You probably can't control the *printer* from an application, but you could
very well might be able to control the *application* that's printing from
an application. Let's work with MS Word:
I'm going to assume that FoxPro can initiate a DDE conversation. Take a
look at
http://msdn.microsoft.com and navigate to the following page:
MSDN Home
MSDN Library
Microsoft Office
Communicating with other applications
Then take note of the following registry key in your computer:
HKEY_C_R
Word.Document.8
Shell
Print
Under DDEEXEC, there's this conversation:
[REM _DDE_Minimize]
[FileOpen("%1")]
[t=IsDocumentDirty()]
[FilePrint 0]
[SetDocumentDirty t]
[DocClose]
The Print item on the context menu results in a command line equivalent of:
<path>/winword.exe /x <filename>
There's also PrintTo (just after Print) that has this additional DDE word:
[FilePrintSetup "%2 on p",.DoNotSetAsSysDefault=1]
I'm to take a wild guess that %2 is realized if a .DOC file object is
dropped on a printer object. But that's just a wild guess. (You're the
programmer. <grin>)
So there may be other DDE words, like FilePrintRange???
A Visual Basic statement *may* look like this (haven't tried it):
ActiveDocument.PrintOut _
Range:=wdPrintFromTo, From:="1", To:="5"
