Printing Worksheets To A PDF File (Using Early Binding)

It should also be noted that each of the examples in this section use an Early Bind. If you are not familiar with the difference between Early and Late Binding, please read our article on Early vs Late binding.

Routines Included In This Article:

• Print a Single Worksheet to a PDF File
• Print Multiple Worksheets to Multiple PDF Files
• Print Multiple Worksheets to a Single PDF File

Versions Tested:

This was tested successfully using PDFCreator 0.9.1, GPLGhostscript.exe download package, on Windows XP Pro (SP2) running Excel 2003.

NOTE: Before you "go it alone" with trying to adapt any of these routines, you may want to read this article, which shares some of the idiosyncrasies discovered in the development of the PDFCreator code samples.

Print a Single Worksheet to a PDF File:

Option Explicit
Sub PrintToPDF_Early()
'Macro Purpose: Print to PDF file using PDFCreator
' (Download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
' Designed for early bind, set reference to PDFCreator
Dim pdfjob As PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
Dim sPDFName As String
Dim sPDFPath As String
'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "testPDF.pdf"
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator
'Check if worksheet is empty and exit if so
If IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.UsedRange) Then Exit Sub
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
With pdfjob
If .cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "PrtPDFCreator"
Exit Sub
End If
.cOption("UseAutosave") = 1
.cOption("UseAutosaveDirectory") = 1
.cOption("AutosaveDirectory") = sPDFPath
.cOption("AutosaveFilename") = sPDFName
.cOption("AutosaveFormat") = 0 ' 0 = PDF
.cClearCache
End With
'Print the document to PDF
ActiveSheet.PrintOut copies:=1, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"
'Wait until the print job has entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = 1
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cPrinterStop = False
'Wait until the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub

Print Multiple Worksheets to Multiple PDF Files:

Option Explicit
Sub PrintToPDF_MultiSheet_Early()
'Macro Purpose: Print to PDF file using PDFCreator
' (Download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
' Designed for early bind, set reference to PDFCreator
Dim pdfjob As PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
Dim sPDFName As String
Dim sPDFPath As String
Dim lSheet As Long
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator
If pdfjob.cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "PrtPDFCreator"
Exit Sub
End If
For lSheet = 1 To ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
'Check if worksheet is empty and skip if so
If Not IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.UsedRange) Then
With pdfjob
'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "testPDF" & Sheets(lSheet).Name & ".pdf"
.cOption("UseAutosave") = 1
.cOption("UseAutosaveDirectory") = 1
.cOption("AutosaveDirectory") = sPDFPath
.cOption("AutosaveFilename") = sPDFName
.cOption("AutosaveFormat") = 0 ' 0 = PDF
.cClearCache
End With
'Print the document to PDF
Worksheets(lSheet).PrintOut copies:=1, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"
'Wait until the print job has entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = 1
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cPrinterStop = False
'Wait until the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
End If
Next lSheet
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub

Print Multiple Worksheets to a Single PDF File:

Option Explicit
Sub PrintToPDF_MultiSheetToOne_Early()
'Macro Purpose: Print to PDF file using PDFCreator
' (Download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
' Designed for early bind, set reference to PDFCreator
Dim pdfjob As PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
Dim sPDFName As String
Dim sPDFPath As String
Dim lSheet As Long
Dim lTtlSheetsAs Long
'/// Change the output file name here! ///
sPDFName = "Consolidated.pdf"
sPDFPath = ActiveWorkbook.Path & Application.PathSeparator
Set pdfjob = New PDFCreator.clsPDFCreator
'Make sure the PDF printer can start
If pdfjob.cStart("/NoProcessingAtStartup") = False Then
MsgBox "Can't initialize PDFCreator.", vbCritical + _
vbOKOnly, "Error!"
Exit Sub
End If
'Set all defaults
With pdfjob
.cOption("UseAutosave") = 1
.cOption("UseAutosaveDirectory") = 1
.cOption("AutosaveDirectory") = sPDFPath
.cOption("AutosaveFilename") = sPDFName
.cOption("AutosaveFormat") = 0 ' 0 = PDF
.cClearCache
End With
'Print the document to PDF
lTtlSheets = Application.Sheets.Count
For lSheet = 1 To Application.Sheets.Count
On Error Resume Next 'To deal with chart sheets
If Not IsEmpty(Application.Sheets(lSheet).UsedRange) Then
Application.Sheets(lSheet).PrintOut copies:=1, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"
Else
lTtlSheets = lTtlSheets - 1
End If
On Error GoTo 0
Next lSheet
'Wait until all print jobs have entered the print queue
Do Until pdfjob.cCountOfPrintjobs = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
DoEvents
Loop
'Combine all PDFs into a single file and stop the printer
With pdfjob
.cCombineAll
.cPrinterStop = False
End With
'Wait until the PDF file shows up then release the objects
Do Until Dir(sPDFPath & sPDFName) <> ""
DoEvents
Loop
pdfjob.cClose
Set pdfjob = Nothing
End Sub