Working With Multiple Printers Using WordBasic

You already know that Windows supports multiple printers. Using Word with multiple printers can be a bother, however, since you must choose Print from the File menu, change the printer, and then print the document. There is a way that you can have one-click printing of your documents on a designated printer. To do this, simply create a macro that changes the printer and then prints the document.

If you are using Word 6 or Word 95, the following WordBasic macro will do the trick for you:

Sub MAIN
FilePrintSetup .Printer = "Epson 600", .DoNotSetAsSysDefault = 1
FilePrint .Range = "0", .Type = 0, .NumCopies = "1"
End Sub

If you are using Word 6 you should delete the .DoNotSetAsSysDefault option. (If you don't delete it, Word will generate an error. If you don't include it in Word 95, then your system printer gets changed. What a pain.)

The trick is to create a macro for each of the printers you use. You can then modify your toolbar so that each printer has its own print button. When you then click on the button, the appropriate macro is run and you get output on the desired printer.