Trying to print a report, but get the print of the form instead, and it's for all records

[louise]

Hello,


One of my users has reported a problem that I am unable toreproduce.I am hoping you can give mesome help.

We have a form for entering registration information, andthen a button (created with the wizard) to create a report/letter to that member,listing that person’s registration information along with various other text.The letter opens in Print Preview, she looksit over, and then on the command line, she clicks Print.

Sometimes (but not always) an error occurs and she gets aprint out of the form for each record in the dataset.At first I thought she was clicking Print directlyfrom the form, without having the letter in front of her, but she swears not;she is looking at the person’s letter.

Now, I have learned that another user – with a different datasetentirely, different printer, and even a different approach to generating thereport (this time through an event command, On Click), had a similar problem.When looking at her report on the screen, sheclicked on Print and selected “Print Back and Front” and only some pages – and shegot the same thing:all the forms, not the report.

Any help or leads would be greatly appreciated!Thanks

[ItsMe]

I use VBA to print reports. You can place code behind a Command Button and send a report straight to the default printer. The trick would be applying a filter to the report so it only prints the desired records. Here is an example that uses a date range.

Dim strWhere As String
strWhere = "[MyDateField] BETWEEN #" & Me.TextBoxName1 & "# AND #" & Me.TextBoxName2 & "#"
DoCmd.OpenReport "ReportName", acViewNormal, , strWhere

PS
IIRC, acViewNormal will send the report straight to the printer and acViewPreview will open the report in Print Preview mode.

[June7]

Which won't serve if user wants to review report first.

What do you mean by 'error occurs' - the error is the printing of form or is there an error message popup?

What do you mean by 'command line' - button on QAT bar?

Somehow, the report is losing focus in favor of the form.

[ItsMe]

Which won't serve if user wants to review report first.

I am having difficulty putting this in context. Can you elaborate?

[June7]

OP stated "opens in Print Preview, she looksit over, and then on the command line, she clicks Print".

[ItsMe]

OP stated "opens in Print Preview, she looksit over, and then on the command line, she clicks Print".

Still confused. If the statement is in response to my post #2, the statement seems rather dismissive to me. I thought this was worth mentioning in case you did not intend it to be. Also, I did state in post #2 how to use code to open a report in print preview.

[June7]

Not meant to be dismissive. Just trying to point out to OP that acViewNormal would not first present the report to user to look over. It is certainly an option but doesn't seem like it would meet the needs in this situation.

[ItsMe]

... It is certainly an option but doesn't seem like it would meet the needs in this situation.

Well, I certainly disagree. Code will either send the report directly to the printer or offer a print preview. While in print preview, any interaction with a print command will print the report.

[June7]

So are you suggesting a button to open report in print preview and another to print to printer?

I still wonder what OP means by "command line".

[ItsMe]

So are you suggesting a button to open report in print preview and another to print to printer?

You would not need a second command button to print from print preview. IIRC, Print Preview is modal and the only thing you can do is zoom, navigate from one page to the next, close, and print. I would venture to guess that if the QAT is still visible it, too, would print the Report. So the User would not have to be retrained.

The downside to using the code would be building the code and implementing it in the OP's app. As long as they are willing to try it, I feel confident we can help to build the code.


EDIT: and yeah, not sure what command line is but I would guess the command tool for printing is what they are describing.

.

[louise]

Which won't serve if user wants to review report first.

What do you mean by 'error occurs' - the error is the printing of form or is there an error message popup?

What do you mean by 'command line' - button on QAT bar?

Somehow, the report is losing focus in favor of the form.

Hello, Thanks for your response,
- When I said an "error occurs" I meant that the form screen for all records occurs, not that a formal error message appears.
- By "command line", I meant the Ribbon -- the Print Preview ribbon is showing after the report is opened with the button on the form, and I was referring to the Print option on that ribbon.

So, what do you think would make the report lose focus? I do have it set up so that the form remains open, since we return to it for other entries after the letter prints. But this happens when she is looking at the letter/report, not the form.

Here is the code behind the form's button: (so I was not correct in saying this button was set up with the wizard.)
Private Sub butPreviewLetter_Click()
'Print Preview Current Record's Letter
'using [RPTMembers-LetterWithCourseSelections]
If IsNull(Me!MembInfoID) Then
MsgBox "Please select a valid record", _
vbOKOnly, "Error"
Exit Sub
End If
DoCmd.RefreshRecord
DoCmd.OpenReport "RptMembers-LetterWithCourseSelections", acViewPreview, , "MembInfoID = " & Me!MembInfoID
End Sub


And on the Properties of the report, the filter is, for example, MemberInfoID = 95. The "filter on load" is set to No, "Allow Filters" is set to yes.

Thanks for any help!

[June7]

No idea why the form is printing. Never had this issue.

I have reports open to preview and user can print with the ribbon button just fine. Since I cannot replicate the issue, would have to work with your db.

[louise]

Hello, Again,.... still thinking about this issue, which is difficult since I cannot replicate it.
I am wondering if the focus is perhaps never actually on the report or if the focus is somehow lost when it goes to the filter (which refers back to the form to determine which record to print). Or, if by using the "print" button on the ribbon, the control is somehow lost from the report or stays with the form. Or is the "save record" command diverting the focus?

Is there a way to put in a line of code that explicitly sets the focus onto the print preview report before the user clicks "print'? I have inserted the code below. (I don't know much coding, so I can't defend this! Any suggestions would be welcome!) Thanks!
Private Sub butPreviewLetter_Click()
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdSaveRecord
'Print Preview Current Record's Letter
'using [RPTMembers-LetterWithCourseSelections]
If IsNull(Me!MembInfoID) Then
MsgBox "Please select a valid record", _
vbOKOnly, "Error"
Exit Sub
End If
DoCmd.OpenReport "RptMembers-LetterWithCourseSelections", acViewPreview, , "MembInfoID = " & Me!MembInfoID
End Sub

[orange]

I'm not sure why the form is printing. How much testing did you do ?
Can you post a copy of the database with some sample data and instructions to lead us to the "problem area"?

Have you tried some debugging/debug.prints or stepping through the code?

[ItsMe]

.


The whole thing is rather simple. After this line of code executes

DoCmd.OpenReport "RptMembers-LetterWithCourseSelections", acViewPreview, , "MembInfoID = " & Me!MembInfoID

the report will open in print preview and the report will have focus. If the very next thing the user does is click the print button, either from the Ribbon or the QAT, the report will print. If the user clicks on another object before clicking an Access intrinsic print button, the other object will have focus and the other object, as long as it can be printed, will be queued to the printer. So the user needs to be informed of these facts.

Another approach would be to offer a command button that sends the report straight to the printer. To do this, you would alter your existing code by changing acViewPreview to acViewNormal