Links for resources on PDF Tools

Access 2007 Has PDF support built in thru a Microsoft Add-In

Download the 2007 PDF driver from here (first you have to install some version validation software from Microsoft)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

 Once installed, here is the vba code to export to PDF 

DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputReport, "All Open Projects", _
  "PDFFormat(*.pdf)", "c:\afile.pdf", False, "", 0, acExportQualityPrint
 

Once installed, here is the code to convert to PDF  and email someone the file.  Pretty simple really

DoCmd.SendObject acReport, "All Open Projects", _
 "PDFFormat(*.pdf)", "BlaBlaBla@blablabla.com", "", "", "subject line", "bla bla ", True, ""

Download and read more on save as PDF in Office 2007

Older Versions Of Access

Read our review of Nitro Pro PDF

Our readers gave us some other ideas on PDF tools after the following article at vb123.com (in no particular order)
Save Reports As PDF Files From Access

http://www.docu-track.com/

3)  "I was just scrounging around your site and noticed the page
on using Adobe Distiller to generate PDFs

As I am cheap, I use   Win2PDF to do the same thing. www.win2pdf.com
I think it was about $20.00.  Might be worth your readers taking a look at.
 

4) And yet another low cost alternative

http://www.pdf995.com/

Sarah writes.  I can expand on the PDF995 entry (no. 4)

There is a free version but a) you get popups which you wouldn't want to inflict on a client and b) it won't run silently

The paid version costs under £10 per seat

"How can I set up PDF995 as a shared network printer?" http://www.pdf995.com/faq.html

Code to make it run silently (must be installed on each pc)
http://www.freeware995.com/misc/vbacode.txt

Had a few hiccups over write permissions to the PDF shared folder but otherwise works a treat considering the price!

5) May I direct you to another piece of PDF software, 100% free and very easy to install: it involves two files, one of which is an installation wizard.  The end result is a virtual PDF printer that can be used anywhere in the Windows environment.  The program is called CutePDF and is pretty basic - you don't get all the options you find in Acrobat, but you do get a good PDF document.  Kind regards,  Gabriel

http://www.cutepdf.com/

6) I came across your recommendations for printing to pdf and thought I'd make one more suggestion....

I use a relatively inexpensive yet very robust program called docuPrinter Pro from www.neevia.com.

It is not only fast and cooperates well with other programs, but has a lots of options (watermark, background, security) and can even be used as an ActiveX control....

A Simple example:

Set dp = CreateObject("docuPrinter.SDK")
Dim defprinter
defprinter = dp.GetDefaultPrinter
dp.SetDefaultPrinter ("docuPrinter")
dp.ApplySettings

Set dp = CreateObject("docuPrinter.SDK")
dp.HideSaveAsWindow = True
dp.DocumentOutputFolder = Me.txtFolder
dp.DocumentOutputFormat = "PDF"
sFileName = Trim(oSet(Me.SourceForFilenames).Value & "")
sFileName = Util.FileNameFixer(sFileName) '
removes invalid filename characters
If sFileName = "" Then sFileName = "NoName"
dp.DocumentOutputName = sFileName
dp.ViewDocumentAfterConversion = False
dp.ApplySettings

DoCmd.OpenReport Me.cboReports.Value
dp.Create

dp.SetDefaultPrinter (defprinter)
dp.HideSaveAsWindow = False
dp.ApplySettings
MsgBox "Finished"
Shell "explorer """ & Me.txtFolder & """", vbMaximizedFocus



And a more complicated example (which hopefully works as I removed stuff for this example)

Sub Print2PDF(sReportName As String, sPDFFileName As String, Optional bDeleteAnyExistingFileFirst As Boolean, Optional sFormOverlayPathFileName As String, Optional sWhere As String, Optional bPrintPreview As Boolean, Optional bOpenPDFWhenDone As Boolean)
Dim sFileName As String, nFileLen As Long

