Q. I use Microsoft Word on my Windows 98 system and have an Epson inkjet printer. Sometimes I realize that I made a mistake and want to stop printing but don't know how to do that. I try clicking on the Print - Delete or Print-Cancel but even though the PC says its deleted it continues to print.

Ink is so expensive that I turn off the printer. That doesn't seem to be the best way to do things. Help!

A. Most printers have some kind of internal memory (temporary storage area) that stores your print job. This is so you can click on Print and have the print job go to the printer (called spooling) so that your PC is freed up for the next task.

So if you cancel the printing from the PC, some of the items you originally wanted to print have already left the PC and are sitting in the memory of the printer.

The best way to stop printing is to look for the printer icon, usually on the lower right of the screen in the task bar, which appears when you are printing. Doubleclick to open this up and you will see the Print Queue and you can click to Pause or Cancel the printing.

There may still be a few pages in the printer's memory that will print but it will stop receiving new pages from the PC.

Answered by Tech Expert Dan Hanson