Printing control - duplex, paper source, number of copies, etc.

[jbrown]

In the TX Words application, the 'File / Print...' menu item displays a dialog box from which I can change the number of copies to be printed. I can also use the 'Properties...' button on that dialog to display another dialog box where I can change the Duplex setting (single/double-sided) and the Paper Source (or Tray Selection). This works satisfactorily for TX Text Control version 10.1. I can also confirm that it works satisfactorily in a trial version 13.0 which I still have available. However, in version 14.0, changes made in these dialog boxes are ignored when the document is printed. The 14.0 control is apparently using the specifications from the Printing Defaults of the printer.

This is also occurring in our applications, which is of considerable significance to our clients. They have come to rely on controlling these settings for their printouts by using a dialog box which we provide. The dialog box is similar to the one that appears in TX Words. The application obtains a printer device context from the dialog box, sets the control's PrintDevice property from that value and then calls the PrintDoc method to do the printing. PrintDoc is apparently ignoring the settings selected in the dialog box.

I appreciate that there are some natural conflicts in the use of the control, including:

1. The number of copies selected via the dialog box is presumably available in the device context, but it is also specified via the last parameter of the PrintDoc method. It is not clear what is supposed to happen when these values are different. It appears that, in version 10.1, the device context value was used.

2. With the upgrade to version 14.0 and the introduction of sections with independent paper sizes and orientations, it seems appropriate that changes to these attributes should be ignored (they were honored in version 10.1). However, there isn't any way, as far as I am aware, to specify other attributes such as paper source or duplex for individual sections. In any case, at the time of composing the document (which is likely to be a template for a later mail-merge operation), the actual printer to be used will not be known, so it is often necessary to override default settings. Furthermore, in some environments, users are not allowed to change their printing defaults, so they depend on changing the document defaults. They may also want to print additional copies on occasion.

Please create a support case for this problem.

I look forward to a solution for the printing problems which our clients are experiencing when using version 14.0. Otherwise, they are pleased with the new functionality which this version provides.

Regards,
Julian Brown.