Using Excel Interop and getting a print dialog

Question

Hello All!

I have the following code: [Thank you Mike Rosenblum!]

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel; using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ConsoleApplication17 { class Program {

    static void Main(string[] args) {



    //public void PrintMyExcelFile() 
    //{
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application excelApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();

// Open the Workbook:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook wb = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(
    @"C:\hello.xls",
    Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, 
    Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, 
    Type.Missing, Type.Missing,Type.Missing,Type.Missing);

// Get the first worksheet.
// (Excel uses base 1 indexing, not base 0.)
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet ws = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)wb.Worksheets[1];

// Print out 1 copy to the default printer:
ws.PrintOut(
    Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, 
    Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);




// Cleanup:
GC.Collect();
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();

Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(ws);

wb.Close(false, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(wb);

excelApp.Quit();
Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(excelApp);



}
    }




    }

What i'm trying to accomplish is that instead of this printing my excel file right away, I'd like a print dialogue to appear so that I may choose a specific printer if i'd like.
I'm using the 12.0.0.0 .NET interop for Excel. Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hi yeahumok,

Thanks for the thanks. I'm glad it worked for you. :-)

The print dialog is accessible from .NET and will run just fine on Excel 2007 using the 12.0 PIAs. The Dialog.Show() command, however, has 30 optional parameters. In the future, C# 4.0 will allow for omitting optional parameters (thank goodness), and VB.NET does not require them, but if using C# 3.0 or below, we have to provide Type.Missing for the optional parameters. All 30 of them:

bool userDidntCancel =
    excelApp.Dialogs[Excel.XlBuiltInDialog.xlDialogPrint].Show(
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
        Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);

The the Show() method returns 'true' to indicate that the operation succeeded; it returns 'false' to indicate that the user hit the cancel button or the escape (esc) key, so no action occurred.

Hope this gets you going...

Mike

Answer 2

Hello Mike,

I had gone through the codings above. I too have a problem in a similar process i.e Print Preview option.

Excel.Application excelApp = new Excel.Application();

        Excel.Workbook wb = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(@"C:\\Documents and Settings \\Admin \\Desktop \\DoCoMo\\ news5.xls",Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,               Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,                            Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
        Excel.Worksheet ws = (Excel.Worksheet)wb.Worksheets[1];
        ws.PrintPreview(Type.Missing);

The compilaion is successful. but i didn't get the PrintPreview window. I dont konw how to achieve it . Please Guide me From, M.Thillai