PPT: How to Use the Shell Function to Print a Presentation

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. You can print one or more PowerPoint presentations from the command prompt or a shortcut using the /p switch. When printing multiple presentations, this method allows you to apply print-setting changes to all the presentations using a single dialog box.

PowerPoint 97 has added even more flexibility by providing the following options when printing more than one presentation with the /p switch:

• Show print dialog once and apply settings to all documents.
• Show print dialog for each document.

NOTE: PowerPoint 7.0 shows the Print dialog box once and applies the settings to all documents that follow the /p switch. To mimic the "Show print dialog for each document" option, use separate Shell function calls.

The following sample demonstrates the use of the Shell function and the /p switch to print one or more presentations.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

Sub ShellPrint()

      Dim strPath As String
      Dim strShellStatment As String
      Dim dRetVal As Double

      ' Get the path to Powerpnt.exe.
      strPath = PowerPoint.Application.Path

      ' Start building the first Shell function argument.
      strShellStatment = strPath & "\Powerpnt.exe /p "

      ' Use this to print a single presentation called C:\Test.ppt.
      strShellStatment = strShellStatment & "C:\Test.ppt"

      ' Use the following syntax to print more than one presentation.
      ' strShellStatment = strShellStatment & "C:\Test.ppt C:\Test2.ppt"

      ' Execute the Shell function.
      dRetVal = Shell(strShellStatment, 1)

      ' If the Shell function call fails, 0 is returned.
      If dRetVal = 0 Then
         ' The Shell function failed. Enter error-trapping code here.
         MsgBox "The Shell command failed!", vbCritical
      End If

   End Sub