"Rick Raisley" <heavymetal-A-T-bellsouth-D-O-Tnet> wrote in message
news:%235Ff4RcnJHA.864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> I've read some comments here where people don't like to use the VB
standard
> Common Dialog Box control for printing, etc. In the process of setting
paper
> size, a search I did came up with the following link:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322710
>
> Here, Microsoft recommends using a free, downloadable control Vbprndlg.dll
> instead, stating that it exposes far more properties to the
user/programmer,
> and gives steps on how to use it.
>
> Has anyone used this control? Is it preferable? What are the advantages to
> you?
>

"Ralph" <nt_consulting64NON@SPAMMEyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uLwrYzcnJHA.4964@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> "Rick Raisley" <heavymetal-A-T-bellsouth-D-O-Tnet> wrote in message
> news:%235Ff4RcnJHA.864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> I've read some comments here where people don't like to use the VB
> standard
>> Common Dialog Box control for printing, etc. In the process of setting
> paper
>> size, a search I did came up with the following link:
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322710
>>
>> Here, Microsoft recommends using a free, downloadable control Vbprndlg.dll
>> instead, stating that it exposes far more properties to the
> user/programmer,
>> and gives steps on how to use it.
>>
>> Has anyone used this control? Is it preferable? What are the advantages to
>> you?
>>
>
> It has been my experience that ANYTHING that works is preferable to the
> inherent Print Common Dialog. Best you forget it even exists.
>
> The advantages are less aggravation and a longer life span.
>
> -ralph
>
>

"Saga" <antiSpam@somewhere.com> wrote in message
news:%23ktDI$cnJHA.1248@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> And it will be even more preferable if it does not set the Windows default
> printer to the one selected by the user within the VB app. Saga
> --
>
>
>
> "Ralph" <nt_consulting64NON@SPAMMEyahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:uLwrYzcnJHA.4964@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "Rick Raisley" <heavymetal-A-T-bellsouth-D-O-Tnet> wrote in message
>> news:%235Ff4RcnJHA.864@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> I've read some comments here where people don't like to use the VB
>> standard
>>> Common Dialog Box control for printing, etc. In the process of setting
>> paper
>>> size, a search I did came up with the following link:
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322710
>>>
>>> Here, Microsoft recommends using a free, downloadable control
>>> Vbprndlg.dll
>>> instead, stating that it exposes far more properties to the
>> user/programmer,
>>> and gives steps on how to use it.
>>>
>>> Has anyone used this control? Is it preferable? What are the advantages
>>> to
>>> you?
>>>
>>
>> It has been my experience that ANYTHING that works is preferable to the
>> inherent Print Common Dialog. Best you forget it even exists.
>>
>> The advantages are less aggravation and a longer life span.
>>
>> -ralph
>>
>>
>
>

"Mike Williams" <M***@WhiskyAndCoke.com> wrote in message
news:Ow2OlRenJHA.4964@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "Rick Raisley" <heavymetal-A-T-bellsouth-D-O-Tnet> wrote in message
> news:uWeiRFdnJHA.1168@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
>> I always set the default settings back the way they were,
>> immediately after printing, if I change any.
>
> But it may be too late by then. The best option is not to change the
> default settings at all.
>
>> The question here is how to change settings. Is the VBPRNDLG.DLL
>> any good, and preferable to other methods.
>
> The VBprndlg.dll is a wrapper around the API print dialog functions and it
> works reasonably well, although like most things it is not perfect. It is
> far easier than using the API dialogues for a similar purpose though,
> partly because of the messing about you need to do to properly get at the
> various memory blocks. The problem with it (and the same problem exists
> even when you use the API dialogs directly) is that no matter how much
> trouble you go to in order to obtain as many settings as possible you
> cannot actually use any user setting from the dialog that the VB Printer
> Object cannot "eat", so there are some limitations. However, those same
> limitations apply even if you instead use the API printer dialog functions
> to perform a similar task.
>
> The vbprndlg.dll is certainly quite useful, and it will not alter the
> existing default printer settings, so it is definitely worth using. It is
> certainly very much better than the standard CommonDialog Control.
> Alternatively, you could "roll your own" dialog using a VB modal Form if
> you just want to present a very simple, albeit non standard, dialog to the
> user with only a limited number of available settings (using a ListBox and
> various option buttons). The main problem with the vbprndlg method and the
> alternative API method (a problem which does not apply to the simple "roll
> your own" dialog I mentioned, although that of course has its own more
> serious limitations), is the fact that they present a printer dialog to
> the user and give the user the impression that anything he selects in the
> entire dialog will be reflected in his printout, which is simply not the
> case. It works for most of the standard settings, but there are various
> settings, some of which are special to certain printers, which simply
> cannot be "eaten" by the VB Printer Object, and some of which cannot even
> be obtained from the dialog itself, at least not in any meaningful way,
> whether the VB Printer Object could "eat them" or not.
>
> The only way I personally know of presenting your user with a standard
> print dialog in such a way that the printer will respond to all of the
> settings the user might make in the dialog, including all of the otherwise
> impossible to get at things and all of the "special to printer" things, is
> to present the user with a printer dialog using a standard CommonDialog
> Control (PrinterDefault set to False and the returnDC flag set) or the
> vbrndlg.dll or the API dialog functions themselves and print your stuff to
> the returned DC. The only problem with this method of course is that you
> would then need to do all your printing using the API drawing and printing
> methods instead of the more friendly VB Printer Object methods, which
> would mean quite a lot of change to any existing printer code you may have
> written and would of course have a bit of a learning curve if you have not
> used the API printing and drawing functions before.
>
> If you would prefer to continue to use the VB Printer Object for your
> printing then personally I would advise you to stay away from the
> CommonDialog Control and to use either the vbprndlg.dll or the alternative
> API dialog methods, choosing the vbprndlg.dll for its relative simplicity
> if you are happy to package an extra DLL with your project when you deploy
> it to other machines and instead choosing the API dialog methods if you
> are not prepareed to do that.
>
> Mike
>
>
>

"Rick Raisley" wrote:

> I've read some comments here where people don't like to use the VB standard
> Common Dialog Box control for printing, etc. In the process of setting paper
> size, a search I did came up with the following link:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322710
>
> Here, Microsoft recommends using a free, downloadable control Vbprndlg.dll
> instead, stating that it exposes far more properties to the user/programmer,
> and gives steps on how to use it.
>
> Has anyone used this control? Is it preferable? What are the advantages to
> you?
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Rick Raisley
> heavymetal-A-T-bellsouth-D-O-T-net
>
>
>