What is the purpose of printing to a file? I have a macro that sends a
series of 1 or 2 page reports to a printer. It ties up the printer for a
long time. Can I print to a file and then route the files to the printer to
speed that up?

I've tried printing to a file, but I don't know what to do with the file
after it is created to print it.

I'd appreciate any advice,
John

Sending Binary Files to a Printer After Print to File
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/22734/en-us

John Hutcins wrote:

What is the purpose of printing to a file? I have a macro that sends a
series of 1 or 2 page reports to a printer. It ties up the printer for a
long time. Can I print to a file and then route the files to the printer to
speed that up?

I've tried printing to a file, but I don't know what to do with the file
after it is created to print it.

I'd appreciate any advice,
John

Why print to a file?

Here's a possible example:
A coworker in a remote office with a slow dial-up connection has a huge
Excel file and wants to print her one-page report on the office printer
(\\bigserver\myprinter) near you.

She prints to THAT printer, but checks "print to file" and names the file
MyRpt.prn.

She emails that file to you.
You save the file to your C-Drive

From a DOS prompt, type the below command and press enter:
COPY /B C:\MyRpt.prn \\bigserver\myprinter

The file prints to that server

The /B effects a binary copy/paste, versus a text copy/paste, which allows
the prnter to receive all of the formatting codes embedded in the prn file.
The end result is exactly the same as if she were in the office and printed
to that printer.

Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"John Hutcins" wrote:

What is the purpose of printing to a file? I have a macro that sends a
series of 1 or 2 page reports to a printer. It ties up the printer for a
long time. Can I print to a file and then route the files to the printer to
speed that up?

I've tried printing to a file, but I don't know what to do with the file
after it is created to print it.

I'd appreciate any advice,
John

Thanks, both of these answers told me what I wanted to know!

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

Why print to a file?

Here's a possible example:
A coworker in a remote office with a slow dial-up connection has a huge
Excel file and wants to print her one-page report on the office printer
(\\bigserver\myprinter) near you.

She prints to THAT printer, but checks "print to file" and names the file
MyRpt.prn.

She emails that file to you.
You save the file to your C-Drive

From a DOS prompt, type the below command and press enter:
COPY /B C:\MyRpt.prn \\bigserver\myprinter

The file prints to that server

The /B effects a binary copy/paste, versus a text copy/paste, which allows
the prnter to receive all of the formatting codes embedded in the prn file.
The end result is exactly the same as if she were in the office and printed
to that printer.

Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"John Hutcins" wrote:

What is the purpose of printing to a file? I have a macro that sends a
series of 1 or 2 page reports to a printer. It ties up the printer for a
long time. Can I print to a file and then route the files to the printer to
speed that up?

I've tried printing to a file, but I don't know what to do with the file
after it is created to print it.

I'd appreciate any advice,
John

One more question. What is the correct way to do the DOS print from VBA?
I've tried

Shell("C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.EXE R:\my documents copy /b testtofile1
\\etc-pqc01-01\b2f3xercl1")

but this only opens a dos session and goes to R:\my Documents. It is not
exicuting the COPY command.
Thanks,
John

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

Why print to a file?

Here's a possible example:
A coworker in a remote office with a slow dial-up connection has a huge
Excel file and wants to print her one-page report on the office printer
(\\bigserver\myprinter) near you.

She prints to THAT printer, but checks "print to file" and names the file
MyRpt.prn.

She emails that file to you.
You save the file to your C-Drive

From a DOS prompt, type the below command and press enter:
COPY /B C:\MyRpt.prn \\bigserver\myprinter

The file prints to that server

The /B effects a binary copy/paste, versus a text copy/paste, which allows
the prnter to receive all of the formatting codes embedded in the prn file.
The end result is exactly the same as if she were in the office and printed
to that printer.

Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"John Hutcins" wrote:

What is the purpose of printing to a file? I have a macro that sends a
series of 1 or 2 page reports to a printer. It ties up the printer for a
long time. Can I print to a file and then route the files to the printer to
speed that up?

I've tried printing to a file, but I don't know what to do with the file
after it is created to print it.

I'd appreciate any advice,
John