Printing a pdf without having to open it

Ideas for new features & functions

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Lorence
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Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:34 am
Location: Ohio, USA
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Printing a pdf without having to open it

Post by Lorence » Wed Jan 22, 2014 10:16 pm

Part of our daily routine onteh Macro Scheduler is to print pdf files that are created and outputed from BOBI (SAP's latest "Crystal Enterprise" system). Our current install of Macro Scheduler is running on Windows XP and we've been using an old version of Acrobat Reader, v4.0, and exploiting an undocumented command line feature, the /t switch. When invoked, the /t switch in Acrobat Reader 4.0 will simply pass the file through AcroRd32.exe sending the printed output directly to the printer without opening the file at all.

This is the command we currently use (the file's name include a 3 character Day-of-The-Week, patterned after the Unix format (eg, Mon, Tue, Wed,...))

Run Program>C:\PROGRA~1\Adobe\acroba~1.0\reader\AcroRd32.exe /t "\\colchi.net\shared\PML\PositiveGenlabEpi-%dayname%.pdf" "\\chicls02spl04\epid01"

This command just send the designated file to the printer epid01.

Now that we are migrating to Windows 7, Acrobat reader v40 no longer works. I've searched for an alternative & found a program called Sumatra that has a good command line interface to allow us to print as we have in the past - it's a free app available at http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sum ... eader.html, and I will likely be using it

I'd like to suggest a pdf printing functionality as a future enhancement to Macro Scheduler. This is a sorely needed and little recognized tool/utility.

(I'm not intending this as a plug for Sumatra- disclaimer -I DO NOT HAVE ANY AFFILIATION WITH THIS PRODUCT OR COMPANY OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT IT DOES WHAT i NEED IT TO DO - I DON'T WORK FOR THEM OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO/WHERE THEY ARE)
Lorence P. Sing, MT(ASCP)
LIS System Analyst, Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
Web Pages:
http://www.LorenceSing.com
http://LorencesKitchen.Blogspot.com

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