How can I Open/Print PDF from Access 97?

[Rafe82ABN]

I am trying to allow a user to choose a pdf file from a specified directory and either open or print the file. Is there something similar (API...?) to VB's CommonDialog Control that will accomplish this?

Thank you,
Rafe

 

[Rafe82ABN]

Thanks to Jes from the VBA Coding Forum, I was able to use a program written by Dev Ashish on a site called "The Access Web" which uses an API to call the standard windows dialog box.

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0001.htm

The code is over my head, but I was able to decipher it enough to open in the desired directory and limit the available (viewed) files to those with a .pdf extension.

I then used some code I found at Planet PDF "How to Open a PDF and Jump to a Bookmark" (

http://www.planetpdf.com)

to open the Acrobat Exchange window so the user can view and print the desired file.

The code is a little more complex than I desired, but it is working. If anyone knows of a simpler method in VBA (Access 97), I would appreciate hearing from you!

Thanks,
Rafe

 

[Rafe82ABN]

Update!

My success was short-lived. I have VB 6.0 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0 on my desktop and the code worked fine. However, when I tried to run the code from a desktop with only Acrobat Reader installed (no VB), it was not able to call the Acrobat Exchange. Someone has suggested using a shell command, but did not say "How To". Any other suggestions or guidance?

Thank You,
Rafe

 

[ALittleHelp]

this will help a lot: using shell execute

http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/index.html?code/shell/shellexecute.htm