Add Printer Name to Footer

[jhhoffma3]

Hello,

I work for a company that make printable materials for laser, inkjet,
solvent inkjet, and other kinds of printers. Several of our test
templates are simple Word documents with a particular pattern on
them. It becomes very tedious to keep track of them as we have to
write the date and printer name on each sheet (sometimes in the 100s).

Is there a way to insert the printer name automatically when I click
the print button? I have found two articles on using either
DocumentBeforePrint and a VBScript for inserting the printer name, but
I could not make either work.

I'd prefer to have the process remain part of the individual file and
not have to edit my normal.dot if possible.

Could someone provide me with some detailed instructions on how to
accomplish this? I'm not that good with VB, but I can follow
instructions.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Jay Freedman]

Because there is no field in Word that returns the name of the current
printer, you'll need a macro to insert the date and printer name just before
printing.

One way to do this is to write a macro in each test template, and name the
macro FilePrint. Then when you use the File > Print menu item or press
Ctrl+P, the macro runs instead of the built-in command. You'd need a second
macro named FilePrintDefault to intercept the print button on the toolbar.

You said your test templates are simple documents -- I assume that means
they're *.doc files. Although you can put a macro into a document, that's a
seriously bad idea because Word's security mechanism sees that as a probable
virus attack. If you resave your test "templates" as real template (*.dot)
files, and store them in the Templates folder, then you can tell Word to
trust macros in the templates (that's on the second tab of the Tools > Macro

Security dialog).

A better idea is to put the macro into a module in a template that you store
in Word's Startup folder, so it's loaded and available every time you start
Word. (The Startup folder is usually at %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP,
but check the Tools > Options > File Locations dialog to be sure.) In the
same template, also add a toolbar button and/or menu item to run the macro
(http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToolbar.htm),
leaving the built-in commands untouched.

The macro code can be something like this:

Sub AddFooterAndPrint()
With ActiveDocument
' Put the date and the name of the
' current printer in the main footer.
' This will replace anything that was there before.
.Sections(1).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary) _
.Range.Text = Format(Now, "MMMM dd, yyyy") & _
vbTab & Application.ActivePrinter

' Send the document to the printer.
.PrintOut Background:=False

' Remove the change. If the document
' didn't need to be saved before, it won't
' need to be saved now.
.Undo
End With
End Sub

You can play with the formatting of the footer to get whatever appearance
you want. Things get more complicated if the documents have more than one
section and the footers are disconnected (not "Same As Previous").

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Solderboy]

The problem is that these files are stored on a network share and used
by many users, so making custom settings for each station isn't really
an option. Since I'm also the IT person for our company, I'd really
hate to make a template that wasn't completely self contained.

The files are currently .doc files, but it doesn't matter to me if
they are .dot files if it works.

I must admit that macros and VBscript are not my area of strength. I
tried to create two macros as listed below, but got "Ambiguous name
detected: AddFooterAndPrint". This was just by copying the code
below into a SubFilePrint and SubFilePrintDefault headings. Am I
doing something wrong or is there something else I need to specify.

Thanks again for the help

 

[Jay Freedman]

I'm afraid it sounds like you're heading off in the wrong direction. Let me
try to explain a little more of what I'm proposing.

Each user has a Startup folder in their profile, by default at C:\Documents
and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP. Any
template that's stored in that particular folder has three important
features:

1. It's automatically loaded when Word starts. It will appear in Word's
Tools > Templates & Add-ins dialog in the "Global templates and add-ins"
list.

2. Any macros, toolbars, menu customizations, keyboard shortcuts, and
autotext entries in the template will be available in all open documents.

3. If, in the Tools > Macro > Security > Trusted Publishers dialog, you
check the option "Trust all installed add-ins and templates", macros in the
template won't trigger the security mechanism.

One more bit of information: If you use a batch file, a network login file,
or something similar to install a template in the Startup folder on each
computer, it can use the environment variable %appdata% to represent the
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data folder without having
to specify the unique <username>. Write the Copy command to copy the
template to %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP.

If this global template contains the macro I posted before (and don't change
its name!!) and a toolbar button that runs the macro, then you don't have to
make any changes at all to the documents/templates that already exist. The
only change in the standard procedure is to use the toolbar button to print
the samples instead of clicking the built-in Print button or the File >
Print menu item.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mention of FilePrint and FilePrintDefault macros -- which would have to
be added into each of the existing templates -- was a completely different
option than the global template and its macro. If you want to go in that
direction, the macro code would be different; you can't just paste in the
macro I posted. However, it would be a lot more work for you, and I'd
discourage it.

It might be a good idea for you to read
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/VBABasicsIn15Mins.htm and
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm for some
background.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.