This article contains code which will print all open Word documents into a single PDF file.
These code examples are built for PDFCreator, an open source PDF writer utility. Unlike Adobe Acrobat and CutePDF, which both require pro versions to create PDF's via code, PDFCreator is completely free! Download PDF Creator from Sourceforge here. Please note that this code will NOT work with Adobe Acrobat.
It should also be noted that the example in this section use an Early Bind. If you are not familiar with the difference between Early and Late Binding, please read my article on Early vs Late binding.
Versions Tested:
This routine was tested successfully using Word 2003 and PDFCreator 0.9.3 (GPLGhostscript.exe download package), on Windows XP Pro (SP2). It should run just fine in Word 2007 and higher.
NOTE: Before you "go it alone" with trying to adapt any of these routines, you may want to read this article, which shares some of the idiosyncrasies discovered in the development of the PDFCreator code samples.
Setup:
This was tested using the following procedure:
- Open Word and create two new documents
- Enter some unique data in each so that you can tell them apart
- Enter the VBE, create a new module in one of the documents and paste in the code shown below
- Change the output directory to a valid location
- Set a reference to PDFCreator
- Run the code
Once the code has completed, you will have a new PDF with your files printed in the order they were opened.
Interesting Facts:
I was exposed to a couple of weird things in the development of this routine.
- Background Printing must be turned off. If it isn't, then the routine will end up in an infinite loop until the code is paused, at which point you can run it and it will complete just fine.
- The word documents actually print to the PDF queue in reverse order, unlike Excel. This made it necessary to institute a reverse loop to print the documents from the most recently opened/created to the oldest in order to have the PDF output document in the expected order.
Code Required
Sub PrintToPDF_MultiWordDoc_to_SingleFile()
'Author : Ken Puls (www.excelguru.ca)
'Macro Purpose: Print all open Word documents to PDF (static filename)
'
' (Download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
' Designed for early bind, set reference to PDFCreator
Dim pdfjob As PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
Dim sPDFName As String
Dim sPDFPath As String
Dim sPrinter As String
Dim lPrintOrder As Long
Dim lDocs As Long
Dim bRestart As Boolean
Dim bBkgrndPrnt As Boolean
'Activate error handling, capture properties and set req'd settings
On Error GoTo EarlyExit
With Application
sPrinter = CStr(.ActivePrinter)
.ActivePrinter = "PDFCreator"
bBkgrndPrnt = .Options.PrintBackground
.Options.PrintBackground = False
.ScreenUpdating = False
End With
'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "Consolidated.pdf"
sPDFPath = "C:Temp"
'Check if PDFCreator is already running and attempt to kill the process if so
Do
bRestart = False
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
If pdfjob.cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
'PDF Creator is already running. Kill the existing process
Shell "taskkill /f /im PDFCreator.exe", vbHide
DoEvents
Set pdfjob = Nothing
bRestart = True
End If
Loop Until bRestart = False
'Assign settings for PDF job
With pdfjob
.cOption("UseAutosave") = 1
.cOption("UseAutosaveDirectory") = 1
.cOption("AutosaveDirectory") = sPDFPath
.cOption("AutosaveFilename") = sPDFName
.cOption("AutosaveFormat") = 0 ' 0 = PDF
.cClearCache
End With
'Print documents to print queue in reverse order
For lPrintOrder = Application.Documents.Count To 1 Step -1
Application.Documents(lPrintOrder).PrintOut copies:=1
lDocs = lDocs + 1
Next lPrintOrder
'Wait until all print jobs have entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = lDocs
DoEvents
Loop
'Combine all PDFs into a single file and stop the printer
With pdfjob
.cCombineAll
.cPrinterStop = False
End With
'Wait until the file shows up before closing PDF Creator
Do
DoEvents
Loop Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) = sPDFName
Cleanup:
'Release objects and terminate PDFCreator
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
Shell "taskkill /f /im PDFCreator.exe", vbHide
On Error GoTo 0
'Reset all application settings to user's original settings
With Application
.ScreenUpdating = True
.ActivePrinter = sPrinter
.Options.PrintBackground = bBkgrndPrnt
End With
Exit Sub
EarlyExit:
'Inform user of error, and go to cleanup section
MsgBox "There was an error encountered. PDFCreator has" & vbCrLf & _
"has been terminated. Please try again.", _
vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Error"
Resume Cleanup
End Sub
Acknowledgments:
I also wanted to add a quick word of thanks to Word MVP Peter Jamieson for pointing me to the Background Printing resolution.
