Windows printer to approve before printing

[djreiswig]

This question is not Excel related in any way, but I thought there might be a possibility that someone on this forum might be able to lead me in the right direction.

Basically what I am looking for is a way to intercept things going to a printer and only print the jobs that I want. The background behind this question is that we have a program that as part of its operation prints labels. The problem is that I only want to print certain labels. Each label is a separate print job on a zebra(?) printer. I am looking for a way to be able to approve each label before it is sent to the printer and then decide whether I want to print it or not. Something like a print preview with an OK/Cancel option would be nice. Or just the OK/Cancel as I have another display in the program that will let me know what the label will say.

I'm imagining a windows printer that I can choose in our program that will accept the print jobs, and then has a setting for the label printer where the labels will be sent if they are approved to be printed.

Any ideas?

 

[Macropod]

Hi djreiswig,

MS Word can connect to most databases for the purposes of performing a mailmerge. Given that, you should be able to simply bypass the existing label production applet in your 'large commercial program' and use the tools Word provides.

As for printing to PDF, per shg's suggestion, that should require nothing more than selecting a PDF 'printer'. The fact it's not a physical printer should be immaterial.

 

[djreiswig]

You don't understand the whole idea. Okay, I'll explain further...This is part of a large sorting program. We have items in our factory that have RFID chips embedded in them for sorting and tracking purposes. The machine that is used to sort the items has a computer running the large database program. (I'm fairly certain that the database format is proprietary.) The machine scans the chip and the database program tells the operator where the item goes in the storage or delivery area (the sorting part I mentioned). It then prints a label to put on the item with a unique barcode that is later scanned for other purposes. We only want the barcode labels printed for certain items. There is no way from within the program to do this. It will either print all of the labels or none. So I was trying to find a way to intercept the labels before they are actually printed and cancel them when I don't want them.

Maybe that will steer this back in the direction I was headed.

 

[Macropod]

Hi djreiswig,

You don't understand the whole idea. Okay, I'll explain further...

Obviously, if you don't provide the relevant info, the responses you get can't be expected to take such issues into account.

Now that you've given the relevant info, it's apparent that a mailmerge won't do the job.

Assuming your application allows you to choose which printer to print to, I'd suggest installing a PDF printer driver (eg via Adobe Acrobat Pro) and using that as the application's printer. If labels are produced one at a time, a PDF will be produced for each label. You can then choose whether the to print that PDF on a real printer. If labels are produced in bulk with one page per label, a PDF will be produced for each batch. You can then choose which PDF pages to print on a real printer. If there are multiple labels per page, you're probably still going to have to print some unwanted labels.

In effect, you'd be using the PDF 'printer' as the application that allows you to preview and select which labels get printed. I doubt that you'll get anything that does better than this.

 

[djreiswig]

Obviously, if you don't provide the relevant info, the responses you get can't be expected to take such issues into account.

I thought I was pretty clear the direction I was trying to go. I dismissed the mailmerge and pdf options early on in this discussion. I did not think it was necessary to go into the entire functionality of the process. Guess I was wrong.

The process you describe is what I want to do, but I would like to not have to take so many steps to get a label printed or not printed. Ideally it would be automatic, but I know that won't work.

This scanning/printing process is in a factory/production environment with non technical employees so they don't have the skills/time to be messing with a pdf printer. Good idea though, and it would have the desired results. Just too slow/complicated for what I need. I'm working with the guy who wrote the print manager program that I posted the link to earlier. I think this seems to be my most promising solution. The way it is written, it is the most functional solution. It will be even better if it can be modified and simplified.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[obiron]

What determines whether you want a label or not.

Have you discussed with the application vendor whether there is a field in the product database that indicates whether a label should be printed.

What environment are you working in (Windows, Novell, Ctrix, Unix, AS400 etc..) as some platforms have print queues than can be diverted to different printers. E.g. you may have a print Q for despatch notes that actually prints to a bank of 4 laser printers. It may be possible to configure the print Q so that you an discard the print file either manually or on some sort of rule.

does the requirement for labels come in batches (i.e. you will get 20 than need a label then 10 that dont then 12 that do then 8 that don't etc..) or is it effectively random.

Could you just turn off the printer and then manually delete the files from the Q.

 

[djreiswig]

The labels only need to be printed for certain delivery routes. I'm sure there is information in the database program for this, but getting the company to modify the program is expensive and time consuming, and that is just not an option at this point. I need to find a way to do this without any modifications.

This is running Windows XP. I don't know of any way external to the database to determine what labels to print. I don't think there is a way to send certain labels to the printer and discard others automatically. I'm not sure there would be a way to find out from the information in the print job to know this. As I said above, I can't control what labels print from within the program itself, they all print and I need to filter them out manually.

The printing of the labels is done one by one as items are scanned into the computer. They are random.

I know there are plenty of ways to head off the printing. I can turn off the printer and then go in and delete the print job. But the people running this operation don't have the expertise to do this, nor do we want them wasting their time messing around with this. It is a production environment so the solution needs to be as automatic as possible. I would like it to be as simple as them touching a button on the touchscreen and it will print or discard the label and let them move on to the next item.

I have made contact with the individual that wrote the print manager program that I posted the link to, but since the initial contact I have not heard anything. I believe this type of program would be my best option, however in its current form it takes too many operations to get the desired results.

If anyone knows of a program similar to this that I can download, or knows how to interact with the windows print manager through the API, I would be very interested. I have VB5 that I could probably use to construct what I need, but I don't know how to interact with the print manager.

If anyone knows how to get a hold of Ha****ha Subasinghe, please let me know. His e-mail address is in the program, but I haven't heard back from him again. Not sure if he is away or what.

Thanks.

 

[obiron]

how many labels are we talking about
what is the implication of attaching a label to a product where it is not required.

From what you have said, being unwilling to do the job 'properly' by getting the application modified, I think you will just have to put up with rogue labels.

 

[djreiswig]

Not sure on the quantity of labels that would be wasted. I know over time it will be significant. The only implication of attaching an unwanted label would be wasting the label.

I did finally get in contact with Hashi and he has a good start on a solution/workaround for me. Thank you all for your help.

 

[obiron]

If the solution is something generic, please share it with the community.

 

[djreiswig]

I'll certainly ask if it is okay with the author if I share it. Someone might have to enlighten me on how to get it posted.