Printing Text File in VB 6

[thunder777]

Hi,

My program maintains a log file (text file) which records the activities done. I'm trying to use the Printer Object to print the file but it's not printing properly. I tried using the PrintDocument Component too but am getting lots of errors. There is a menu bar control which when invoked should print the entire contents of the file.

I don't want the user to specify what to print. Instead, the control should directly print the entire file to the default printer. I'm & don't know what to do. Please help.

Regards,

thunder777

[Phil Weber]

I would use the ShellExecute function:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en...n_shelexec.asp

[thunder777]

Hi,

I tried to use this in a std module :

Public Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Public Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByValhwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

& dis in my form :

Public Sub PrintThisFile(FileName As String)
Dim X As Long
X = ShellExecute(FormName, "Print", FileName, vbNullString, 0&, SW_SHOWNORMAL)
End Sub

Unfortunately, it doesn't throw up any error. It just keeps quiet & there's no printout.

Can i have some sample code to print the text file ?

Regards,

thunder777

[Phil Weber]

What are you passing in the first parameter (FormName)? It should be a window handle (a Long integer). Try this:

X = ShellExecute(Me.hWnd, "Print", FileName, vbNullString, 0&, SW_SHOWNORMAL)

If that still doesn't work, post the value of X.

[thunder777]

Hi,

I got it. Now it works. Thanks a lot.

Regards,

thunder777

[padmajage123]

May I have the entire detailed working code cuz I tried using it to print pdf docs but few of the docs are still skipped with out any error.

Also I would like to know whether the behaviour of shell32 dll is machine dependent.

Thanks for your help

[padmajage123]

Below is the code that I am using :

Private Sub PrintPDFs(PDFfile As String)
Dim lng As Long

lng = ShellExecuteEx(Me.hwnd, "Print", PDFfile, vbNullString, 0&, 1)
Sleep (3500)

Call TerminateProcess(lng, 0)
CloseAcrobat
End Sub

where sleep function is

Public Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

terminate process is
Declare Function TerminateProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal uExitCode As Long) As Long

and shellExecute is
Public Declare Function ShellExecuteEx 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

and closeAcrobat is

Private Sub CloseAcrobat()

On Error Resume Next

'On Error GoTo ErrHandler

Dim sCmd As String '' DDE command

txtAcrobatDDE.LinkMode = 0
txtAcrobatDDE.LinkTopic = "acroview|control"
txtAcrobatDDE.LinkTimeout = 300 ' 30 sec timeout delay.
txtAcrobatDDE.LinkMode = 2

sCmd = "[AppExit()]"
txtAcrobatDDE.LinkExecute sCmd

'' Close the DDE Connection
txtAcrobatDDE.LinkMode = 0
blnAcrobatLaunched = False

Exit Sub

'ErrHandler:
'MsgBox "An error occured. Cannot Close Acrobat Reader cancelled." & " Error# " & Err.Number & vbCr & Err.Description, vbCritical, "Error: PrintPDFs"

End Sub

[Hack]

May I have the entire detailed working code cuz I tried using it to print pdf docs but few of the docs are still skipped with out any error.

How do you know there is no error? If you use On Error Resume Next, the error will never display. Get rid of that and see if an error does occur. Then, we can fix it.

Also I would like to know whether the behaviour of shell32 dll is machine dependent.

That is a part of the Windows OS