OFF: Macro to Obtain a List of Paper Names Supported by the Active Printer

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

There is no built-in feature in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications to obtain a list of paper names (Letter, Legal, A4, and so forth) supported by the active printer. This article contains Visual Basic for Applications sample code that returns the paper names supported by the active printer.

MORE INFORMATION

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http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Option Explicit
    
Private Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias _
    "OpenPrinterA" (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter As Long, _
    ByVal pDefault As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function ClosePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" ( _
    ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function DeviceCapabilities Lib "winspool.drv" _
    Alias "DeviceCapabilitiesA" (ByVal lpsDeviceName As String, _
    ByVal lpPort As String, ByVal iIndex As Long, lpOutput As Any, _
    ByVal dev As Long) As Long

Private Const DC_PAPERNAMES = 16        ' Value obtained from wingdi.h

Sub GetPaperList()
' Display a message box with the name of the active printer and a list
' of papers it supports.

    Dim lPaperCount As Long
    Dim lCounter As Long
    Dim hPrinter As Long
    Dim sDeviceName As String
    Dim sDevicePort As String
    Dim sPaperNamesList As String
    Dim sNextString As String
    Dim sTextString As String
    Dim iNumPaper() As Integer
    
    GetPrinterNameAndPort sDeviceName, sDevicePort
    
    If OpenPrinter(sDeviceName, hPrinter, 0) <> 0 Then

        ' Get count of paper names supported by active printer.
        lPaperCount = DeviceCapabilities(sDeviceName, _
            sDevicePort, _
            DC_PAPERNAMES, _
            ByVal vbNullString, 0)
        ReDim iNumPaper(1 To lPaperCount)
        sPaperNamesList = String(64 * lPaperCount, 0)

        ' Get paper names supported by active printer.
        lPaperCount = DeviceCapabilities(sDeviceName, _
            sDevicePort, _
            DC_PAPERNAMES, _
            ByVal sPaperNamesList, 0)
    
        ' List available paper names.
        sTextString = "Paper available for " & ActivePrinter
        For lCounter = 1 To lPaperCount
        
            ' Get a paper name.
            sNextString = Mid(sPaperNamesList, _
                64 * (lCounter - 1) + 1, 64)
            sNextString = Left(sNextString, _
                InStr(1, sNextString, Chr(0)) - 1)

            ' Have one paper name.
            sNextString = String(6 - Len(CStr(iNumPaper(lCounter))), _
                " ") & sNextString
            
            ' Add paper name to text string for message box.
            sTextString = sTextString & Chr(13) & sNextString
            
        Next lCounter
        
        ClosePrinter (hPrinter)
        
        ' Show paper names in message box.
        MsgBox sTextString
        
    Else
        MsgBox ActivePrinter & " <Unavailable>"
        
    End If

End Sub

Private Sub GetPrinterNameAndPort(printerName As String, _
                                  printerPort As String)
' ActivePrinter yields a name of the form "Printer XYZ on LPT1" while the
' DeviceCapabilities function requires a printer name and port.
'
' Out:
'    printerName    Printer name derived from ActivePrinter property
'    printerPort    Printer port derived from ActivePrinter property

    Dim sString As String
    Const searchText As String = " on "
    
    sString = ActivePrinter
    printerName = Left(sString, InStr(1, sString, searchText) - 1)
    printerPort = Right(sString, _
        Len(sString) - Len(printerName) - Len(searchText))

End Sub 

REFERENCES

The sample code provided in this article is derived from the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q194789 HOWTO: Determine Available PaperBins With DeviceCapabilities API

Additional query words: vba macro paper size name active printer

Keywords : kbdta kbdtacode OffVBA KbVBA
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto