Attempts at printing double sided-aka-it’s not me, eh, madam

I have a long-standing love/hate relationship with technology.  Truth be known, that relationship extends to anything mechanical.   It’s interesting to observe the jargon that each trade/profession uses too-is that necessary?  Is it to keep the rest of us in the dark?

Issue:  The issue was simple, straightforward-to print a Word document double-sided using my iMac and HP printer.  (In these days of trying to minimize the use of scarce resources, it seemed like a reasonable goal.).  I can print double-sided from web pages..why not Word?

Action taken:

• Scroll through all relevant items on the menu bar, look under system preferences-oh look-a box to check off that says double-sided.  Use the administrator name and password and make the change.  Nada-no double-sided option appears when I go to print.
• Spend 2 more hours looking for things-search on the internet-there’s a forum-others have had the same issue-try those suggestions.  Nada-no double-sided option appears when I go to print.
• Call AppleCare-we verify versions and lots of other stuff-check for upgrades-and in the end he says-it’s not Apple-“we’ve done what we can do”.  It’s not me, eh, madam. You should call Microsoft. 
• Call Microsoft-we verify versions and case history and look at drop down boxes. (After he asks if my printer has the capability of printing double-sided!) The double-sided option is greyed out and in the end she says “we’ve done what we can do”.   It’s not me, eh, madam.  You should call HP. 

Future:

• Hard as it is to predict the future-this is my go at it….should I decide to pursue the challenge of printing double-sided from Word rather than just going single sided and using a bunch of paper:   I call HP-we verify versions and look for upgrades.  There’s no solution-and in the end, they say-we’ve done what we can do.  It’s not me, eh, madam.  It’s the paper-I should call the paper company.  I call the paper company… and end up finally barking up a tree…likely the wrong one.  Ah now I’m just getting silly.