Disable print screen button

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

How can I disable the print screen button? I want to prevent users from
hitting the button to paste a screen shot into Word.

If it can't be fully disabled, can the button {PRTSC} be assigned to a macro
or event procedure? In that case, I could use a msgbox to inform the users
that the button is disabled and they must use the Print Report button on the
form.

Thanks for any help!

Lisa
 
This is a Windows function that I don't think you can disable. If you did,
there are plenty of third-part products that would allow the user to capture
a screen image.
 
There's nothing built-in to Access that would disable the print screen key.
It *might* be possible to call an API function do to it, but I suspect you'd
be wasting your time. As Rick says elsewhere in this thread, there are
shareware screen capture utilities readily available. These utilities allow
the user to choose which keys will activate the utility.

I'm at home right now, and don't have ready access to a printer, so I can
only test this in Print Preview, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't
work ...

Place a label on your form. Enter a space as the caption. Stretch the label
so that it fills the inside of the form, covering all other controls. Use
the brink to front command to make sure the label is in front of all other
controls. Set it's background colour to white. Now change the 'Display When'
property of the label (you'll find it on the Format tab in the Properties
window) to Print Only. Change the form's Dividing Lines property to No if
you haven't already.

The label will be invisible in normal use, but if users try to print the
form, they'll get a blank page.
 
I'm not concerned with screen-cap shareware. The network and desktops are
locked down, users cannot install software on their pcs. Besides, I highly
doubt any of them are astute enough to find shareware to download! :)

I tried the label technique you described, but it doesn't prevent the form
from showing up when Print Screen is pressed.

I'll research the API route. Thanks!
 
Darn! Now that I think about it, it's kind of obvious that Print Screen and
printing from the form are not the same thing, so my idea is not going to
work in that scenario. I just hate it when a good idea falls apart in the
face of reality! :-(

Good luck with the API search.
 
Forms

I've seen several of these such posts and have a similar problem which I think IS solveable. My interest is in disabling the ability to print a FORM. Security is not a concern, the form is linked to many records and my users keep printing the form instead of the report thus wasting many pages. Is there a way to disable the printing of the form without regard to screen capturing or otherwise?
 
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