Most installed printers, by default, print to the best quality (which means color where possible).  That's because the printer makers want to show off their product and prevent returns to the store because the printer doesn't print as well as promised.  To change that setting you have to go to Printer Settings in the Print dialog. 

The problem is remembering the make the change to greyscale printing (or back to color).  Most of us remember to do that only after the page is printed!  What's needed is a way to quickly select between printer settings for the same printer ... and that's what we have.  

Quick Change

How can you toggle between costly color printing and cheaper Black & White or Grayscale quickly without delving into the print properties each time you want to switch?

You can do it quite easily and it's been possible for many years in Windows but it's not obvious. Once setup it works for any Windows program, not just Microsoft Office.

In short, you create multiple 'printers' in Windows with different settings in each one, even though they all send output to the same physical printer. Windows seems to operate on the basis on one printer listing in the Control Panel setup for physical printer. In fact you can add more 'printers' with separate settings in each one. Here's a standard looking Printers applet in Windows XP with a single printer installed:

Doesn't say much and there's no indication of what printer settings apply. So the first step is to find out and label the printer accordingly.

Right-click on the printer icon and choose 'Printing Preferences'. What you see next depends on the brand and type of printer plus print drivers you've installed.

In this simple example there's a 'Paper/Quality' tab which controls the color setting for the printer.

Cancel out and get back to the Printer list. Right-click on the Printer, choose Rename and give it a clearer label. I go for capitals so each option stands out:

Now to make a 'new' printer. Before you start you may wish to check the connect settings for the printer (go to the printer properties | Ports). Click on Add Printer and go through the wizard again choosing the same settings and drivers as for the original printer. At one stage you'll be asked if you want to use the existing drivers - choose 'Keep existing driver'.