How to use VB Printer object in VBA

Question

I'm trying to print to an Epson printer using VBA code without success. Using VB6, I have the following code which it works just fine:

Printer.Print "Hello"
Printer.EndDoc 

My problem is that I don't see the Printer object in VBA (using MS Access Macros). Do I have to include a specific reference? If yes, what it would be? such that I have VB6 runtime installed on the same machine.

Answer 1

You can't do this from MS Access, but KB154078 shows VBA code that can use the Win32 API to communicate directly with the print spooler and send raw data to a printer:

  Option Explicit

  Private Type DOCINFO
      pDocName As String
      pOutputFile As String
      pDatatype As String
  End Type

  Private Declare Function ClosePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
     hPrinter As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function EndDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
     hPrinter As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function EndPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
     hPrinter As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias _
     "OpenPrinterA" (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter As Long, _
      ByVal pDefault As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function StartDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias _
     "StartDocPrinterA" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal Level As Long, _
     pDocInfo As DOCINFO) As Long
  Private Declare Function StartPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
     hPrinter As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function WritePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
     hPrinter As Long, pBuf As Any, ByVal cdBuf As Long,  _
     pcWritten As Long) As Long

  Private Sub Command1_Click()
      Dim lhPrinter As Long
      Dim lReturn As Long
      Dim lpcWritten As Long
      Dim lDoc As Long
      Dim sWrittenData As String
      Dim MyDocInfo As DOCINFO
      lReturn = OpenPrinter(Printer.DeviceName, lhPrinter, 0)
      If lReturn = 0 Then
          MsgBox "The Printer Name you typed wasn't recognized."
          Exit Sub
      End If
      MyDocInfo.pDocName = "AAAAAA"
      MyDocInfo.pOutputFile = vbNullString
      MyDocInfo.pDatatype = vbNullString
      lDoc = StartDocPrinter(lhPrinter, 1, MyDocInfo)
      Call StartPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
      sWrittenData = "How's that for Magic !!!!" & vbFormFeed
      lReturn = WritePrinter(lhPrinter, ByVal sWrittenData, _
         Len(sWrittenData), lpcWritten)
      lReturn = EndPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
      lReturn = EndDocPrinter(lhPrinter)
      lReturn = ClosePrinter(lhPrinter)
  End Sub

Another example is given in KB175083.