Batch printing Word documents

rp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:41:58 +0000

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.

Figure 1. A helper class to print a Word document

  1Imports System.IO

  2Imports System.Windows.Forms

  3Imports System.Drawing

  5Namespace rp.OfficeHelpers

  7    Public Enum PrintStatus

  8        Success

  9        FileNotFound

 10        FailedToOpenDocument

 11        FailedToPrintDocument

 12    End Enum

 14    Public Class Word

 16        Public Shared Function PrintDocument( DocumentName As String, _

 17                                              PrinterName As String ) As PrintStatus

 19            PrintDocument( DocumentName, PrinterName, 1 )

 20        End Function

 22        Public Shared Function PrintDocument( DocumentName As String, _

 23                                              PrinterName As String, _

 24                                              NumberOfCopies As Integer ) As PrintStatus

 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

 31            If ( Not File.Exists( DocumentName ) )

 32                Return PrintStatus.FileNotFound

 33            End If

 35            wordApp.Visible = false

 37            wordApp.ActivePrinter = PrinterName

 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

 46            Try

 47                wordDoc.PrintOut( Copies := CType( NumberOfCopies, Object ), Background:= false )

 48            Catch WordError as System.Exception

 49                Return PrintStatus.FailedToPrintDocument

 50            End Try

 52            wordApp.ActivePrinter = CurrentPrinter

 54            wordApp.Quit( SaveChanges := false )

 56            Return PrintStatus.Success

 57        End Function

 59    End Class

 61End Namespace

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Meatball's Guide to .NET » Word

Batch printing Word documents

Windows only!