Question

I am getting “There is a printer error.” when tying to send a print job to a printer using automation on Windows 7 with Word 2010. Same code works fine on Windows XP box with Word 2007. I am not sure if Windows 7 or word 2010 is causing the error.

Any help appreciated

using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
.....

object oWordbasic = wordDoc.Application.WordBasic;

object[] argValues = new object[] { value, 1  }; //first arg is a printer name
String[] argNames = new String[] { "Printer", "DoNotSetAsSysDefault", };

//Error Here
oWordbasic.GetType().InvokeMember("FilePrintSetup", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, oWordbasic, argValues, null, null, argNames);

I get the Error Below

System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException was caught
  Message=Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
  Source=mscorlib
  StackTrace:
       at System.RuntimeType.InvokeDispMethod(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Object target, Object[] args, Boolean[] byrefModifiers, Int32 culture, String[] namedParameters)
       at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
       at PBP.ABC.Framework.Wrappers.Microsoft.Word.WordDocument.set_ActivePrinterName(String value) in 
  InnerException: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
       HelpLink=wdmain11.chm#24696
       Message=There is a printer error.
       Source=Microsoft Word
       ErrorCode=-2146827168
       InnerException: 

If I leave out the printer parameters, the invoke work but not printing to the printer specified. It will print to the default printer.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Might work for you – this is what I had to do in Word to print without changing the active printer, I was getting an error and found that sometimes Word liked just the printer name and other times wanted to also have the port.

… to get the printer names and ports use InstalledPrinter as below

private InstalledPrinter PreferredPrinter { get; set; }
private InstalledPrinter DefaultPrinter { get; set; }

    private void SetDefaultAndPreferredPrinters()
    {
        if (UserSettings[SETTING_PREFERRED_PRINTER] == null)
        {
            UserSettings[SETTING_PREFERRED_PRINTER] = string.Empty;
        }
        _preferredPrinterName = ((string)UserSettings[SETTING_PREFERRED_PRINTER]).Trim();

        List<InstalledPrinter> installedPrinters = InstalledPrinter.GetList();

        DefaultPrinter = null;
        PreferredPrinter = null;

        foreach (InstalledPrinter installedPrinter in installedPrinters)
        {
            if (installedPrinter.IsDefault)
            {
                DefaultPrinter = installedPrinter;
            }
            if (installedPrinter.Name.Equals(_preferredPrinterName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
            {
                PreferredPrinter = installedPrinter;
            }
        }
    }

public enum PrinterStatus{
  Other = 1,
  Unknown,
  Idle,
  Printing,
  Warmup,
  Stopped,
  Offline,
  Degraded
}

public class InstalledPrinter{

        private static readonly ILog _s_logger =
        LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

public string DriverName { get; set; }

public string Location { get; set; }

public string Name { get; set; }

public bool Network { get; set; }

public string PortName { get; set; }

public string ServerName { get; set; }

public bool Shared { get; set; }

public PrinterStatus Status { get; set; }

public bool WorkOffline { get; set; }

public bool IsDefault { get; set; }

public static List<InstalledPrinter> GetList()
{
    PrinterSettings ps = new PrinterSettings();
        string sDefault = ps.PrinterName;

    string query = "Select * From Win32_Printer";

    ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(query);

    ManagementObjectCollection results = searcher.Get();

    List<InstalledPrinter> list = new List<InstalledPrinter>(results.Count);

    foreach (ManagementObject printManagementObject in results)
    {
        InstalledPrinter entry = new InstalledPrinter();

        foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in typeof(InstalledPrinter).GetProperties()) {
            object[] oparams = {1};
            if (propertyInfo.Name != "IsDefault") {//The IsDefault property is worked out logically, the rest of the properties map identically to the columns of the WMI query results.
                try {
                    oparams[0] = ConvertValue(
                        printManagementObject[propertyInfo.Name], propertyInfo.PropertyType);
                    propertyInfo.GetSetMethod().Invoke(
                        entry,
                        oparams);
                }catch(Exception e) {
                    _s_logger.Error(string.Format("Failed to enumerate printer property Name:{0}, Type:{1}", propertyInfo.Name, propertyInfo.PropertyType));
                }
            }
        }
        _s_logger.Info(string.Format("Finished enumerating properties of printer: {0}", entry.Name == null ? "<Null>" : entry.Name));
        if (sDefault.Equals(entry.Name, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)) {
            entry.IsDefault = true;
        }
        list.Add(entry);
    }
    return list;
}

private static object ConvertValue(object value, Type type)
{
    if (value != null)
    {
        object printerStatusRetval = null;
        if (type == typeof(DateTime))
        {
            string time = value.ToString();
            time = time.Substring(0, time.IndexOf("."));
            return DateTime.ParseExact(time, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", null);
        }
        else if (type == typeof(long))
            return Convert.ToInt64(value);
        else if (type == typeof(int))
            return Convert.ToInt32(value);
        else if (type == typeof(short))
            return Convert.ToInt16(value);
        else if (type == typeof(string))
            return value.ToString();
        else if (type == typeof(PrinterStatus))
            try {
                printerStatusRetval = Enum.Parse(typeof (PrinterStatus), value.ToString());
            } catch (Exception e) {
                _s_logger.Error(string.Format("Failed to convert PrinterStatus with value {0}", value));
                printerStatusRetval = value.ToString();
            }
                return printerStatusRetval;
    }
    return null;
}

}

…then after instantiating Word I have something like this to set the printer:

            object[] oWordDialogParams = {PreferredPrinter.Name, true};
            object[] oWordDialogParamsWithPort = {string.Format("{0} on {1}", PreferredPrinter.Name, PreferredPrinter.PortName), true};
            string[] argNames = {"Printer", "DoNotSetAsSysDefault"};
//oWord is my own class that provides a fairly simple wrapper around MS Word
            oWord.Application.ActivePrinter = UserSettings[SETTING_PREFERRED_PRINTER] as string;
            Dialog printDialog = oWord.Application.Dialogs[WdWordDialog.wdDialogFilePrintSetup];
            object wordBasic = oWord.Application.WordBasic;
            try {
                wordBasic.GetType().InvokeMember("FilePrintSetup"
                    , BindingFlags.InvokeMethod
                    , null
                    , wordBasic
                    , oWordDialogParams
                    , null
                    , null
                    , argNames);
            }catch(Exception e) {
                _s_logger.Info("Failed to print using printer name, trying printer name and port", e);
                try {
                    wordBasic.GetType().InvokeMember("FilePrintSetup"
                        , BindingFlags.InvokeMethod
                        , null
                        , wordBasic
                        , oWordDialogParamsWithPort
                        , null
                        , null
                        , argNames);
                }catch(Exception e2) {
                    _s_logger.Info("Failed to print using printer name and port", e2);
                    throw;
                }
            }