Printer and Printing Tips

[ADezii]

Recently, there seems to be several questions specifically related to Printers and changing Printing characteristics for Forms and Reports. For this reason alone, I decided to dedicate this week's Tip to these Topics. The Tip will actually consist of several Tips which I feel are very useful for all Users, from Newbies to Experts. In order to utilize the code contained within these Tips, you must have Access 2002 or later.

1. How can I generate a List of available Printers?
   

   'Prints a list of available Printers and thier Ports
   'to the Immediate Window
   Dim prn As Printer
    
   For Each prn In Application.Printers
     Debug.Print prn.DeviceName & " on " & prn.Port
   Next prn

2. How can I find the characteristics of the current Window's Default Printer?
   

   'Lists specific characteristics of the Current Printer
   With Application.Printer
     Debug.Print "Current Printer   : " & .DeviceName
     Debug.Print "Device Driver Name: " & .DriverName
     Debug.Print "Port Assignment   : " & .Port
   End With

3. How do I fill a Combo Box with a list of Installed Printers?
   

   'Fills a Combo Box with a list of Installed Printers
   Dim prn As Printer, cbo As ComboBox
   Dim strText As String
    
   Set cbo = Me![cboPrinters]
    
   'Clear the control's list.
   cbo.RowSource = vbNullString
   cbo.RowSourceType = "Value List"
    
   'Set up three columns
   cbo.ColumnCount = 3
   cbo.ColumnWidths = "3in;1in;1in"
   cbo.Width = 5 * 1440    '5 inches (measured in Twips)
    
    
   'Bind to the DeviceName column (1)
   cbo.BoundColumn = 1
    
   For Each prn In Application.Printers
     strText = prn.DeviceName & ";" & prn.DriverName & _
               ";" & prn.Port
     cbo.AddItem strText
   Next prn

4. How do I change the Default Printer?
   

   'Changes the Default Printer, then resets it to the original Printer.
   'This will only work if the report is set up to Print to the Default
   'Printer
    
   Set Application.Printer = Application.Printers("Acrobat PDFWriter")
     DoCmd.OpenReport "<Your Report Name>", acViewNormal, , , acWindowNormal
    
   'Reset the Default Printer back to the way it was
   Set Application.Printer = Nothing

5. How do I print a Report to a specific device?
   

   'The following code will Print rptInvoices to the Acrobat PFDWriter Printer
   Dim rpt As Report
    
   DoCmd.OpenReport "rptInvoices", View:=acViewPreview, WindowMode:=acHidden
    
   Set rpt = Reports("rptInvoices")
   Set rpt.Printer = Application.Printers("Acrobat PFDWriter")
    
   DoCmd.OpenReport "rptInvoices"
   DoCmd.Close acReport, "rptInvoices"

6. How can I modify Printer characteristics for a Form or Report?
   

   'Open rptInvoices in Design view, change 3 of its Properties
   'Print the report, and then close the report.
    
   Const conReport As String = "rptInvoices"
    
   DoCmd.OpenReport conReport, View:=acViewPreview, WindowMode:=acHidden
    
   'Force the printer to look to the upper bin for paper, print on
   'Monarch-size envelopes, and Print two copies, set orientation to
   'Landscape
   With Reports(conReport).Printer
     .PaperBin = acPRBNUpper
     .PaperSize = acPRPSEnvMonarch
     .Copies = 2
     .Orientation = acPRORLandscape
     .Duplex = acPRDPVertical
     .PrintQuality = acPRPQMedium
   End With
    
   'Now print the report.
   DoCmd.OpenReport conReport
   DoCmd.Close acReport, conReport

7. How do I change the Layout characteristics for a Form or Report?
   

   Const conReport As String = "rptInvoices"
   Const conTwipsPerInch As Long = 1440
    
   DoCmd.OpenReport conReport, View:=acViewPreview, WindowMode:=acHidden
    
   'Modify layout information. set up margins, columns, and
   'print only data.
   With Reports(conReport).Printer
     .LeftMargin = 0.5 * conTwipsPerInch
     .RightMargin = 0.5 * conTwipsPerInch
     .TopMargin = 1 * conTwipsPerInch
     .BottomMargin = 1 * conTwipsPerInch
     .ItemsAcross = 2
     .ItemLayout = acPRHorizontalColumnLayout
     .DefaultSize = False
     .ItemSizeWidth = 3 * conTwipsPerInch
     .ColumnSpacing = 0.1 * conTwipsPerInch
     .DataOnly = True
   End With
    
   DoCmd.OpenReport conReport
   DoCmd.Close acReport, conReport

[missimma]

I'm Immaculata
Thanks for what you just wrote, i got some help from here. But i'm currently working on a program for a school. My problem is tabularizing the results of my recordsets. i.e. I created a recordset, it got the data from the database and i want to print the output in a tabular form. Please how do i do this?

[ADezii]

I'm Immaculata
Thanks for what you just wrote, i got some help from here. But i'm currently working on a program for a school. My problem is tabularizing the results of my recordsets. i.e. I created a recordset, it got the data from the database and i want to print the output in a tabular form. Please how do i do this?

I'm not exactly sure of what you are looking for, but this code will write the First Name, Last Name, and Address Fields of an Employees Table to a Text File (Recordset.txt) in the C:\Test\ Directory. The data will be Tabular and neatly formatted.

Dim MyDB As DAO.Database, MyRS As DAO.Recordset
 
Set MyDB = CurrentDb()
Set MyRS = MyDB.OpenRecordset("Select * From Employees", dbOpenSnapshot)
 
Open "C:\Test\Recordset.txt" For Output As #1
 
Do While Not MyRS.EOF
  Print #1, MyRS![FirstName]; Tab(20); MyRS![LastName]; Tab(40); MyRS![Address]
  MyRS.MoveNext
Loop
 
Close #1
 
MyRS.Close
Set MyRS = Nothing

OUTPUT:

Nancy              Albericih           507 - 20th Ave. E. Moyamensing Avenue
Andrew             Fuller              908 W. Capital Waykk
Janet              Leverling           722 Moss Bay Blvd.
Margaret           Peacock             4110 Old Redmond Rd.
Steven             Buchanan            14 Garrett Hill
Michael            Suyama              Coventry House and Miner Rd.
Laura              Callahan            4726 - 11th Ave. N.E.
Anne               Dodsworth           7 Houndstooth Rd.
Robert             King                Edgeham Hollow Road
Fred               Buchanan            14 Garrett Hill

[altinM]

hi

i have a problem when i want to print the following message comes up: can't print or preview the page because the page size you selected is larger than 22.75 inches - any one can help me please

[ADezii]

hi

i have a problem when i want to print the following message comes up: can't print or preview the page because the page size you selected is larger than 22.75 inches - any one can help me please

What exactly are you trying to Print?