powershell -- printing from Word 2016 using the .PrintOut() method

Question

I found an article at https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/0aa5d8ab-e756-4a19-96e4-03384a4b32c3/print-a-range-of-pages that looks to do almost exactly what I want to do, but I'm getting an error when I try to use the code.

# create a word object  
$wd = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application  

# make it visible  
$wd.visible = $true  

# create a document object by opening a file  
$doc = $wd.Documents.Open('\\servername\Users\Christian.Bahnsen\Desktop\ToDo Folder\word\splitTest\baseDocument.docx')  

#Print required Page  
$Missing    = [System.Reflection.Missing]::Value  # use default parameter values  
$BackGround = 1  
$Append     = 0  
$range = 4 # see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.wdprintoutrange for enumerations  
$Item = 0  
$Copies = 1  
$Pages = "2-3"  

# let's print the range  
$doc.PrintOut([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$Missing,[ref]$Missing, [ref]$Missing,[ref]$Item,[ref]$Copies,[ref]$Pages)  

I get the following error:

Exception setting "PrintOut": Cannot convert the "2-3" value of type "string" to type "Object".
At line:1 char:1

• $doc.printout([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$Miss ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException

I changed $Pages to:
$Pages = 2-3
and the error message changes to

Exception setting "PrintOut": Cannot convert the "-1" value of type "int" to type "Object".
At line:2 char:1

• $doc.printout([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$Miss ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException

My goal is to print a single page, but at this point I need to figure out why this code is throwing errors. This code is using enumeration 4 (wdPrintRangeOfPages) for the WdPrintOutRange. I've tried using 3 (wdPrintFromTo) but it throws errors, too. Or if I could figure out how to select a single page I might be able to use 2 (wdPrintCurrentPage) or 0 (wdPrintSelection) and wouldn't need to define a range.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Christian Bahnsen

Answer 1

I was able to print pages 2-3 using this code. Also, I had some orphaned winword processes that I needed to kill with the "Get-Process WINWORD | stop-Process -force" command. Here it is:

# Open Word Document 
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word") | Out-Null
$FileName = "C:\Test\TestDoc.docx" # Doc with 3 pages
$Word = New-Object -comobject Word.Application
$Word.Visible  = $true # Use $false to not show document
$word.Documents.Open($FileName)

#Print ref
$Missing    = [System.Reflection.Missing]::Value  # Default values
$BackGround = 0
$Append     = 0
$Range      = 4
$OutputFileName = $Missing
$From       = $Missing
$To     = $Missing
$Item       = 0
$Copies     = 1     # Number of copies
$Pages      = "2-3"   # Page range

$Word.printout([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$OutputFileName, [ref]$From, [ref]$To, [ref]$Item, [ref]$Copies, [ref]$Pages)

# Close Word
$Word.Quit()
[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($Word)

Answer 2

Hi,
Please see if this works

$wd.PrintOut([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$Missing,[ref]$Missing, [ref]$Missing,[ref]$Item,[ref]$Copies,[ref]$Pages)  

Best Regards,
Ian

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Answer 3

Working with COM objects stinks, doesn't it?

What happens if you use "$Pages = [object]"2-3"" instead of what you have now?

The reason for the 2nd exception is that you're using a negative number. When you assigned the value "2-3" (without the quotes!) to $Pages you subtracted 3 from 2.

Answer 4

@Rich Matheisen

You're right about working with COM objects. Thanks for the suggestion, but then I got this error:

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:1 char:2

• $doc.PrintOut([ref]$BackGround, [ref]$Append, [ref]$Range, [ref]$Mis ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

Answer 5

This is interesting because I remember using printout() in older versions of PowerShell. So... typically you only have to fill in the missing values up until your last needed variable like $pages (as your script does correctly). One thing I noticed, if you add the next ref variable PageType as [ref]$Missing, it doesn't seem to care about the previous [ref]$Pages error. It says something along the lines can't convert 'Missing' to type object, etc. So basically, it's always complaining about the last ref variable. I wonder if this is a bug. I may run some tests later on older versions.