Hi Jolbe,
You have to separate dir pins, not just step pins. And one suggestion, you should use pins 2-9 for step/dir control, because this pins can sink and source much more current (10 times) than pins 1, 14, 16 & 17. In many cases these pins can not supply enough current for activating optocouplers at the input circuit of controllers and you may have just one direction, or losing steps. If you have opto's at the input of driver, they need approx. 10mA, witch is too much for LPT pin 1.
Cheers