Printer Dialog Box (XP SP1)

[farscape_fan]

Would anyone know if it's possible to get Outlook (or any other MSO Program) to use IE's Printer Dialog Box instead of MSO's? Our Boss thinks the ability to view multiple printers at once is better than having to scroll down a list. Could this be done via a Macro, or would VBA be required? Or is it simply not possible to override MSO's own Printer Dialog?

Any information would be greatly appreciatad.

Thanks in advance. [img]/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[jscher2000]

Interestingly, on Windows 2000 I get the same "big list box" printer dialog in Notepad and Paint, so it appears to be a "generic" windows dialog. There are ways to use generic windows dialogs, but emulating all of the functionality available through the Office dialogs might be more trouble than it's worth, particularly because each application is different! As an alternative, you could intercept the print command in the application and present a list box displaying all the printers, and then call up the print dialog. This isn't hard in Word or Excel, but I'm not sure how one would do it in Outlook. (I don't think it is possible in Outlook 2000, but XP might have a richer object model.)

[farscape_fan]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, I'm no VB programmer. The most I could have hoped for was a Macro that could 'call' this Dialog Box. As you point out, though, a lot of functionality could be lost by using this Dialog Box.

One thing that I have NEVER understood about MS is the way they have these teeny-weeny Dialog Boxes in Office.
XP was the 1st version that allowed you to Resize the Open and Save Dialog Boxes --- the most important, need-to-be-resized-so-you-can-see-as-many-files-as-possible Dialog Boxes????

It is without a doubt, MS' worst GUI. Now that I think about the suggestion for using IE's Dialog Box, as it shows more Printers, this would be another change MS should make in Office 11: Namely, make the Open and Save Dialogs fill the screen, and make the Printer Dialog so that you can see multiple Printers at once.

Anyway, I digress.

Thanks again for the post. Much appreciated.