Whenever I print a Word document line numbers are always added (such as you might find in a legal document or a contract). I have trawled through the various menus but have been quite unable to find a way to turn this (very annoying) feature off. I am using Word 2003 and Windows XP.

This is quite an interesting problem as should the issue be related to Word then the line numbers should also be visible on screen. However, if you are not viewing the document in Print Layout then it is quite possible you do not need the line numbers. To check this theory, in an affected document go to the “View” menu > “Print Layout”. If you now see line numbers on screen then they have been configured in the document. To turn-off line numbers, go to the “File” menu > “Page Setup” and click the “Layout” tab. In the “Apply to” drop-down box, select “Whole document” and then click the “Line Numbers” button. Untick the “Add line numbering” box then click OK and OK again to save the changes. Line numbers should now be disabled in that document.

If you find that line numbering still appears in new documents then it is probable line numbering is enabled by default for new documents. This could explain why it seems that all documents have this enabled – because they are recent documents that you have created with line numbering unknowingly enabled. To remove the line numbering default behaviour, in a new document return to the Page Setup and disable line numbering. When you click OK to close the Line Numbering box (and return to the main Page Setup window) click the “Default…” button at the bottom of the window. This will set the specified page setup settings (including the disabled line numbering) as the default for new documents. From now on, line numbering should be disabled when you create a new document.

However, if you find that line numbering still appears (even though it is definitely not enabled in Word) then the only other explanation is that it’s a printer setting. This would be quite odd, since generally a printer would not be able to tell individual document lines apart to add numbering. However, it would still be worthwhile going through the printer settings (Start menu > Printers and Faxes then right-click on your printer and select “Properties”) to check whether there is a setting that could be causing this behaviour.