I recently worked on a project where one of the tasks needing to be done was printing previously-created Word documents in batch, from a Windows fat-client program. The specification required that the user not see the Word doc. The class below provides a PrintDocument() method that automates Word to open the document and print it, without making Word document visible.
Windows only!
Do note that this code is only for use in a fat client environment. Word automation won’t work in multi-threaded, service-side environments such as ASP.NET. Don’t attempt to use this code in a Web app. Although the code presented here doesn’t show the Word document, Word does indeed get loaded (albeit invisibly) to print the document.
My general language of choice is C#, but I’ve learned that its much easier to code Office automation tasks with VB.NET than it is any other .NET language. My friends from England would call this “Horses for Courses.” The upcoming C# 4.0 enhancements may (hopefully!) change this, but until then, I’m going to stick with using VB.NET for Office automation.
1Imports System.IO
2Imports System.Windows.Forms
3Imports System.Drawing
4
5Namespace rp.OfficeHelpers
6
7 Public Enum PrintStatus
8 Success
9 FileNotFound
10 FailedToOpenDocument
11 FailedToPrintDocument
12 End Enum
13
14 Public Class Word
15
16 Public Shared Function PrintDocument( DocumentName As String, _
17 PrinterName As String ) As PrintStatus
18
19 PrintDocument( DocumentName, PrinterName, 1 )
20 End Function
21
22 Public Shared Function PrintDocument( DocumentName As String, _
23 PrinterName As String, _
24 NumberOfCopies As Integer ) As PrintStatus
25
26 Dim wordApp As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application = _
27 new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application()
28 Dim wordDoc As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document
29 Dim CurrentPrinter As String = wordApp.ActivePrinter
30
31 If ( Not File.Exists( DocumentName ) )
32 Return PrintStatus.FileNotFound
33 End If
34
35 wordApp.Visible = false
36
37 wordApp.ActivePrinter = PrinterName
38
39 ' Document name must be provided as an object, not a string.
40 Try
41 wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open( CType( DocumentName, Object ) )
42 Catch WordError as System.Exception
43 Return PrintStatus.FailedToOpenDocument
44 End Try
45
46 Try
47 wordDoc.PrintOut( Copies := CType( NumberOfCopies, Object ), Background:= false )
48 Catch WordError as System.Exception
49 Return PrintStatus.FailedToPrintDocument
50 End Try
51
52 wordApp.ActivePrinter = CurrentPrinter
53
54 wordApp.Quit( SaveChanges := false )
55
56 Return PrintStatus.Success
57 End Function
58
59 End Class
60
61End Namespace
