With commondialog.showprinter I want to save as a pdf file (W10), I will ask for the file name, I would like to see it already filled in, filled with a name from a text box in vb6. Is that possible?
This is a very interesting question. I've been "basically" doing this for years. However, I've always recommended Power PDF by Nuance to my clients. That was the only PDF print driver I've ever found that correctly handled translucency (say, 50%) from drawings (graphs, etc.) in Office documents (particularly Excel). I've been doing this for years, and Nuance (ScanSoft before Nuance bought them) used several different ways to store and retrieve these "default" file names. My software basically handles them all (some in INI files and some in the registry).
However, that's all for that Nuance software.
What's most interesting is that I just tried the Windows 10 "Microsoft Print to PDF" and it correctly handles the translucencies. I'd dearly love to get out from under the need for that Nuance software. Therefore, I'll definitely be looking into this. Also, I'll need precisely what you've asked for (a default pre-filled filename for the PDF file).
I use only API calls to prompt for which printer to use, and I also know there's a callback option with them. It will probably take this callback to achieve what you're asking. I'll take a look at it and see if I can get it sorted.
Best Regards,
Elroy
EDIT1: And also, for those interested in what I'm talking about with the translucency, just create a Word document with something like the following...
... and then use your CutePDF, PrimoPDF, or whatever your favored PDF driver is, and watch what happens.
Last edited by Elroy; Feb 5th, 2018 at 04:40 PM.
Any software I post in these forums written by me is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, and permission is hereby granted, free of charge and without restriction, to any person obtaining a copy. To all, peace and happiness.
Hmmm, well, it's something that may be of use to me, but it is turning out to be a bit more difficult than first glance.
I can successfully select the "Microsoft Print to PDF" with a callback when calling the PrintDlg, but that doesn't get you where you want to be.
The problem is, that driver creates another "Save As" dialog that I don't know how to set a hook for. I searched a bit on how I might do that, but couldn't find anything.
On a lark, I tried using SendKeys, and that actually works. Just use SendKeys to send your filename just before you actually start printing, and it'll buffer those keystrokes and put them into the "Save As" dialog when it pops up.
However, there's one caveat to that approach. The way I did it, my thread kept the focus so the keyboard buffer just waited until my thread put a window up. However, if your printing is going to take a while, you might click some other window which will allow the keyboard buffer to flush to that other window. I'm not sure I know a solution to that off the top of my head. Ideally, we could set a hook for that "Microsoft Print to PDF" driver and run some code when the "Save As" window pops up.
Take Care,
Elroy
Any software I post in these forums written by me is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, and permission is hereby granted, free of charge and without restriction, to any person obtaining a copy. To all, peace and happiness.
@Elroy: I'm pretty sure that populating `pOutputFile` of `pDocInfo` param of `StartDocPrinter` API function works as expected with "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer (produces PDF w/ no Save As dialogs).
This works with CutePDF too but produces PostScript files that need to be further processed by CutePDF's distribution of GhostScript.
The `pOutputFile` param didn't use to work with Foxit print to PDF solutions (no idea for recent versions). Probably other print drivers do not implement it correctly too.
Solution found! I have installed DoPDF and DoPDF puts the program name in the input field for the filename.
After CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter I change the program name with App.Title = mytext.Text and that works perfectly!
This doesn't address the file name issue, but you can indeed print to the Windows 10 PDF printer driver and get translucency. A little bit of fiddling, but not that much and once you have the code written you just reuse it as much as required (almost never).
This 6 line patch adds optional `OutputFile` to `UPrinter.OpenPrinter` method so when using "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer you can specify output PDF filename w/o the driver showing Save As dialog at all.
Basicly it's optionally populating DOCINFO's member w/ this:
vb Code:
mOutputFile = OutputFile
If LenB(mOutputFile) <> 0 Then
DOCINFO.lpszOutput = StrPtr(mOutputFile)
End If
This built-in feature works for other print-to-pdf solutions too as already mentioned above.
I misread the above and assumed it only applied to DOCINFO_1 and StartDocPrinter. But yes, this of course works.
If you are going to do this though you need to choose the printer driver in code rather than letting the user do it from a list or dialog. Otherwise you wouldn't even know which file extension to use.
For me, I sort of set this aside for a bit. But it would be nice to get it worked out. And yes, Dilettante, from my testing, I was quite pleased at the way the "Microsoft Print to PDF" driver printed the translucency. Other than Nuance, it's the only one I've seen do a good job with it.
I sort of set it aside because there are basically two ways I do my printing. 90% of it is done through Word and Excel automation; and 10% of it is done with the Printer object (just changing the default printer as needed). I suppose, when using the Printer object, I could rewrite that code to use hPrinter and API calls. However, the Office automation is a different story. Let me give an example of how I now do it.
First, I call this procedure named SetPdfCreatorDefaultPath. I'd show it but it's a bit long and I'm not sure others are really interested. Basically, it just patches up the default file-path for Nuance PDF Creator before its used.
And then, I run all print occurrences through one of the following:
Code:
Public Sub WordPrint(doc As Object)
doc.Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsNone
doc.PrintOut False ' The False tells Word to not do anything until the document has completed printing.
doc.Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsMessageBox
End Sub
Public Sub ExcelPrint(wsh As Object)
wsh.PrintOut
End Sub
If I were to start recommending the "Microsoft Print to PDF" to my clients rather than the "Nuance PDF Creator", I'm not sure how I'd work out that default file name (which is actually quite important). Also, Nuance offers another feature that the Microsoft driver doesn't seem to offer. If the file exists, you get prompted on whether you should "Append" or "Over-write".
Best Regards,
Elroy
Any software I post in these forums written by me is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, and permission is hereby granted, free of charge and without restriction, to any person obtaining a copy. To all, peace and happiness.
First, I call this procedure named SetPdfCreatorDefaultPath. I'd show it but it's a bit long and I'm not sure others are really interested. Basically, it just patches up the default file-path for Nuance PDF Creator before its used.
Btw, `PrintOut` method already has `OutputFileName` parameter and together with `PrintToFile:=True` should work with "Microsoft Print to PDF" or any other print driver that uses PDF format internally for queuing print jobs.
For me, I sort of set this aside for a bit. But it would be nice to get it worked out. And yes, Dilettante, from my testing, I was quite pleased at the way the "Microsoft Print to PDF" driver printed the translucency. Other than Nuance, it's the only one I've seen do a good job with it.
I sort of set it aside because there are basically two ways I do my printing. 90% of it is done through Word and Excel automation; and 10% of it is done with the Printer object (just changing the default printer as needed). I suppose, when using the Printer object, I could rewrite that code to use hPrinter and API calls. However, the Office automation is a different story. Let me give an example of how I now do it.
First, I call this procedure named SetPdfCreatorDefaultPath. I'd show it but it's a bit long and I'm not sure others are really interested. Basically, it just patches up the default file-path for Nuance PDF Creator before its used.
And then, I run all print occurrences through one of the following:
Code:
Public Sub WordPrint(doc As Object)
doc.Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsNone
doc.PrintOut False ' The False tells Word to not do anything until the document has completed printing.
doc.Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsMessageBox
End Sub
Public Sub ExcelPrint(wsh As Object)
wsh.PrintOut
End Sub
If I were to start recommending the "Microsoft Print to PDF" to my clients rather than the "Nuance PDF Creator", I'm not sure how I'd work out that default file name (which is actually quite important). Also, Nuance offers another feature that the Microsoft driver doesn't seem to offer. If the file exists, you get prompted on whether you should "Append" or "Over-write".
This doesn't address the file name issue, but you can indeed print to the Windows 10 PDF printer driver and get translucency. A little bit of fiddling, but not that much and once you have the code written you just reuse it as much as required (almost never).
Snipped from Acrobat Reader DC
Alpha:=100 can msg err .my printer do not support this function.
i have a ider, may print the txt in a picture, then print picture to paper ...
This 6 line patch adds optional `OutputFile` to `UPrinter.OpenPrinter` method so when using "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer you can specify output PDF filename w/o the driver showing Save As dialog at all.
Basicly it's optionally populating DOCINFO's member w/ this:
vb Code:
mOutputFile = OutputFile
If LenB(mOutputFile) <> 0 Then
DOCINFO.lpszOutput = StrPtr(mOutputFile)
End If
This built-in feature works for other print-to-pdf solutions too as already mentioned above.
cheers,
</wqw>
No good deed goes unpunished: I just got "Unattributed Code warning" private message from the admins for the link with the *diff* above. . .
Unfortunately there is no easy way to post a link to the diff *only* on gist.github.com. Built-in diff shows the previous (original) version as well.
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Originally Posted by Elroy