If Not Util.Exists("Report", sReportName) Then
MsgBox "Unable to find report: " & sReportName
Exit Sub
End If
If IsEmpty2(sPDFFileName) Then
MsgBox "expecting Print2PDF() to give a PDF Filename other than blank, using Test"
sPDFFileName = "Test"
End If

sFileName = "C:\" & sPDFFileName & ".pdf"
If File(sFileName) Then
Kill sFileName
DoEvents
If File(sFileName) Then
MsgBox "Please close the file: " & sFileName
Kill sFileName
DoEvents
End If
End If


'Dim dp as Object ' does not require
pre-registration, but you loose auto-complete functionality
Dim dp As docuprinter.SDK ' optional - allows
autocomplete, however requires pre-registration of the docuprint.dll
Set dp = CreateObject("docuPrinter.SDK")
dp.HideSaveAsWindow = True
dp.DocumentOutputFolder = "C:\"
dp.DocumentOutputFormat = "PDF"
dp.DocumentOutputName = sPDFFileName
dp.ViewDocumentAfterConversion = bOpenPDFWhenDone
dp.DefaultAction = 2

' background/watermark (tax form)
If Not IsEmpty2(sFormOverlayPathFileName) Then
If File(GL.gsTDir(True) & sFormOverlayPathFileName) Then
dp.StationeryFile = GL.gsTDir(True) & sFormOverlayPathFileName
dp.StationeryPages = "0"
Else
dp.StationeryPages = ""
End If
Else
dp.StationeryPages = ""
End If
dp.ApplySettings

On Error Resume Next
Dim nPreview As Long
If bPrintPreview Then
nPreview = A_PREVIEW
nPreview = acViewPreview
Else
nPreview = A_NORMAL
nPreview = acViewNormal
End If

If Trim(sWhere) = "" Then
DoCmd.OpenReport sReportName, nPreview
Else
DoCmd.OpenReport sReportName, nPreview, , sWhere
End If

If Err.Number <> 0 And Err.Number <> 2501 Then ' 2501 when there is no data to print and the report closed itself
MsgBox "Unable to open the report named: " & sReportName & " ERROR " & Err.Number & " occurred:" & Err.Description
Exit Sub
End If

On Error Resume Next
If bPrintPreview Then
If Screen.ActiveReport.NAME = sReportName Then
If Err.Number <> 0 Then Exit Sub 'the report is already closed
DoEvents
If vbYes = MsgBox("Send this report to the printer now?", 4 + 32, "Print or Preview") Then
AppActivate "MyProgram" 'in case LotusNotes
changed focus
SendKeys "%FP{Enter}", True
End If
End If
Else
DoEvents
If Util.IsOpen(acReport, sReportName) Then
DoCmd.Close acReport, sReportName, acSaveNo
End If
End If

dp.Create
End Sub

Kevin

7) l noticed, that you have not mentioned the recent update / release from Stephen Lebans, about creating PDF's The details can be found at the page http://www.lebans.com/reporttopdf.htm

My one of the challenges for one of my applications, is to produce PDF's but often large numbers of them at a time. My users will printed anywhere from 1 to 100 reports at a one sitting. Each report consists of 1 or max of 2 pages. Each one refers to a room within a building, when they are produced they each need a unique name (let the nightmare begin !) I resolved that issue, so that each report has its own individual name.

However actually producing the PDF was another story, distiller was not even in the picture my company already has a PDF printer driver installed, which does not seem to have a programmatic interface :-( So l had to find another way, which l did using Ghostscript and a little bit of VB to press a button (this was a year ago, before l saw the your latest tip). However this was cumbersome, and not ideal, the code for it was not the best. When saw the page on Stephen Lebans site (via a note on UtterAccess) l could not believe my eyes. All l can say is it works, and very well, meaning l no longer have to install GhostScript on the clients machine or mess around with virtual printer drivers etc.

His method might not suit everyone, but its ideal my application, and has given me much, much, much fewer support issues. Just means my users now want other funky features, typical architects ;-)  Robert

8) FreePDF XP

Hi Garry

We use and recommend this free tool, FreePDF XP, very nice:

http://freepdfxp.de/fpxp.htm

It's in German but the manual (e) is in English an language can be selected to English. It uses Ghostscript as well.

/gustav

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