Recipe 5.6 Retrieve Information About a Report or Form's Selected Printer

5.6.1 Problem

Access's File Page Setup dialog allows you to specify either the default printer or a specific printer for each printable object. You'd like to be able to find out, programmatically, which printer has been selected for an object and whether the object is set to print to the default printer. How can you retrieve that information?

5.6.2 Solution

In addition to the properties you've seen so far, the Printer object keeps track of the three pieces of information that Windows must know about an output device: the device name (for example, "HP LaserJet 4"), the driver name ("WINSPOOL"), and the output port ("LPT1:"). Access also keeps track of whether the report has been set to print to the default printer or to a specific printer, in the UseDefaultPrinter property of the report. You'll use these properties to determine the information you need.

Load and run the form frmSelectedPrinters in 05-06.MDB. Figure 5-6 shows the form after rptReport3 is selected and the report's output device, driver, and port are filled in on the form. Because this report was set up to print to the default printer, the "Printing to Default Printer" checkbox is selected.

Figure 5-6. frmSelectedPrinters, after selecting rptReport3

The sample form uses this code to do its work:

Private Sub cboReportList_AfterUpdate( )
    
    Dim strReport As String
    Dim rpt As Report
    
    On Error GoTo HandleErrors
    
    strReport = Me.cboReportList
    DoCmd.OpenReport strReport, View:=acViewPreview, WindowMode:=acHidden
    With Reports(strReport)
        With .Printer
            Me.txtDevice = .DeviceName
            Me.txtDriver = .DriverName
            Me.txtPort = .Port
        End With
        Me.chkDefault = .UseDefaultPrinter
    End With
ExitHere:
    DoCmd.Close acReport, strReport
    Exit Sub
    
HandleErrors:
    MsgBox "Error: " & Error & " (" & Err & ")"
    Resume ExitHere
End Sub

To retrieve printer information about forms or reports in your own applications, follow these steps:

The UseDefaultPrinter property hangs off of the report itself, while the rest of the properties discussed in this chapter are members of the Printer object returned by the report's Printer property. You may look for the UseDefaultPrinter property in the wrong place—remember, it's a property of the report.

The UseDefaultPrinter property becomes more important, as you'll see in the next section, when you want to change the output device at runtime. Because of the way the Printer object was designed, you cannot change the output device from the Open event of the report—you must change it from outside the report. The easiest way to do this is to change Access's default printer, then print the report, then put Access's default printer back to what it was. You can accomplish this only if the report has been set to print to Access's default printer. You can look at the UseDefaultPrinter property to determine if that's how the report was set up. (You cannot, however, change a report's UseDefaultPrinter property if it's open in preview or print mode—you can change it only when you've opened the report in design view.)