How to print to a specific printer using VBA code in MS Access

I think in Access you can specify a printer at report level
(When in design view of the report go to page setup, under the page tab you will see an option to specify a printer for the report,  Access will remember the printer and always print that report on that printer).

This is not a DESIGN question.  Every time the report is run, the program must look up the user to get the right printer.  There are over a dozen different users running the application, and 5 different printers.  The printer is different each time, depending on which user is running the program.

When you open the print dialog, there's a list of available printers in a dropdown list at the top.
Is this what you mean?

Thats not what I mean.  

I don't want the user to have to select the printer at all.  I have a table of users and each user is in a department and each department has a specific printer assigned.  I want my application to change the printer.  

For example, users 'SMITH' and 'JONES' are in department 'ACCOUNTING', and ACCOUNTING is assigned printer PRT1, but user 'KELLY' is in department 'HR', and HR is assigned printer PRT2.  So when SMITH runs the report it prints on PRT1 and when KELLY runs the report it prints on PRT2, without the users having to do anything.  

I am looking for a way to change the printer assignment in VBA code within the application.

MGothelf,

What you are asking can be accomplished.

Based on you Question History here, my feeling is that you just need to be pointed in the right direction.

In Access 2002 and beyond, the printer object is more "Exposed" in VBA.
For example, the code:
   
    MsgBox Application.Printers.DeviceName

…Will display the name of the current Printer

In other words, with VBA Code, you can see a list of all installed printers, change printers, Manipulate report settings like Margins. (And yes, even: “Choose an Output Device at Runtime) In Access 2000 an earlier you really cant.

Check out the book "Access Cookbook" by Ken Getz ... et al, put out by O'Reilly (ISBN: 0-596-00084-7)

It has an excellent chapter on Access Printer control; the book also has a CD with the examples. You can modify the code and drop it right into your app!

Good luck!

Hope this helps

ok, I just answered a question recently on setting printers as I just found a way to do it

Now if u say u need to lookup printers based on a user

what if u created  a table with user's windows logon id in a table
and alongside that, u have their default printer

simple way to get user id (without API)



    Dim tmpPrinter as Printer
    Dim sUser as String
    Dim sPrinterName as String

    sUser = Environ("Username")
    sPrinterName = DLOOKUP("PrinterName","tblUserPrinters","UserName='" & sUser & "'")
   
    Set tmpPrinter = Application.Printer
    Application.Printer = Application.Printers(sPrinterName)

'Do your stuff, then reset back to original printer
    Application.Printer = tmpPrinter


Now I know u said u dont want to change default printer, but as access prints to default printer, a temporary change is what u might have to do

Thanks for your help.  The problem was not in the VBA code to get the default, it was how to set it and problem was that many of my users have Access 2000, so many of the simple functions in Access 2002 and 2003 are not available,so I had to do it brute force.  The link provided by dannywareham actually led me pretty close to the solution.

I'm glad you got it sorted, MGothelf

Good luck with the project
:-)

MGothelf,

BTW:

The Access 2000 Devlopers Handbook (desktop) has a great chapter on printer control in Access 2000

Jeff