Printing a worksheet with ActiveX controls messes up the controls

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deane Yang
  • Start date Start date
D

Deane Yang

I already posted a message on this. I have a worksheet
with ComboBoxes, OptionButtons, etc. If I try to print
the worksheet, the controls get all moved around.
And I can't even move them back by hand.

I thought that it was another weird symptom of a corrupted
workbook. So I laboriously recreated the whole workbook
again from scratch. Same symptoms.

A search on the web indicates that there have been some
problems with printing HTML pages with ActiveX controls
from IE. But nothing about Excel.

Does anybody out there know anything about this?

This is the second major bug I've discovered with using
ActiveX controls on an Excel worksheet. I'd switch back
to Forms, but I'd lose a lot of formatting capabilities.
How can it be that a newer technology, one that is by now
6 years old, is still so buggy?
 
I have no idea.

But make sure you save before you print. Then you can print, close without
saving and reopen.

I'd try these (but probably just wastes of time...

Clean your windows temp folder. These kinds of controls store stuff in there.
Maybe it's causing confusion.

And try changing your printer (and printer driver).

I don't expect either to work, but if the printer stuff did, see if you can
download a new printer driver from the manufacturer's site.

Good luck,

(Hey, it'll give you something to do!)

And if you protect the worksheet (including objects), and then print, do the
controls get moved?

If no, maybe you can have a Workbook_BeforePrint event that protects, prints and
unprotects that worksheet.

(I told you I didn't have any ideas!)
 
Dave said:
I have no idea.
Click to expand...

Maybe not, but you sure have good suggestions. Thanks!
But make sure you save before you print. Then you can print, close without
saving and reopen.

I'd try these (but probably just wastes of time...

Clean your windows temp folder. These kinds of controls store stuff in there.
Maybe it's causing confusion.

And try changing your printer (and printer driver).

I don't expect either to work, but if the printer stuff did, see if you can
download a new printer driver from the manufacturer's site.

Good luck,

(Hey, it'll give you something to do!)

And if you protect the worksheet (including objects), and then print, do the
controls get moved?

If no, maybe you can have a Workbook_BeforePrint event that protects, prints and
unprotects that worksheet.

(I told you I didn't have any ideas!)
Click to expand...
Then you should definitely post another message when you do have any.
This was very helpful. For example, I probably should have known about
the Workbook_BeforePrint even, but I didn't. I will probably use that.
I have routines that strip the worksheet of the controls and
restore them.
 
Post back with your results. Since I've never seen this behavior, it's
impossible to test.

When you post back, google will have a record--just in case something I
suggested worked or you found a different solution.
 
I posted a message under a different subject, but here
are more details:

- I rebuilt the workbook from scratch, and the problem
still persisted. So it's not a corrupted workbook.
- I had someone else test it on Windows XP and Excel 2000.
It printed fine and did not disturb the controls

So is it possible that this is a problem specific to
Excel XP with the latest Service Pack (I just installed
it)?
 
I wouldn't venture a guess.

Maybe you could install that SP on the other pc to see if it jumbles up that
printing--You may not want to do this if that person needs to print the same
workbook, though.
 
Dave said:
Yep. You're right. But did the offered workaround address your problem.
Click to expand...

Actually, no. The workaround is to allow the controls to resize
according to their contents. So all my controls shrank and looked
terrible. Luckily, I have Excel 97 installed separately on my machine,
and the spreadsheet appears to print fine using that.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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