This article contains code examples to print a Microsoft Access report to a PDF file.
This code examples is 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 this code example uses an Early Bind. If you are not familiar with the difference between Early and Late Binding, please read our article on Early vs Late binding.
Versions Tested:
This routine was tested successfully using PDFCreator 0.9.1, GPLGhostscript.exe download package, on Windows XP Pro (SP2), using Microsoft Access 2003.
NOTE: Before you "go it alone" with trying to adapt this routine, you may want to read this article, which shares some of the idiosyncrasies discovered in the development of the PDFCreator code samples.
Code Required:
This code goes in a standard module. You will need to set a reference to PDFCreator, and change the name of the report. You may also want to update the directory to save the file into (sPDFPath), as it will currently save the file into the database's directory.
Option Compare Database
Option Explicit
Sub PrintAccessReportToPDF_Early()
'Author : Ken Puls (www.excelguru.ca)
'Macro Purpose: Print to PDF file using PDFCreator
' (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 sPrinterName As String
Dim sReportName As String
Dim lPrinters As Long
Dim lPrinterCurrent As Long
Dim lPrinterPDF As Long
Dim prtDefault As Printer
'/// Change the report and output file name here! ///
sReportName = "Chart of Accounts"
sPDFName = sReportName & ".pdf"
sPDFPath = Application.CurrentProject.Path & ""
'Resolve index number of printers to allow changing and preserving
sPrinterName = Application.Printer.DeviceName
On Error Resume Next
For lPrinters = 0 To Application.Printers.Count
Set Application.Printer = Application.Printers(lPrinters)
Set prtDefault = Application.Printer
Select Case prtDefault.DeviceName
Case Is = sPrinterName
lPrinterCurrent = lPrinters
Case Is = "PDFCreator"
lPrinterPDF = lPrinters
Case Else
'do nothing
End Select
Next lPrinters
On Error GoTo 0
'Change the default printer
Set Application.Printer = Application.Printers(lPrinterPDF)
Set prtDefault = Application.Printer
'Start PFF Creator
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
With pdfjob
If .cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "PrtPDFCreator"
Exit Sub
End If
.cOption("UseAutosave") = 1
.cOption("UseAutosaveDirectory") = 1
.cOption("AutosaveDirectory") = sPDFPath
.cOption("AutosaveFilename") = sPDFName
.cOption("AutosaveFormat") = 0 ' 0 = PDF
.cClearCache
End With
'Print the document to PDF
DoCmd.OpenReport (sReportName)
'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
'Reset the (original) default printer and release PDF Creator
Set Application.Printer = Application.Printers(lPrinterCurrent)
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub
