Has anyone ever had a need to batch print PDF's without user interaction via VB?  The issue is primarily one of speed and flexibility.  Ideally, I need to be able to add a Doc Id to each PDF before printing.  We are looking at processing 4000+ PDF's daily, or about a million per year.

More needs:

need the ability to batch print ALL (not just one) the pdf's that reside in a particular directory using Visual Basic

approximately 4,000 pdf's per day

must be in a batch mode.  No user interaction

ability to print a header or one line at the top of each printed pdf

Windows 2000 operating system

Must be able to route this to several printers

Is this possible?  Can you provide sample vb code?  The batch part is the key piece to this, as well as speed and flexibility.

I have not had much luck with ActivePDF and am hesitant to buy full version of Acrobat if it won't meet our needs.

Any advice or suggestions?

Never tried to do what you're wanting, but here's some general info on what is in Adobe Acrobat (no specifics, since I don't do what you are wanting):

The full version of Adobe Acrobat has the acrobat distiller that can "watch folders" and creating PDF files. It watches folders for postscript files (And others). I've never used it.

Adobe itself has a batch processing option where you can use the prdefined, or create a new. One of the options that can be used is "print". Again, I've never used, but you might find details on Adobe's site.


Offhand though, if you have the funds for it, I'd buy the full version anyway. Nothing else, it can save paper (documents saved as a PDF file are printed to it, so you save via printing [it's a PDF printer]). Which is helpful, especially if you set the default printer to Adobe's.

Good question.

I am having similar problems in that I am trying to batch print 10 bespoke reports packs of upto 50 reports.

The problem is that larger reports take longer to hit the print queue than shorter ones, meaning they are executed in sequence but not printed as such. Does anyone know a cheeky function for:

Check the active window,

Do
If the WindowName is not "Acrobat Reader"
  Then Sleep (3000)
else
  .MoveNext
Loop
I have tried several variants of this with no success...


Code too long to post, but will be happy to if you think you can help...

Do a search for checking print jobs (the code is somewhere, can't remember offhand, may be on www.andreavb.com actually)

Enumerate the print jobs, then send the reports one after another, AFTER the prior has completed, or hit a "printing" status.

IE: 'Not actual code, just an example Private Sub Print()     SendFirstReport     Do         Do             DoEvents         Loop Until PrintJob("Name of report")="Printing" ' OR "Completed", or Doesn't exist         SendNextReport     Loop Until AllReportsSent End Sub

[Edited by JLRodgers on 10-12-2002 at 01:42 PM GMT]

I hear ya JL, but there are too many gaps for my newbie head. I can enumerate the outstanding jobs (from AndreaVB.com,   )

But how do I get into the array that contains all the good stuff. Once I can get that, I'll have no trouble searching for a passed string.

P.S. Your pseudo code is exactly what I'm trying to do, but can't fathom how to write the PrintJob("Document") = exists part.

Thanks in advance.

What's below wouldn't be optimized, but would give you an idea

' the JobDesc() array is public, so you have access to it here Private Enum ePrintStatus     PS_PRINTING     PS_WAITING     PS_NOTEXIST End Enum Private CurrentPrintDocument As String ' With the code that is at andreavb Private Function PrintStatus(ByVal JobName As String) As ePrintStatus     Dim i As Integer      ' Default     PrintStatus = PS_NOTEXIST          If GetPrinterQueue("PrinterName") > 0 Then 'Jobs exist         For i = LBound(JobsDesc()) To UBound(JobsDesc())             If JobsDesc(i).pDocument = JobName Then             ' Below isn't actual code for the line, not sure what the status             ' return will look like for which                 If JobsDesc(i).Status = Print_Status_Code Then                     PrintStatus = PS_PRINTING                 Else                     PrintStatus = PS_WAITING                 End If             End If         Next     End If End Function ' Not actual code, but to show how to use Private Sub PrintDocument()     CodeTo_SendFirstReport ' store document name in CurrentPrintDocument     Do         Do             DoEvents         Loop Until PrintStatus(CurrentPrintDocument) = PS_NOTEXIST         CodeTo_SendNextReport ' store document name in CurrentPrintDocument     Loop Until AllReportsSent End Sub

Never mind answering the above.

Q. What is a moustache
A. Somthing that's right under your nose

Lesson 1: Never try to code under the influence of Benylin Expectorant.......

Thanks JL -

Sorry you got your post in before my reply.

Just read through your post - A 'bit' more robust/agile/scalable than my effort.

Thanks a million.