PRB: CommonDialog Changes System Wide Printer Properties

• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 4.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Printer CommonDialog from a Visual Basic application under Windows 95 or Windows 98, changes made may be shared with other applications. If you look at the properties of the printer being used, it may also reflect your selections. This can include, but is not limited to, attributes such as Copies, PaperSize, Default Source, Duplex and Orientation.

CAUSE

The Common Dialog itself does not normally effect global default settings. However, the implementation in the Visual Basic Common Dialog control does. This is how changes made in the dialog are made known to the Printer object, which reads the new global default settings.

NOTE: With Windows NT, this is not a problem. Windows NT security features prevent the Common Dialog Control from changing the printer's global default settings. This also means that the Printer object is not updated with the user's selections in the Common Dialog. Please see the article in the REFERENCES section for more information.

RESOLUTION

The workaround for this behavior is to substitute another dialog box for the Printer Common Dialog. Here are two basic ways to do this:

1. Use the Win32 API function PrintDlg or PageSetupDlg to open a printer dialog box. Changes made through this dialog are stored in a DEVMODE structure. These settings can then be assigned directly to the Printer object's properties. The article in the REFERENCES section includes an example of using the PrintDlg API for this purpose.



2. The second way, is to create and use your own dialog box rather than the CommonDialog control. The changes made through this dialog can then be assigned directly to the Printer object's properties.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

As you work through the following steps, please note that when the Printer Common Dialog is first displayed from a Visual Basic application, it always defaults to Copies = 1, regardless of what the printer driver's current default setting may be.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Create a new Visual Basic Project. Form1 is created by default.



2. From the Project menu, choose Components, and then select the "Microsoft Common Dialog Control". Click OK.



3. Add a command button and a Common Dialog control to Form1.



4. Paste the following code into the form's module:
   

   
         Private Sub Command1_Click()
         Debug.Print "Before: CommonDialog Copies = " & CommonDialog1.Copies _
            & ", "; "Printer Object Copies = " & Printer.Copies
         CommonDialog1.ShowPrinter
         Debug.Print "After:  CommonDialog Copies = " & CommonDialog1.Copies _
            & ", "; "Printer Object Copies = " & Printer.Copies
         End Sub 




5. Check the Copies property of your default printer driver; set it to 1.



6. Run the Project and click Command1.



7. In the Printer Dialog box, change Copies to 4, and then click OK. The Immediate Window will contain the following:




   Before: CommonDialog Copies = 1; Printer Object Copies = 1
   After:  CommonDialog Copies = 4; Printer Object Copies = 4 

8. Close the Project and check the Copies property of your default printer driver. You will see that the Copies property also contains the value 4.



9. Open a text editor, like Wordpad and select Print. The dialog box that opens also shows Copies = 4. If you change Copies from here, it remembers the change, but does not affect the printer driver.

REFERENCES

For more information, please refer to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q173981 PRB: Working with Print Dialog and Printer Object under NT 4.0

Additional query words: comdlg32.ocx

Keywords : kbCmnDlg kbCmnDlgPrint kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb