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Q248882: HOWTO: Print a Range of Pages with the CommonDialog Control

Article: Q248882
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbprint kbCmnDlgPrint kbCtrl kbPrinting kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbDS
Last Modified: 11-SEP-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Standard Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, for Windows, version 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

The Print Dialog of the Common Dialog control has three print range options that
can be selected:

- A selection of text.
- A range of pages.
- All pages.

Depending upon the option selected, certain flags are set that can be checked
programmatically to determine which option has been chosen in the printer dialog
box. This article shows how to print a set of pages populated with records from
a database. The idea can be extended to other types of text. To do so it is
necessary to determine the margins and printable area of the page, as described
in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

  Q193943 HOWTO: Use GetDeviceCaps to Determine Margins on a Page

MORE INFORMATION
================

By default the Pages From ... To option is dimmed in the dialog box. To enable
this option you must set the Max property. This is so that the range entered by
the user can be validated.

In this article a set of three pages is created from the records of the Nwind.mdb
database that ships with Visual Basic. Each record is considered to be one line
on the page. Since the number of lines depends on the fontsize, the sample sets
a specific fontsize and determines how many lines will fit on the page. This is
necessary in order to inform the printer when to start a new page.

Step-By-Step Example:

1. Start a new Visual Basic Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

2. From the Project menu, select Components. Select the Microsoft Common Dialog
  Control and then click OK.

3. From the Project menu, select References. Select the Microsoft DAO 3.51
  Object Library and then click OK.

4. Add a text box, a CommonDialog and two command button controls to Form1.

5. In the Properties dialog box for Text1 set the MultiLine property to True and
  the ScrollBars property to 3-Both.

6. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

  Option Explicit

  Private Sub Command1_Click()
     Dim myDatabase As Database
     Dim rsMyTable As Recordset
     Dim i As Integer
     Dim j As Integer
     Dim startpage As Integer

  ' enable the page range selection option
     CommonDialog1.Max = 3

  ' set the last page to be printed
     CommonDialog1.FromPage = 1
     CommonDialog1.ToPage = 3

  ' clear flags before showing printer dialog box
     CommonDialog1.Flags = 0

  ' show the printer dialog box
     CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter

  ' Enter the page number from which to start printing
     startpage = CommonDialog1.FromPage

  ' set the font size. This will give 42 lines per page
     Printer.FontSize = 18

  ' replace with your path to the nwind.mdb
     Set myDatabase = OpenDatabase("nwind.mdb")

     Set rsMyTable = myDatabase.OpenRecordset("Customers")

     rsMyTable.MoveFirst

     If (CommonDialog1.Flags And cdlPDPageNums) <> 0 Then
        MsgBox " Printing pages " & CommonDialog1.FromPage & " to " & _
               CommonDialog1.ToPage
        Select Case startpage
         Case 1

         Case 2
      ' skip page 1
           For i = 1 To 42
              rsMyTable.MoveNext
           Next

         Case 3
      ' skip 2 pages
           For i = 1 To 84
              rsMyTable.MoveNext
           Next
        End Select

        If startpage <> 0 Then
           For j = startpage To CommonDialog1.ToPage
              For i = 1 To 42
                 If rsMyTable.EOF Then Exit For
                 Text1.Text = Text1.Text & rsMyTable!CompanyName & vbCrLf
                 Printer.Print rsMyTable!CompanyName
                 rsMyTable.MoveNext
              Next
              Printer.NewPage
           Next
           Printer.EndDoc
        End If

     ElseIf (CommonDialog1.Flags And cdlPDSelection) <> 0 Then
     
        rsMyTable.MoveLast
        rsMyTable.MoveFirst
        For i = 1 To rsMyTable.RecordCount
           Text1.Text = Text1.Text & rsMyTable!CompanyName & vbCrLf
           rsMyTable.MoveNext
        Next
        MsgBox "Select text to be printed"
     Else
        For i = 1 To rsMyTable.RecordCount
           Text1.Text = Text1.Text & rsMyTable!CompanyName & vbCrLf
           rsMyTable.MoveNext
        Next
        Printer.Print Text1.Text
        Printer.EndDoc
        MsgBox "Printing all pages"
     End If
  End Sub

  Private Sub Command2_Click()
     Printer.Print Text1.SelText
     Printer.EndDoc
  End Sub

  Private Sub Form_Load()
     Command1.Caption = "Select Printing Option"
     Command2.Caption = "Print selected text"
  End Sub

7. Run the project and test the various options.

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information on determining the margins and printable area of a
page, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q193943 HOWTO: Use GetDeviceCaps to Determine Margins on a Page

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbprint kbCmnDlgPrint kbCtrl kbPrinting kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVBA600 kbVB500 kbVB600 kbVB400Search kbVB400
Version           : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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