Setting the default printer will change what pops up when you click a print button, but you should learn - for your setup - how to do "on the fly" selections.

What pops up when you click print varies with the driver(s) installed for your default printer, and sometimes with what program you're in. For most print functions it will stop for a "confirm click" at least, and most of the "confirm" menus will have either a scroll box near the top showing what "printer" is selected. You can change the printer selection at that point, if the option is present.

Some printers, when set to be your default, will give a confirm box that doesn't have the scroll box, but most of these will have something like a "format" or "page setup" button, and if you click it one of the options should be to select/change the printer you want. You may also run into this kind of setup printing from certain programs, regardless of what printer is your default - especially true for graphics programs that assume you'll want to do a lot of "formatting."

It is, I've heard, possible to set up a "printer" to send without a confirmation, but you'd almost have to do it "on purpose." If you've been "gifted" with this kind of set up, I'd recommend getting rid of it; but use your own preferences. You may find the controls to do so either in the "Properties" for the printer, or more likely in something like a "Preferences" setup in a program you use that "does it to you." Since you seldom do much formatting for FAX, I suppose it would be a likely one for this kind of abuse. I don't use FAX, so haven't looked specifically at a FAX printer setup - or display - in several years.

A few web sites that offer a "print" button may script the "execute" directly into the button so that whatever you print comes out of your default printer immediately, giving you no chance to change the printer selection. I find this rude, but they seem to think it prevents you from copying to file instead of just printing their choice of what's on the page that they want you to have. So they're wrong - and rude.

John