Printing Worksheets To A PDF File (Using Early Binding)

Introduction

This article contains code examples to print worksheets to PDF files.

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 each of the examples in this section use 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.

Routines Included In This Article:

  1. Print a Single Worksheet to a PDF File
  2. Print Multiple Worksheets to Multiple PDF Files
  3. Print Multiple Worksheets to a Single PDF File

Versions Tested:

These routines were tested successfully using PDFCreator 0.9.1, GPLGhostscript.exe download package, on Windows XP Pro (SP2). Excel versions tested include:

  1. Excel 2003
  2. Excel 2007 (Beta 2)

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.

Print a Single Worksheet to a PDF File:

Option Explicit

Sub PrintToPDF_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

'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "testPDF.pdf"
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator

'Check if worksheet is empty and exit if so
If IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.UsedRange) Then Exit Sub

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
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 the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub

Print Multiple Worksheets to Multiple PDF Files:

Option Explicit

Sub PrintToPDF_MultiSheet_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 lSheet As Long

Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator

If pdfjob.cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "PrtPDFCreator"
Exit Sub
End If

For lSheet = 1 To ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
'Check if worksheet is empty and skip if so
If Not IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.UsedRange) Then
With pdfjob
'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "testPDF" & Sheets(lSheet).Name & ".pdf"
.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
Worksheets(lSheet).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 the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
End If
Next lSheet
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub

Print Multiple Worksheets to a Single PDF File:

Option Explicit

Sub PrintToPDF_MultiSheetToOne_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 lSheet As Long
Dim lTtlSheets As Long

'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "Consolidated.pdf"
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator

'Make sure the PDF printer can start
If pdfjob.cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "Error!"
Exit Sub
End If

'Set all defaults
With pdfjob
.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
lTtlSheets = Application.Sheets.Count
For lSheet = 1 To Application.Sheets.Count
On Error Resume Next 'To deal with chart sheets
If Not IsEmpty(Application.Sheets(lSheet).UsedRange) Then
Application.Sheets(lSheet).PrintOut copies:=1, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"
Else
lTtlSheets = lTtlSheets - 1
End If
On Error GoTo 0
Next lSheet

'Wait until all print jobs have entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = lTtlSheets
DoEvents
Loop

'Combine all PDFs into a single file and stop the printer
With pdfjob
.cCombineAll
.cPrinterStop = False
End With

'Wait until the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub

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One thought on “Printing Worksheets To A PDF File (Using Early Binding)

  1. Pingback: My Code Has Been Used by NASA! - Excelguru

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