Shift + 8 on Windows, Cmd + 8 on Mac) to find stray breaks near the end of your range, clean them up, and recheck Print Preview before printing again.
Comments or tracked changes show up in the printout. This happens when the document is still showing markup. Go to Review > Display for Review and set it to No Markup, then reprint. See our guide on how to show or hide tracked changes in Word if markup keeps reappearing.
The wrong physical page prints in a sectioned document. A plain page number is ambiguous when numbering restarts per section. Use the p<page>s<section> syntax (like p2s3) instead of a bare page number, as covered in Step 6 above. If you don’t need the restarted numbering at all, our article on how to remove a section break in Word covers cleaning that up permanently.
Print Selection is missing or grayed out. Word only shows this option when text is already highlighted. Close the Print pane, select the text in the document, and reopen File > Print.
A custom range prints everything anyway, or throws an error. Check for spaces or the wrong separators; use commas and hyphens only, like 3,5-8, with no spaces. Also check the printer’s own driver dialog. If it has its own page-range field, leave it blank so it doesn’t override Word’s setting.
Word for the web won’t accept a section-aware or selection-based range. That’s expected: the browser print dialog only supports plain numeric ranges. Open the file in desktop Word for anything more advanced.
Would rather share exact pages digitally instead of on paper? Saving the range as a PDF works around most of these quirks. See our guide on how to save a Word document as PDF.
Tips and Hidden Features
- Odd/Even pages for manual duplex: If your printer can’t print both sides automatically, print odd pages first, flip the stack, then print even pages.
- Preview before you commit: Always glance at the Print Preview pane before clicking Print; it catches wrong ranges and surprise blank pages before they waste paper.
- Keep ranges tight:
1,3,5-12works more reliably across Word versions than the same range with extra spaces.
Wrapping Up
Custom Print with a simple range like 4-6 handles almost every “I just need a few pages” situation, and it works the same way across nearly every desktop Word document. That’s the fix I’d reach for first.
Word for the web is fine in a pinch for a quick numeric range. But if your document has sections, restarted numbering, or you need to print a highlighted selection, open it in desktop Word instead. That’s where the real control lives.
| Step | Action | Applies To |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | File > Print (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P) | Windows, Mac, Web |
| 2 | Choose Print Current Page for the visible page | Windows, Mac |
| 3 | Type a range like 4-6 or 1,3,9 into Custom Print | Windows, Mac, Web (numeric only) |
| 4 | Highlight text, then choose Print Selection | Windows, Mac (native dialog) |
| 5 | Use p2s3 syntax for sectioned documents | Windows, Mac (desktop only) |
Resources
- Microsoft Support (Office support hub)
- Microsoft 365 Word product page
- Learn more about printing specific sections of a document in Word for advanced scenarios.
- For printing in other applications, consider resetting your network settings if connectivity issues arise during the process.
