how do I know if the printer is printing?

Thanx for the great and fast answer! But as I understand, this is VB4-code, and I would like to write the program in VB3. Do you know a way do do this?

This is VB5 code, but it should work in VB4 32-bit. It doesn't work in 16-bit anyway though.

I do not think that the 16-bit printer handling can access the number of pages printed. If you print yourself, you could perhaps make each page a different document? I don't have any 16-bit VB installed myself, so I am afraid I can't test it.

What operating system will you be using? It might be possible to check for the files of the print spooler to see when a job has finished printing.

I'll most use Windows NT, so I better write a 32-bit program ;-)
It should be great if the code worked on Windows 3.1x, but it doesn't matter.

Do you know if I can 'check for the files of the print spooler' in Windows NT?

In Windows NT, print jobs consist of two files stored in the %SystemRoot%\system32\spool\printers directory. It would be possible to check if the job has finished printing by checking for these files.

But if you do not need the 16-bit environment, I really would suggest moving to VB5. I know that VB4 is much slower than VB3, but VB5 is much faster than VB4, and little faster than VB3. And you could access all new functions.

I saw in your user profile that you are from Sweden? Is that correct? I live in Gothenburg myself!
Right now, I only own the VB4 and I don't think I can afford to buy VB5, but I'll think about it.
Thanx about the tip of the printers directory. I'll check it out!

Sure, I am from Linkoping. I bought VB4 and MSVC++ 4.0 on student license in January for about 1000kr. A few months later I received free copies of VB5 and MSVC++ 5.0, as a free upgrade because they had been released when I bought the older versions.

What kind of program are you writing? VB4 32-bit isn't that bad on a fast computer.

We've got a small network with 5 users in it, and I am writing a program which logs how many pages each user are printing out. And thanx to you, I'm almost finished! Thank you a lot for helping me out!

We've got Pentium 133, so I think that's enough for VB4 32-bit

Suggestion: You could use event logging, and read the log so you don't have to keep your program running and checking the printer at all times. But it shouldn't be such a big performance issue anyway.

thanx for the great help you've been to me!
just one little questrion:
can I, through the log, see how many pages each user has printed out?

If you use NT Workstation and enable logging, I think so. And I am sure that you can if you are using NT Server. Of course this only works if the print job comes from a 32-bit client, as 16-bit clients don't pass information on the number of pages for a print job.