Trap Printing in form view

Define 'trap the printing in a form'.

In many applications, a form will have a Print button (with .Click event code) with a caption of &Print.  This means that if the user hits {Ctrl} + P, then the code behind the Print button's .Click event.

so if I add a button to the form that's a print button, it will execute if the user hit's ctrl p?

(1) Add a button, and give it a name that makes sense, like cmd_print, btn_print, etc.
(2) In the button's Caption event type &Print
(3) Type VBA code in the button's .Click event that performs a printing-like task (DoCmd.Report "Some Report Name", acViewNormal, ...)

Then, when the user selects {Ctrl} + P, the code in (3) will execute, just as if the user clicked on the button.

Hope this helps.
-Jim

what's the caption event type? do you mean just caption? I'm using acc 97 btw

I added a button, in the caption I added &Print, and then in the onclick event I put a messagebox, but it doesn't execute it!

That is because Access has captured the Print. remove the Print Option from the Menu (customize).
Or add a KeyPress event handler to the form and cancel the keypress if it is Ctrl P

keypress event wont work (yes I did try it) because another control cant have the focus, the form must have the focus, but you can press ctrl-p anytime.

I just tried adding a custom toolbar as well and that doesn't work. I also tried creating a new form and just adding a button on that (for simplicity) and it didn't work either.  Let me walk you through the steps so you can see if I'm doing anything wrong

create a button
change it's caption to &print
create an onclick event for this button in vb

Remove Print from the Access built-in File menu - othewise you will get 2 controls trying to use the same accelerator key - better yet - go to options and disable built-in menus and keyboard short-cuts

I want to leave keyboard shortcuts on for other forms, and I want users to be able to use ctrl-v and ctrl-c for copy and paste, I did remove print from the access built in file menu

I removed the print button from the file menu, I changed the toolbar to a custom toolbar and it still isn't working

raised points to 500, didn't know it was going to be this difficult

If you made your caption &Print - the key combination to make it run is Alt + P

To have Ctrl + P capture - create a custom menu Item and assign Ctrl + P as the keyboard shortcut

I just realized that I led you astray; &P is actually {alt} + P as andrewbleakley states.

I think Ctrl - P is Microsoft application-wide default for print, and prints whatever is active, whether it ends up being 1 page or 100. I'm not entirely certain you can override this.

Sorry for the confusion.
-Jim

Thanks Jim, I believe you are right, I tried what andrew said, and it doesn't seem to be working

Boag, Nice!!! thanks a lot, that worked great!

A couple of questions, that didn't disable the use of ctrl-v and ctrl-c to copy and paste did it (I think I tested it and it still works - which is what I want).

Is there a way to put in the conditions of that macro if the active object is a form or report? because I would (Ideally) like users to be able to press ctrl-p to print reports.

I've used this before to determine if an object is open, can I do it for all forms?

SysCmd(acSysCmdGetObjectState, acForm, "frmDlySummaryRptInfo")


or is there another way to determine if the active object is a form or not?

nevermind, this is what I did, (for completion sake) in the conditions of the macro that I created I put a function name, here's the function:

Function currObject() As Boolean
If Application.CurrentObjectType = 3 Then
    currObject = True
Else
    currObject = False
End If
End Function

Application.CurrentObjectType  will return the following:
acTable (0) The active object is a table.
acQuery (1) The active object is a query.
acForm (2) The active object is a form.
acReport (3) The active object is a report.
acMacro (4) The active object is a macro.
acModule (5) The active object is a module.
acDataAccessPage (6) The active object is a data access page.
acServerView (7) The active object is a server view.
acDiagram (8) The active object is a database diagram.
acStoredProcedure (9) The active object is a stored procedure.

then in the action part of the query I put printout so that it only prints out if the active object is a report!

Thanks for all the help!

yhwhlivesinme,

I see you have been very busy!
:)

If you had made another macro:
^c
Yes, that would have disabled the Copy command.

Similarly:
^v
Would have disabled Paste.

Also note: This will disable the commands in the "Access" environment only. They will still work in the Visual Basic Editor.

I only use this to "Totally" disable a command.
What I found is that many users became confused as to when Ctrl-C would work and when it would not.
And what if they had a Report and Form open at the same time! Most users don't know what "The Focus" of an "Active Object" means!
:)

But I am impressed with your "Macro" (If you could call it that now!)
:)

But anyway....

Glad I could help!