Develop Reference

Word Interop Batch Printing

I have an application that creates multiple (regularly 1000+) Word files and then prints them.
I have created the below code that, once the PrintDialog is Ok'd proceeds to print the documents that reside in a folder. However recently we've had some strange behaviour following some Office updates (its Office 2010, which we cannot upgrade). The screen literally flickers, like a really bad graphics problem, then Word crashes after about 500 prints. This hasn't happened before and has been running for probably 12 months+ without issue.
As you can see, the application opens one instance of Word, then uses that to open>print>close each document. I can't see how this causes a problem, as Word only ever has one document open at a time. The memory size of winword.exe also doesn't increase significantly beyond the size of when its first opened too, so the Office updates don't initially appear to have introduced a memory leak.
Is there a more efficient way of doing this?
if (printDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
int c = 1;
int total = directoryInfo.GetFiles().Count();
// Set the Progress bar details
App.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)delegate { MainWindow.ui_progressBar.Maximum = directoryInfo.GetFiles().Length; });
// loop through the files in order
foreach (FileInfo report in directoryInfo.GetFiles().OrderBy(x => x.FullName))
{
UpdateUI("Printing " + c.ToString() + " / " + total.ToString());
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document reportFile = wordApp.Documents.Add(report.FullName);
wordApp.ActivePrinter = printDialog.PrinterSettings.PrinterName;
wordApp.ActiveDocument.PrintOut();
reportFile.Close(SaveChanges: false);
reportFile = null;
PrinterCounter++;
App.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)delegate { MainWindow.ui_progressBar.Value = PrinterCounter; });
c++;
}
}

Printing copies of document from form textbox

Is there a way to print the number of copies given in a textbox in a C# windows form application?
With my current code the document gets printed the required number of prints, but after the first print there is a dialog that says that the document already is opened and I have to open a copy. When I open this copy, the document prints again, but only if I accept to open the copy. Is there a way to print the document multiple times without getting the dialog of the copy of the document every time?
When the form is filled in correct, I want it to be stored on my hard drive and want it to print the number given in a textbox on a previous form. The value from this textbox is stored in the variable intAantalPoorten.
Thanks a lot!
Regards Bert
CreateWordDocument(#"N:\De wienes\Productieformulieren\Sjablonen\Poortblad.docx", #"N:\De wienes\Productieformulieren\Producties poortbladen\Poortblad " + txtKlantnaam.Text + "-" + txtReferentie.Text + ".docx");
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo(#"N:\De wienes\Productieformulieren\Producties poortbladen\Poortblad " + txtKlantnaam.Text + "-" + txtReferentie.Text + ".docx");
for (intAAntalPrints = 0; intAAntalPrints <= intAantalPoorten; intAAntalPrints++)
{
info.Verb = "Print";
info.CreateNoWindow = true;
info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process.Start(info);
}

You're probably not using the best programming model. The thing you're doing is relying on the windows shell to open the document and invoke the registered verb (as defined by Word in the local registry). This is the most primitive and least functional way to get the job done. For example, there's no way to change which printer you're printing to...or how many copies or which pages, etc.
Instead, there's a rich programming model that Word (and all the Office apps) provide. You can open documents, and print them specifying the number of copies that you want.
To get access to this programming model, you need to reference the .COM interop assembly for Word, which is:
...and the Office Core interop assembly:
Then, it's just a matter of driving Word to do what you want. For example:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace WindowsFormsApp1
{
public partial class Form1: Form
{
public Form1( )
{
InitializeComponent( );
}
private void button1_Click( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
//--> assumes the textBox1.Text contains the file to open...
var app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application( );
var doc = app.Documents.Open( textBox1.Text, ReadOnly: true );
doc.PrintOut( Copies: 1 );
doc.Close( );
app.Quit( );
}
}
}
Note that this requires Word to be installed on the local machine. For more information, check out the word object model.

c# setting a printer

Hello and thank you for you time on this question, I'm trying change a Active Printer according to the choice that user chooses in excel. However I'm having some trouble. For some reason it keeps giving me the same error.
"An exception of type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.COM Exception'
occurred in DailyReport.dll but was not handled in user code Exception
from HRESULT:0X800A03EC"
I've been goggling this error and im having a hard time finding anything, I did find a link COM Exception and they provided a link to another website but seems when I try to go that site it doesn't open.
I have Tried:
xlApp.ActivePrinter = "CORPPRT58-Copier Room on RR-PS1:";
xlApp.ActivePrinter = "\\RR-PS1\CORPPRT58-Copier Room";
xlApp.ActivePrinter = "CORPPRT58-Copier Room on RR-PS1";
I have checked to make sure that the printer is installed and it is. if someone could point me in the correct direction that would be great thanks!!

