print a word doc. using the PrintDocument class which supports setting the printer tray

Question

Hi I have to print a word document using C#.NET. I also have to customize the printing option the Printer tray programmatically. So I have used the PrintDocument class available in C#. I'm afraid not this class does NOT take the path of a word document to be printed as input. So I tried to use StringReader object to read the word document line by line and set it as input to the PrintDocument class. This works fine if my word document contains simple text. But my word doc. also contains tables and other formatted text. I would really appreciate if anyone can suggest me how I could print a word doc. using the PrintDocument or any other class for that matter that supports setting the printer tray. Any information on the third-party tools to do the same is also appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Srivalli.

mibuyt · Answer

Hi Well you can use this way. 1. Open the word file (*.doc) into clipboard 2. Then from clipboard paste into the RichTextBox control http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemwindowsformsrichtextboxclasspastetopic.asp Hope it helps. Cheers.

srivalli.chavali · Answer

Hi arminro RichTextBox is not supporting .doc files.Either Invalid File Type or Invalid Format is the exception it is throwing. Thanks Sriram Chavali

gaby2r · Answer

richtextbox.LoadFile normaly it should open docs too.

srivalli.chavali · Answer

Hi arminro Thanks for the reply.ButHow can I upload a doc into RichTextBox. Thanks Srivalli Chavali

gaby2r · Answer

bah one more thing i forgot :P richtextbox doesn't suport Justify text. and ofcourse it doesn't even have implemented a way to set or get the paragraph text align. buy there are ways around it. i found lots of them :P google is wiked ;)

gaby2r · Answer

wel for one .. just reading the text and adding it to the print document won't do it as you have noticed. you could do one of two things is supose: load the file into a rich text box and then print it. or manualy drawing the formated text and tables etc to the printer grafic device :P rich text box however doesn't suport printing .. something someone forgot. so what you have to do is build your own rich text box that suports printing by importing sendmessage function from user32.dll here is the code : (kinda long) using System; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Drawing; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; using System.Drawing.Printing; namespace RichTextBoxPrintCtrl { public class RichTextBoxPrintCtrl:RichTextBox { //Convert the unit used by the .NET framework (1/100 inch) //and the unit used by Win32 API calls (twips 1/1440 inch) private const double anInch = 14.4; [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] private struct RECT { public int Left; public int Top; public int Right; public int Bottom; } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] private struct CHARRANGE { public int cpMin; //First character of range (0 for start of doc) public int cpMax; //Last character of range (-1 for end of doc) } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] private struct FORMATRANGE { public IntPtr hdc; //Actual DC to draw on public IntPtr hdcTarget; //Target DC for determining text formatting public RECT rc; //Region of the DC to draw to (in twips) public RECT rcPage; //Region of the whole DC (page size) (in twips) public CHARRANGE chrg; //Range of text to draw (see earlier declaration) } private const int WM_USER = 0x0400; private const int EM_FORMATRANGE = WM_USER + 57; [DllImport(USER32.dll)] private static extern IntPtr SendMessage (IntPtr hWnd  int msg  IntPtr wp IntPtr lp); // Render the contents of the RichTextBox for printing // Return the last character printed + 1 (printing start from this point for next page) public int Print( int charFrom int charToPrintPageEventArgs e) { //Calculate the area to render and print RECT rectToPrint; rectToPrint.Top = (int)(e.MarginBounds.Top * anInch); rectToPrint.Bottom = (int)(e.MarginBounds.Bottom * anInch); rectToPrint.Left = (int)(e.MarginBounds.Left * anInch); rectToPrint.Right = (int)(e.MarginBounds.Right * anInch); //Calculate the size of the page RECT rectPage; rectPage.Top = (int)(e.PageBounds.Top * anInch); rectPage.Bottom = (int)(e.PageBounds.Bottom * anInch); rectPage.Left = (int)(e.PageBounds.Left * anInch); rectPage.Right = (int)(e.PageBounds.Right * anInch); IntPtr hdc = e.Graphics.GetHdc(); FORMATRANGE fmtRange; fmtRange.chrg.cpMax = charTo; //Indicate character from to character to fmtRange.chrg.cpMin = charFrom; fmtRange.hdc = hdc; //Use the same DC for measuring and rendering fmtRange.hdcTarget = hdc; //Point at printer hDC fmtRange.rc = rectToPrint; //Indicate the area on page to print fmtRange.rcPage = rectPage; //Indicate size of page IntPtr res = IntPtr.Zero; IntPtr wparam = IntPtr.Zero; wparam = new IntPtr(1); //Get the pointer to the FORMATRANGE structure in memory IntPtr lparam= IntPtr.Zero; lparam = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(Marshal.SizeOf(fmtRange)); Marshal.StructureToPtr(fmtRange lparam false); //Send the rendered data for printing res = SendMessage(Handle EM_FORMATRANGE wparam lparam); //Free the block of memory allocated Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(lparam); //Release the device context handle obtained by a previous call e.Graphics.ReleaseHdc(hdc); //Return last + 1 character printer return res.ToInt32(); } } } you will also need to add in the parent form of the richtext box the folowing: private int checkPrint; private void printDocument1_BeginPrint(object sender System.Drawing.Printing.PrintEventArgs e) { checkPrint = 0; } private void printDocument1_PrintPage(object sender System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs e) { // Print the content of RichTextBox. Store the last character printed. checkPrint = richTextBoxPrintCtrl1.Print(checkPrint richTextBoxPrintCtrl1.TextLength e); // Check for more pages if (checkPrint < richTextBoxPrintCtrl1.TextLength) e.HasMorePages = true; else e.HasMorePages = false; } and ofcourse : this.printDocument1.BeginPrint += new System.Drawing.Printing.PrintEventHandler(this.printDocument1_BeginPrint); this.printDocument1.PrintPage += new System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventHandler(this.printDocument1_PrintPage); i'm not fully sure it will actualy help you since i don't know if richtext box suport tables and stuff but it does suport bulleting indenting almoust everything. to answer your other questin .. you will find that PageSettingsDialog has a field Source that is actualy what you need .. feeding tray. just set the PageSettingsDialog.Document to your print document. hope that helps you. i wasted 4 hours finding this a few weeks back when i actualy needed them.