One more example how to automate Microsoft Excel and printout a postscript file with a specified postscript printer (yes more than one printer can be installed on the system).

But unlike Word you can not check the background printing status in Excel with the method "BackgroundPrintingStatus". This shouldn`t make problems. I didn`t found an afvantage of this feature.

Multi-Threadding:

Unlike Powerpoint Excel works in more than one instances.

How to call the function:

You simply call the function with the name of the Word file, Postscript file and the printername which you want to use.:

The source code:

def excel(excelfile, psfile, printer):
    pythoncom.CoInitializeEx(pythoncom.COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED)
    myExcel = win32com.client.DispatchEx('Excel.Application')
    myExcel.Application.AskToUpdateLinks = 0
    Excel = myExcel.Workbooks.Open(excelfile, 0, False, 2)
    Excel.Saved = 1
    Excel.PrintOut(1, 5000, 1, False, printer, True, False, psfile)
    Excel.Close()
    myExcel.Quit()
    del myExcel
    del Excel
    pythoncom.CoUninitialize()
excel('c:/test/excelfilename.xls', 'c:/test/psfilename.ps', 'My Postscript Printername')

Multithreadding:

Unlike Powerpoint Microsoft Word can run in multiple instances - If a program creates more Word processes you will see them in the task manager.

How to call the function:

You simply call the function with the name of the Word file, Postscript file and the printername which you want to use.:

eg. make_ps.word('c:\test\wordfilename.doc', 'c:\test\psfilename.ps', 'My Postscript Printername')

The source code:

import win32com.client, pythoncom, time
 
def word(wordfile, psfile, printer):
    pythoncom.CoInitializeEx(pythoncom.COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED)
    myWord = win32com.client.DispatchEx('Word.Application')
    myWord.Application.ActivePrinter = printer
    myDoc = myWord.Documents.Open(wordfile, False, False, False)
    myDoc.Saved=1
    myWord.Application.NormalTemplate.Saved = 1
    myWord.PrintOut(True, False, 0, psfile)
    while myWord.BackgroundPrintingStatus > 0:
        time.sleep(0.1)
    myDoc.Close()
    myWord.Quit()
    del myDoc
    del myWord
    pythoncom.CoUninitialize()

This script is from Aaron Bradly and was published on his Blog. It converts all Favorites from Microsoft Internet Explorer XHTML-valid to Bookmarks.html. I changed it a bid, because no pipe exists on Windows.

 
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import os.path
import sys
# the favorites folder of Windows
dir = u'C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\your_userid\Favoriten'
files = os.listdir(dir)
bookmarks = open('bookmarks.html', 'w')
head = "Bookmarks"
#print header
bookmarks.write(head)
for file in files:
        if not file[-4:] == '.url':
                continue
        title = file[:-4]
        fn = os.path.join(dir, file)
        body = open(fn).readlines()
        for line in body:
                token = 'BASEURL='
                if line[:len(token)] == token:
                        url = line[len(token):].strip()
                        url = url.replace("&", "&")
                        url = url.replace("<", "<")
                        url = url.replace(">", ">")
                        title = title.replace("&", "&")
                        title = title.replace("<", "<")
                        title = title.replace(">", ">")
                        main= (u'%s
' % (url, title)).encode('u8', 'ignore')
                        bookmarks.write(main)
bookmarks.close()

This script prints the file in the first argument with the windows default application.

Example:

If you save the code in the file print.py:

print.py test.doc -> Opens Microsoft Word (if it is installed) and prints the file test.py to the default printer.

print.py mytextfile.txt -> Same. But prints with Notepad

 
from win32api import ShellExecute
from sys import argv
 
ShellExecute(0, "print", argv[1], None, "", 1)