Smart Print Control (Activex)

[Jim Scott]

I'm considering buying a third party activex component to try and simplify printing from my programs.  The one I'm looking at is at

http://www.vbgold.com/index.shtml#SmartPrintControl

The demo install comes with a file with an ocx extension.  Will EBASIC support this active x control?  If so, what declarations or headers are required so that I can call its functions?

Anybody have any experience with, or opinions about this product?

Jim Scott

[Barney]

Check Don Dickinson's web site and his excellent ddoc product. You can download the free evaluation demo and there's also IBasic (I believe it's for Standard) sample to get you going.

Barney

[Dennisc]

Check Don Dickinson's web site and his excellent ddoc product. You can download the free evaluation demo and there's also IBasic (I believe it's for Standard) sample to get you going.

If you visit the Don's site, it referes to Dennis Comninos having converted the ddoc interface to IB Standard - that's me. I will speak to Don to see if he will allow me to convert ddoc to EBasic. Irrespective, Don's product is great and does the job effectively. Not too sure if he has updated the package since about 2004. In fact, I do not know if he is aware of the existance of EB and this site. He used to be a member of the IB forum - will contact him....

[Jim Scott]

I've looked into that product. Not sure its what I need. 

Actually, all I really need is to just be able to set the margins and orientation of the default printer and print the docs without having a printer dialog popup. 

I have RTF documents created within the code that print just fine in WordPad and OpenOffice in Lanscape mode with Margins set to 0.38 all around.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use the windows API to set the orientation and margins but I'm having difficulty with this at this time.  The RTF specs, that I've been diving into since Paul sent me the link, have provisions for setting orientation and margins, but they don't seem to have any effect within EBASIC's RichEdit control.  Also, can I print a RichEdit document without the Printer dialog showing up?

[John S]

... ddoc interface to IB Standard ...

I revamped your work to IBPro awhile ago.
I just compiled the sample with EBasic and posted it here.  You need ddoc32.dll (as a .lib) to compile this.
I really need to learn how to use this and port it to Aurora.

[Dennisc]

Thanks John. I have downloaded it....

[Jim Scott]

Looked at ddoc some more and I think it should work for my needs after all.  Some great features.  Anyone know how to make it print without the printer dialog or the preview form poping up? 

[Dennisc]

Will look at it or contact Don about it....

[John S]

I printed out the demo and started looking at it.  There may be some variables (fws1, fws2,...) that may be eliminated in EBasic.  I'm going to make some time this week to try some things out.  I also will port the demo over to Aurora.

[Dennisc]

Those variables were used because there was a bug in IB Std passing to a dll or something - can't remember. I put a comment in there somewhere about them.

[John S]

right, it had to do with passing floats as doubles or something.

[Jim Scott]

I went to Don's site and tried to buy the license for ddoc but haven't gotten notification of the purchase in email.  No charges have appeared at my bank either.  In fact I may have paid for it twice.  Is Don still around? 

[Dennisc]

Wow, don't know - I haven't had contact with him since late 2003. Will send him an email to see if he is still around....

[Dennisc]

Sent him an email - lets see if he responds....

[John S]

I think I bought my copy of DDoc in middle or late 2005

[Barney]

The full version is still available at www.greatwebdivide.com/software.htm and the password I received whan I purchased it back in November 2004 is still valid, so someone should be behind it.

Barney

[Dennisc]

Just checked, my last contact with him was 12/02/2005.... (12 Feb to all of you from the USA and not 2nd December  )