The correct answer is (i.e.):
xlApp.ActivePrinter = "\\\\RR-PS1\\CORPPRT58-Copier Room on Ne00:";
An important part is the 'Ne00:' This is the port on which this printer can be found. This is different on each computer and can be found in registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices.
Another problem is the concatenation string 'on'. This may be valid when working with an English excel but it's translated to other languages!
I had the same problem but there aren't many complete examples I could find so here is mine:
// Open excel document
var path = #"c:\path\to\my\doc.xlsx";
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application _xlApp;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook _xlBook;
_xlApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
_xlBook = _xlApp.Workbooks.Open(path);
_xlBook.Activate();
var printer = #"EPSON LQ-690 ESC/P2";
var port = String.Empty;
// Find correct printerport
using (RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(path))
{
if (key != null)
{
object value = key.GetValue(printer);
if (value != null)
{
string[] values = value.ToString().Split(',');
if (values.Length >= 2) port = values[1];
}
}
}
// Set ActivePrinter if not already set
if (!_xlApp.ActivePrinter.StartsWith(printer))
{
// Get current concatenation string ('on' in enlgish, 'op' in dutch, etc..)
var split = _xlApp.ActivePrinter.Split(' ');
if (split.Length >= 3)
{
_xlApp.ActivePrinter = String.Format("{0} {1} {2}",
printer,
split[split.Length - 2],
port);
}
}
// Print document
_xlBook.PrintOutEx();
It's far for perfect since I'm not aware of any other translations. If 'on' is translated with spaces, above will fail. But i'm guessing that the solution will work for most clients. You can easily get the current concatenation string by looking at the currect value of ActivePrinter.
A more failproof method would be to strip the printer name and the assigned port and what remains is the concatenation string. But then you would have to loop through all installed printers and check for a match.
Another test I personally do it check if the printer is installed on the system:
if(PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters.Cast<string>().ToList().Contains(printer)) {
//Set active printer...
}

First set your target printer as the default printer on the control pannel. Then print xlApp.ActivePrinter and get its settings(if you don't set the activeprinter the application gets the default setting of windows). At last set the value with the print value. And you can change your default printer setting.

Ghostscript.NET - no output file when run as Windows service

I'm writing a Windows Service to scan a set of directories for new PDF files and convert them to TIFF with Ghostscript.NET. When I'd compiled and ran the code as a normal program it functioned perfectly, but when I used the same code as a Service the output TIFF never appears. I've set the destination directory to allow writing for Everyone, and the original PDF is being removed as it's supposed to, so it shouldn't be a permissions issue for the "Local System" user. Auditing the directory for access Failures and Successes just shows a list of Successes.
There is a function that reads the color population of the PDF to determine if it's a color document, or B&W scanned as color. That part works, so there isn't an issue accessing and reading the PDF.
I've also tried removing '-q' from the Ghostscript switches and I don't have any errors reported, and "-dDEBUG" outputs so much garbage I don't know what it's saying - but nothing is tagged as an error.
public static void ConvertPDF(string file, GSvalues gsVals)
{
gsProc = new Ghostscript.NET.Processor.GhostscriptProcessor();
System.Collections.Generic.List<string> switches = new System.Collections.Generic.List<string>();
switches.Add("-empty"); // GS.NET ignores the first switch
switches.Add("-r" + gsVals.Resolution); // dpi
switches.Add("-dDownScaleFactor=" + gsVals.ScaleFactor); // Scale the image back down
switches.Add("-sCompression=lzw"); // Compression
switches.Add("-dNumRenderingThreads=" + Environment.ProcessorCount);
switches.Add("-c \"30000000 setvmthreshold\"");
switches.Add("-dNOGC");
string device;
if (_checkPdf(file, gsVals.InkColorLevels, gsVals))
{
gsVals.WriteLog("Color PDF");
device = "-sDEVICE=tiffscaled24"; // 24bit Color TIFF
}
else
{
gsVals.WriteLog("Grayscale PDF");
device = "-sDEVICE=tiffgray"; // grayscale TIFF
}
switches.Add(device);
// Strip the filename out of the full path to the file
string filename = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file);
// Set the output file tag
string oFileName = _setFileName(oPath + "\\" + filename.Trim(), GSvalues.Extension);
string oFileTag = "-sOutputFile=" + oFileName;
switches.Add(oFileTag);
switches.Add(file);
// Process the PDF file
try
{
string s = string.Empty;
foreach (string sw in switches) s += sw + ' ';
gsVals.DebugLog("Switches:\n\t" + s);
gsProc.StartProcessing(switches.ToArray(), new GsStdio());
while (gsProc.IsRunning) System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
gsVals.WriteLog("Exception caught: " + e.Message);
Console.Read();
}
gsVals.DebugLog("Archiving PDF");
try
{
System.IO.File.Move(file, _setFileName(gsVals.ArchiveDir + "\\" + filename, ".pdf"));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
gsVals.WriteLog("Error moving PDF: " + e.Message);
}
}
private static string _setFileName(string path, string tifExt)
{
if (System.IO.File.Exists(path + tifExt)) return _setFileName(path, 1, tifExt);
else return path + tifExt;
}
private static string _setFileName(string path, int ctr, string tifExt)
{
// Test the proposed altered filename. It it exists, move to the next iteration
if(System.IO.File.Exists(path + '(' + ctr.ToString() + ')' + tifExt)) return _setFileName(path, ++ctr, tifExt);
else return path + '(' + ctr.ToString() + ')' + tifExt;
}
This is a sample output of the generated switches (pulled from the output log):
Switches: -empty -r220 -dDownScaleFactor=1 -sCompression=lzw -dNumRenderingThreads=4 -c "30000000 setvmthreshold" -dNOGC -sDEVICE=tiffscaled24 -sOutputFile=\\[servername]\amb_ops_scanning$\Test.tiff \\[servername]\amb_ops_scanning$\Test.pdf
Settings are read in an XML file and stored in a class, GSVals. The class also handles writing to the System log for output, or to a text file in the normal Program version. GSSTDIO is a class for handling GS input and output, which just redirects all the output to the same logs as GSVals. The only code changes between the Program version and the Service version is the Service handling code, and the output is changed from a text file to the system logs. Nothing about the Ghostscript processing was changed.
This is being compiled as x86 for portability, but is being run on x64. GS 9.15 is installed, both x86 and x64 versions. GS.NET is version 4.0.30319 installed via NuGet into VS 2012. ILMerge 2.13.0307 is being used to package the GS.NET dll into the exe, also for portability. None of these things changed between the normal EXE and the Windows Service versions, and as I said the normal EXE works without any issues.

