Ugh. I need printing help.

Okay, I really love my new iMac, but printing is seriously getting on my nerves. I have an HP 932C printer. When I go into Word and print, it simply takes FOREVER and eats up my ink. I change the quality settings from Normal to Draft. That makes it faster and uses less ink. All I print out are papers for school, so that's good enough for me. I save this configuration, and I'm set. Well, if I close down Word, the settings revert back to Normal, regardless of my saved configurations. If I forget, I end up having to cancel a print because it's eating my ink and taking 5 times as long as it should. How can I make Word save my preferences for printing and KEEP them? Is there some system preference I can play with other than in Word? There's nothing in Print Manager that's useful. Any ideas?

 

*bump*

 

Have all of that. I've found out that this happens in all of my software, including Apple stuff. I have 10.2.4 and downloaded the latest Office updates. I'll go and check about software for my printer too. Any other ideas? I didn't even have to install printer software in the first place.