printing excel sheet from visual basic 6

Question

I need to programmatically send an Excel spreadsheet to our default printer. Is it possible to do this without human interaction?

I can use the PrintFile command to print a text file without an issue, but I cannot get Excel to print this way.

How can I print an Excel document in VB6?

Answer 1

Here is a basic template for printing with Excel:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
   Dim ExcelApp As Excel.Application
   Set ExcelApp = New Excel.Application
   ExcelApp.Visible = False
   ExcelApp.Workbooks.Open "c:\temp\test.xlsx"
   
   'print the workbook
   Dim ExcelBook As Excel.Workbook
   Set ExcelBook = ExcelApp.ActiveWorkbook
   ExcelBook.PrintOut
   
   'print a worksheet
   Dim ExcelSheet As Excel.Worksheet
   Set ExcelSheet = ExcelApp.Sheets(1)
   ExcelSheet.PrintOut

   ExcelApp.Quit
End Sub

Of course, you will need to set a Reference to Microsoft Excel X.X Object Library.