How can I prevent the Print Progress dialog appearing when performing a print preview

Question

In my C# application, I'm attempting to generate a print preview without the progress dialog appearing on screen.

I believe you can use PrintDocument.PrintController to prevent this when printing for real (i.e. not a print preview), however it doesn't seem to work when performing a print preview.

My code is as follows:

public FrmDeliveryNotePrintPreview(DeliveryNote deliveryNote)
{
    InitializeComponent();

    this.Text = "Delivery Note #" + deliveryNote.Id.ToString();


    // The print preview window should occupy about 90% of the
    // total screen height

    int height = (int) (Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height * 0.9);


    // Making an assumption that we are printing to A4 landscape,
    // then adjust the width to give the correct height:width ratio
    // for A4 landscape.

    int width = (int) (height / 1.415);


    // Set the bounds of this form. The PrintPreviewControl is
    // docked, so it should just do the right thing

    this.SetBounds(0, 0, width, height);

    PrinterSettings printerSettings = new PrinterSettings();
    PrintDeliveryNotes pdn = new PrintDeliveryNotes(
        new DeliveryNote[] { deliveryNote },
        printerSettings);
    PrintDocument printDocument = pdn.PrintDocument;
    printDocument.PrintController = new PreviewPrintController();
    ppcDeliveryNote.Document = printDocument;
}

The print preview works exactly as I want, apart from the fact that the print preview progress dialog is displayed.

Suggestions please?

Answer 1

You may have some luck with PreviewPrintController instead of StandardPrintController.

Answer 2

A workaround would be to use the EnumChildWindows API to find the handle to the window, and If found, use the ShowWindow API with the SW_HIDE flag to hide the window.

Here are an example for using FindWindow if you know the title of the window:

#region Constants 

private const int SW_HIDE = 0;

private const int SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1;

private const int SW_SHOW = 5;

#endregion Constants

#region APIs

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Auto)] 

private static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName); 

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Auto)] 

private static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hwnd, int nCmdShow); 

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Auto)] 

private static extern bool EnableWindow(IntPtr hwnd, bool enabled);

#endregion APIs

public static void ShowProgress()

{

IntPtr h = FindWindow(null, "titleofprogresswindow");

ShowWindow(h, SW_SHOW); 

EnableWindow(h, true); 

}

public static void HideProgress()

{

IntPtr h = FindWindow(null, "titleofprogresswindow");

ShowWindow(h, SW_HIDE); 

EnableWindow(h, false); 

}

Answer 3

Hi,

This works for me:

Set the printcontroller of your document to a StandardPrintController.

static class Program
    {

        static void Main()
        {
            PrintDocument doc = new PrintDocument();
            doc.PrintController = new StandardPrintController();
            doc.PrintPage += new PrintPageEventHandler(doc_PrintPage);

            doc.Print();
        }

        static void doc_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Graphics.DrawString("xxx", Control.DefaultFont, Brushes.Black, new PointF(e.PageBounds.Width / 2, e.PageBounds.Height / 2));
        }
    }

Answer 4

I hate to answer my own question, but the solution was staring me in the face.

As I've already coded the ability to print a delivery note, my next step was to provide an on screen copy (i.e. no intention of printing a hard copy). The print preview dialog seemed like an easy way out.

In the end, I just created a custom form and painted directly on to it with no print preview control in sight.

Unfortunately, I got too focused on trying to get the print preview dialogue to behave as I wanted, rather than looking at the bigger problem.