Print a Document in Monochrome

The Problem:

Changing the Compatibility settings in the Options dialog box so that I can legibly print a document that contains color text on my monochrome printer is getting kinda old. Automate it for me already!

The Solution:

Right you are. Create a macro that looks like Example 8-11.

This macro creates two Boolean variables, which are variables that can only be true or False. It then checks to see if the number of open documents is 0; if so, it stops running the macro so as to avoid the error that results from trying to print without a document open.

Macro to print the active document in monochrome

Example 8-11.

 Sub Print_Active_Document_in_Monochrome()
    Dim blnBWOn As Boolean
    Dim blnDocClean As Boolean
   If Documents.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub
   With ActiveDocument
      blnDocClean = .Saved
      blnBWOn = .Compatibility(wdPrintColBlack)
      .Compatibility(wdPrintColBlack) = True
      Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrint).Show
      .Compatibility(wdPrintColBlack) = blnBWOn
      .Saved = blnDocClean
   End With
 End Sub

For the bulk of its code, the macro uses a With statement referring to the active document. It stores the current state of the document's Saved property (TRue if the document contains no unsaved changes, False if it does contain some) in the blnDocClean variable, and the state of the Compatibility (wdPrintColBlack) setting (whether the "Print colors as black on noncolor printers" checkbox on the Compatibility tab of the Options dialog box is checked) in the blnBWOn variable.

The macro then sets Compatibility(wdPrintColBlack) to true and displays the Print dialog box so that the user can print the document. Finally, the macro restores Compatibility(wdPrintColBlack) and Saved to the values stored in the two variables.