OpenOffice Macros: Printing a Document
How to Print OpenOffice.org Documents by Using a Macro
Aug 12, 2008
Anyone writing OpenOffice.org Basic Macros will need to print documents - automatically; and when they do that they might well expect to use a simple print statement. They, of course, won't be disappointed because that's exactly what they will find. Unfortunately life (and OpenOffice Basic) is never quite as simple as that (and if it was then this would be a very short article)
Printing an OpenOffice Document from a Macro
Printing an OpenOffice.org document from a macro is simple - as long as the print function is handled correctly - and that means supplying the correct parameters; so a macro to print a document would be:
Sub PrintMe
thisComponent.Print (Array ())
End Sub
Anyone new to creating macros may wonder what this means, but it's quite simple:
- thisComponent - the current document
- Print - the print method for thisComponent
- Array - this is just an empty array
And the result of running this macro? The current document is sent directly to the default printer.
Adding Printer Parameters to a Macro
In the above example an empty array is passed to the document's print method, causing the document to be sent directly to the printer; and it won't take long for any macro developer to work out that this array is the means by which they can send parameters to the printer - parameters to modify the way in which the document is to be printed, such as:
- the number of copies to be printed
- which pages to print
- a filename to send the document to (rather than a printer)
- whether multiple documents are to be collated or not
So then it's just a matter of knowing what the parameters are and how to add them to the array.
Printing More Than One Copy of a Document
The best way for a new user to understand how to add a printer parameter is to see an actual example, in this case how to print more than one copy:
Sub PrintMe
Dim PrintProperty(0) as New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
PrintProperty(0).Name = "CopyCount"
PrintProperty(0).Value = 2
thisComponent.Print (PrintProperty)
End Sub
This time the code is used to:
- define an array of data type PropertyValue - each element consisting of a "Name" and a "Value"
- load the array with the parameters needed to print 2 copies of the document
- pass the array to the Print method
From this it's obvious how the parameters should be manipulated:
- create an array to contain the parameters
- load the array with the required parameters
- feed the array containing the parameters to the method
And all of this can be made clearer by looking at another example.
Printing Defined Pages
If more than one parameter is to be used then the size of the array must be increased accordingly:
Dim PrintProperty(1) as New com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
PrintProperty(0).Name = "CopyCount"
PrintProperty(0).Value = 2
PrintProperty(1).Name = "Pages"
PrintProperty(1).Value = "1;3-5;9"
thisComponent.Print (PrintProperty)
In this example,
- the size of the array has been increased to 2 (0 and 1)
- the additional parameter's name has been defined as Pages
- the parameter's value has been set to "1;3-5;9" meaning that pages 1, 9 and 3 through to 5 will be printed
Printing to a File
The default when printing is to print to a printer (no surprise there then), however it is possible to print directly to a file:
- set the name to "FileName"
- set the value to the name of the file to use as an output
Collating the Pages to be Printed
If multiple copies need to be printed and collated then:
- set the parameter name to "Collate"
- set the value to True
Conclusion
The parameters available to OpenOffice.org's print method are not extensive, but that means that is very simple to use; and a user will find it easy to access its limited number of parameters:
- Collate
- CopyCount
- Filename
- Pages
Most imporantly, a user is able to print an OpenOffice document automatically - just by running a simple macro.
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