Excel – Any way to determine when Excel background printing has finished

comexcelvba

I'm using COM in LotusScript (Lotus Notes) to make Excel print several sheets in one workbook to PDFCreator, then make PDFCreator combine then into one PDF.
The problem is that calling Excel's PrintOut method immediately followed by PDFCreator's cCombineAll method results in one or more sheets being omitted from the PDF. It seems like Excel's PrintOut method returns before printing is complete.

Putting a Sleep in my code works, but may not be reliable as the printing time varies, so…

Is there any Excel property or method I can call to determine whether printing has finished?

Alternately, is there a way make the PrintOut method block until printing is finished?

I haven't been able to find an answer in Excel's VBA Help.

Best Answer

This sample code from excelguru.ca suggestst you need to use the cCountOfPrintJobs property of PDFCreator to monitor when the job starts and stops printing. Once printing is complete, you can perform whatever other operations you need

Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator

' ...missing out various initialisation steps

'Print the document to PDF
ActiveSheet.PrintOut copies:=1, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"

'Wait until the print job has entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = 1
    DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cPrinterStop = False

'Wait until PDF creator is finished then release the objects
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = 0
    DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cClose

How it works

I will try my best to explain how it works - please excuse my English.

The VBE will call a system function to create the password dialog box.
If user enters the right password and click OK, this function returns 1. If user enters the wrong password or click Cancel, this function returns 0.
After the dialog box is closed, the VBE checks the returned value of the system function
if this value is 1, the VBE will "think" that the password is right, hence the locked VBA project will be opened.
The code below swaps the memory of the original function used to display the password dialog with a user defined function that will always return 1 when being called.

Using the code

Please backup your files first!

Open the file(s) that contain your locked VBA Projects

Create a new xlsm file and store this code in Module1

code credited to Siwtom (nick name), a Vietnamese developer

Option Explicit

Private Const PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE = &H40

Private Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
        (Destination As Long, Source As Long, ByVal Length As Long)

Private Declare Function VirtualProtect Lib "kernel32" (lpAddress As Long, _
        ByVal dwSize As Long, ByVal flNewProtect As Long, lpflOldProtect As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetModuleHandleA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, _
        ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function DialogBoxParam Lib "user32" Alias "DialogBoxParamA" (ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer

Dim HookBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim OriginBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim pFunc As Long
Dim Flag As Boolean

Private Function GetPtr(ByVal Value As Long) As Long
    GetPtr = Value
End Function

Public Sub RecoverBytes()
    If Flag Then MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), 6
End Sub

Public Function Hook() As Boolean
    Dim TmpBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
    Dim p As Long
    Dim OriginProtect As Long

    Hook = False

    pFunc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("user32.dll"), "DialogBoxParamA")


    If VirtualProtect(ByVal pFunc, 6, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE, OriginProtect) <> 0 Then

        MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(TmpBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6
        If TmpBytes(0) <> &H68 Then

            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6

            p = GetPtr(AddressOf MyDialogBoxParam)

            HookBytes(0) = &H68
            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(1)), ByVal VarPtr(p), 4
            HookBytes(5) = &HC3

            MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(0)), 6
            Flag = True
            Hook = True
        End If
    End If
End Function

Private Function MyDialogBoxParam(ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer
    If pTemplateName = 4070 Then
        MyDialogBoxParam = 1
    Else
        RecoverBytes
        MyDialogBoxParam = DialogBoxParam(hInstance, pTemplateName, _
                           hWndParent, lpDialogFunc, dwInitParam)
        Hook
    End If
End Function

Paste this code under the above code in Module1 and run it

Sub unprotected()
    If Hook Then
        MsgBox "VBA Project is unprotected!", vbInformation, "*****"
    End If
End Sub

Come back to your VBA Projects and enjoy.

Excel – “No printers are installed” printing from Excel via COM

I've been able to fix this by editing the registry on the Windows server.

I found printers listed for the admin user in the "Devices" and "PrinterPorts" children of this registry key:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-19\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

I copied those keys to the ".DEFAULT" user, and now my code runs with no errors.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Excel – way to crack the password on an Excel VBA Project

How it works

Using the code

Excel – “No printers are installed” printing from Excel via COM

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