printer changing and printing slow

[harrisc]

Hi

I have a a macro running in Word 2003 to print a label on a networked label printer, by switching to the label printer, print the label (with some formatting) and then switch back to the default printer (also networked). All works well except the macro takes 25 seconds to complete. By stepping through the macro I find that the commands that take all the time are


Application.ActivePrinter = LabelPrinter (switch to label printer)
ActiveDocument.PrintOut Copies:=nNumberCopies, Range:=sPrintRange, Background:=False
strActivePrinterApplication.ActivePrinter = strActivePrinter (switch to default)

I have found that same problem on another computer where the printers are directly connected and not on a network.

Has anyone any ideas on how to speed up this macro?

Thanks
Chris
Adelaide
Australia

[TonyJollans]

Printer communication can be slow and I don't there is anything you can do about it in Word. That said, I am surprised it makes no difference when the printers are local. Is there anything particularly unusual about the printers - are they old, or heavily used, for example?

[OTWarrior]

when you change the printer manually does it take a while to accept the settings?

[harrisc]

That said, I am surprised it makes no difference when the printers are local. Is there anything particularly unusual about the printers - are they old, or heavily used, for example?

With the local printer the command ActiveDocument.PrintOut Copies:=nNumberCopies, Range:=sPrintRange, Background:=False

was fast but the printer assignment was slow. The printers generally are not being used by others.


when you change the printer manually does it take a while to accept the settings?
Changing the printers manually is just normal. Properties are available quickly.

[TonyJollans]

When Word is slow with this kind of thing, it's usually to do with the network one way or another and I'm afraid I don't have enough knowledge to know what to suggest; sorry.

[Crooz]

To Tony and Chris:
Sorry... but I don't have a solution to this either. Just wanted to inform you that I had a similar situation recently when switching the OS from Windows2000 to XP - and this was not on a networked PC.
Adjusting the format of the documents (instead of switching printers all the time) was the only work-around I could come up with.
If anyone out there has a solution to this problem, please post it as soon as possible.
Thanx in advance,
Crooz