I got it working by using CreateProcessAsUser() from advapi32.dll, using code from this article.
I also had to restructure the order of the switches:
switches.Add("-c 30000000 setvmthreshold -f\"" + file + "\"")
The original source I'd used for speeding up the conversion left out the '-f' part, and the fact that the -f was the tag marking the file. I don't know why this worked in GS.NET, but with normal gswin32c.exe I got an error saying that it was an invalid file, until I set the switch this way.
Oddly, the processes this method creates are still Session 0, but it actually works. I'll keep tinkering, but for now it's working.

How to launch a process which will open a text file in any editor and automatically move cursor to a certain line number?

From c#, I want to launch a process which will open a text file in any editor and automatically move cursor to a certain line number.
I can open a file using
Process.Start(#"c:\myfile.txt");
but I don't know how to move cursor at specific location in that file.
Answer with source code:
yes, I used notepad++
private void openLog() {
try {
// see if notepad++ is installed on user's machine
var nppDir = (string)Registry.GetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Notepad++", null, null);
if (nppDir != null) {
var nppExePath = Path.Combine(nppDir, "Notepad++.exe");
var nppReadmePath = Path.Combine(yourDirectory,fileName );
var line = 20;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.AppendFormat("\"{0}\" -n{1}", nppReadmePath, lineNo);
Process.Start(nppExePath, sb.ToString());
} else {
string newPath = #"\\mySharedDrive\notpad++\bin\notepad++.exe";
Process.Start(newPath, #"\\" + filePath + " -n" + lineNo); // take exe from my shared drive
}
} catch (Exception e) {
Process.Start(#"\\" + FilePath); // open using notepad
}
}

Get Notepad++, then you can do this:
var nppDir = (string)Registry.GetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Notepad++", null, null);
var nppExePath = Path.Combine(nppDir, "Notepad++.exe");
var nppReadmePath = Path.Combine(nppDir, "readme.txt");
var line = 20;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.AppendFormat("\"{0}\" -n{1}", nppReadmePath, line);
Process.Start(nppExePath, sb.ToString());
In this example we get install path of n++ from the registry, build path to exe and readme.txt file, opens its own readme.txt file with cursor on line 20.
Using StringBuilder is more efficient than using multiple appends (explanation somewhere on SO).

The solution very heavily depends on which process/editor is opened on your system. That editor would have to have a developer API that you could use to access functionality such as setting ranges and altering the cursor position. For example, if the editor that is opened is Microsoft Word, you would use the Word Interop API to set a selection at a specific position. There is no universal way to do this in 'any editor' since each one has its own API (or no outward facing API at all).

Perhaps you are going this the wrong way. I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but I think it would be alot easier to just open the text file in an editor that belongs to your application. Perhaps another form with a WYSIWYG editor control. That way you have full control on where the cursor will land in that editor. Otherwise, there are just way too many unknowns for anything feasibly workable.