HOWTO: Overriding Initial Setting on Print Setup Dialog

• The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC)
• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2b, 5.0
• Microsoft Visual C++ for Windows, 16-bit edition, version 1.52

SUMMARY

Changing the initial value of the settings on the Print Setup Dialog is a non-trivial operation that requires you to override several non-virtual functions. This article demonstrates how to override by using the Page Orientation setting as an example.

MORE INFORMATION

The DEVMODE data structure contains information about the device initialization and environment of a printer. Changing the Print Setup Dialog settings involves modifying this structure. The hDevMode structure that you need to modify is a CWinApp member variable. The function that initializes this variable is CWinApp::UpdatePrinterSelection. To set the initial page orientation to DMORIENT_LANDSCAPE, you'll need to override this function, clone the base class code and make a modification similar to the following:

   extern void AFXAPI AfxGlobalFree(HGLOBAL hGlobal); // 4.1 or later

   void CMyApp::UpdatePrinterSelection(BOOL bForceDefaults)
   {
      if (!bForceDefaults && m_hDevNames != NULL)
      {
         CWinApp::UpdatePrinterSelection(bForceDefaults);
      }
      else
      {
         // First time or Forced -- Get defaults
         CPrintDialog pd(TRUE);
         pd.GetDefaults();

         if (m_hDevMode != NULL)
            ::GlobalFree(m_hDevMode);
            // AfxGlobalFree for 4.1 or later
         if (m_hDevNames != NULL)
            ::GlobalFree(m_hDevNames);
            // AfxGlobalFree for 4.1 or later

         m_hDevMode = pd.m_pd.hDevMode;
         m_hDevNames = pd.m_pd.hDevNames;

         // new code to set DMORIENT_LANDSCAPE
         LPDEVMODE lp = (LPDEVMODE) ::GlobalLock(m_hDevMode);
         ASSERT(lp);
         lp->dmOrientation = DMORIENT_LANDSCAPE;
         ::GlobalUnlock(m_hDevMode);
      }
   }

   (CMyApp::UpdatePrinterSelection)
   CWinApp::GetPrinterDeviceDefaults
     Non-virtual, copy from MFC src
   CView::DoPreparePrinting (non-virtual)
     Non-virtual, copy from MFC src, change CWinApp* to CMyApp* in code,
     include "docobj.h"
   CView::OnPreparePrinting
     Virtual, must override anyway
   CView::OnFilePrint
     Use ClassWizard

   (CMyApp::UpdatePrinterSelection)
   CWinApp::DoPrintDialog
     Non-virtual, copy from MFC src, include "cderr.h"
   CView::DoPreparePrinting
     Non-virtual, see above

   (CMyApp::UpdatePrinterSelection)
   CWinApp::DoPrintDialog
     Non-virtual, see above
   CWinApp::OnFilePrintSetup
     Use ClassWizard