Firefox and MS office apps do not see the printer installed, IE , Chrome others OK??

XP machine, up-to-date, no infections. MS Office (w/o ACCESS) 2000 refuses to print to ANY printer - be it physical or pdf-output. Error message text is somewhat different comparing WORD response("...you need to install a printer...") to EXCEL.
Firefox refuses to print also, complaining about the lack of printer.
Printers ARE installed and function well for other applications such as Chrome, IE, others.

I have spent many hours and tried about 10 different sugestions from other forums - still no pass...

Any suggestions? I am puzzled: MS Office 2000 is old, of course, but fresh-hot Firefox?

Thanks,
Alex