Stop Printer from pulling from next tray when out of paper

[Laura]

Hi,

I have written VBA code to pull paper from the appropriate trays for
letterhead and draft situations. We have Word 2003 and are using HP 4100
printers.

My problem is that when printing to the draft tray, if the tray has run out
of paper, the printer automatically pulls from the next tray -- our expensive
letterhead.

I'm talking to HP to see if this can be controlled from the printer end -
but does anyone know if there is a way through VBA to tell it "Pull from this
tray and this tray ONLY" ?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

This is the code I am currently using to print to draft:
Sub SetForDraft()
With ActiveDocument.PageSetup
.FirstPageTray = 257
.OtherPagesTray = 257
End With
End Sub

 

[JayM]

We got around this by setting the printer tray settings to different types of
paper.

So tray 1 is manual
tray 2 is colour
tray 3 is bond
tray 4 is plain

This seems to stop the paper being pulled from anywhere else once the tray
has run out.

JayM

 

[Laura]

Thanks Jay,
I'll try this. We had set all trays to plain. Ironically, this made it
stop pulling from another tray (I guess since they weren't auto select). But
it then totally ignored the Word - File, Page Setup, Select tray command.

I'll try this to see if it starts responding.

Laura

 

[Laura]

Jay (and others)

It turns out this is what we DID do that BROKE Word's ability to select a
printer tray. After giving each tray a different definition as Jay
suggested, the printer stopped grabbing from the next tray when one was empty
(good) -- However, if you go into File, Page Setup and pick a paper tray the
printer now IGNORES your selection (bad). It ignores my programming to pull
a tray too.

Any ideas out there?

Thanks so much.