If you have a color printer, you may have found yourself accidentally printing documents you wanted in black-white in color instead. This occurs because some color printers, by default, are set up to print in color, and unless you remember to change the printer properties each time you go through a program's "Print" menu, your documents will all be in color. This can be aggravating, as it may waste your color ink or toner cartridge, a possibly costly situation. So, to fix this - change the printer's defaults in Windows 2000!

1. Click the "Start" menu, then "Settings", the "Printers".
2. When the "Printers" window appears, right-click on your default printer name and choose "Properties".
3. When the printer properties multi-tabbed dialog box appears, select the "General" tab.
4. Click the "Printing Preferences" button.
5. From here, change the settings so the printer prints in black and white, and press "OK" to close the dialog boxes.

The contents and actions of the "Printing Preferences" window differ by printer, so after you perform this change, ensure it saved by opening up Notepad. Try to print a document, but when the "Print" dialog box appears, access the printer properties first and ensure the printer will print in black-and-white by default.

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