Printing Question

[David.Poundall]

I have done the searches but as I have never controlled Word or Excell with VB before I need a BASIC explanation for the following if possible.

I would like to be able to print a word document or an excell document or a PDF from my application programatically without the user having to click on any boxes or popups. The excell spreadsheet would be sheet 1 only.

Automation is the way I feel but I have no idea on syntax or methods to use.

Thanks in advance.

[David.Poundall]

BUMP - Just a relevant link would do. I couldn't find one.

Thanks in advance.

.

[RobDog888]

David, just use the ShellExecute API with the "Print" verb and it will print only
using the associated program.

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
 
Private Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED As Long = 3
Private Const SW_SHOWMINIMIZED As Long = 2
Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL As Long = 1
Private Const SW_HIDE As Long = 0
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Print", "D:\My Documents\Document1.doc", vbNullString, App.Path, SW_HIDE
End Sub
 
Private Sub Command2_Click()
    ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Print", "D:\My Documents\Book1.xls", vbNullString, App.Path, SW_HIDE
End Sub
 
Private Sub Command3_Click()
    ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Print", "D:\My Documents\ReadMe.pdf", vbNullString, App.Path, SW_HIDE
End Sub

[David.Poundall]

Thanks for that RobDog. Just what I needed. Quick question though ... how does shell know which app to print with, Word/Excell or PDF ? Is that where App.Path comes in or does the operating system use the default program called by the file association?

[szlamany]

RobDog - how would you specify a specific printer - maybe even a network printer with this technique?

[RobDog888]

Shell uses the default application that is associated with the files extension.
.doc = MS Word, .xls = MS Excel, etc.

App.Path is only to specify the working directory. For ex. if you wanted to
use relative paths for the files but shellexecute a program that is not located
in the app.path.

ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Print", "C:\Windows\Notepad.exe", "Text.txt", App.Path, SW_HIDE

Text.txt is located in the app.path, but since we specify the working directory
as app.path it will find the file with no errors.

szlamany, it uses the default printer. To specify a different printer you would
need to use the Printer Dialog first to allow the user to select the printer.
Then use the Printer onbject to actually do the print out using the selected
device.

Ps, I think I'm on a roll here!

HTH

[szlamany]

szlamany, it uses the default printer. To specify a different printer you would
need to use the Printer Dialog first to allow the user to select the printer.
Then use the Printer onbject to actually do the print out using the selected
device.

Not sure what you mean by using the PRINTER object - are you saying that if I simply set PRINTER=PRINTERS(x) [where x = the printer in the collection that I want] that the SHELLEXECUTE would recognize that my VB app had a different printer? Or would I need to set the default printer first?

The reason that I ask is that a customer of mine was having a hard time directing output to a specific printer in a .BAT file that was running scheduled - and I thought I might be able to help with this.

[RobDog888]

Yes and no, yes because you can set the active printer using something like
Printer.Name = x, but no because shellexecute only uses the default printer.
Now if you changed the default printer, saving the original default, to the one
you want and then shellexecute it would print using the new default printer.
Then after the job is done, you could revert back to the original printer
default.

[David.Poundall]

Many thanks RobDog. One more satisfied customer to add to your extensive collection

[RobDog888]

Thanks