[Solved]Handling OutLook Save print output As Dialog in a Citrix machine

[PoojaKrishna]

Hi,

I am trying to print items from Outlook in a Citrix machine. I am printing the items into PDF files using ‘Microsoft Print to PDF option’. I am using OutlookEX.au3 for printing items.

Everything is working fine except handling the ‘Save Print Output As’ dialog appearing while trying to print the file to PDF.

I have set the default printer to ‘Microsoft Print to PDF’ from the control panel ( Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers) and using the following method to print the item.

_OL_ItemPrint($oOutlook, $OL_Item) ;print item

I am not able to handle the ‘Save Print Output As’ dialog initiated by the print statement in the Citrix machine. The WinActive method always returns false. I have tried with ControlSetText, ControlClick and Send methods also.

Can anyone please help?

Func _SavePDF($sFilePath)
        WinActivate ( "Save Print Output As", "")
        WinWaitActive ( "Save Print Output As", "",5 )
        If WinActive("Save Print Output As") Then
            sleep(500)
            Send($sFilePath)
            sleep(500)
            Send("{ENTER}")
            sleep(500)
        EndIf
EndFunc;=>_SavePDF

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by PoojaKrishna
Solved

[water]

According to the MS doc the printout method should use all defaults.
Are you sure that a default printer is set for the Citrix machine?
You could have a look at the Word UDF - function _Word_DocPrint - for how to set a default printer.

[PoojaKrishna]

Yes, the default printer is set as 'Microsoft Print to PDF' and it initiates a 'Save Print Output As' dialog on saving the file.

I am not able to handle that dialog on the Citrix machine.

[water]

I have checked but Outlook provides no means to directly create a PDF file using SaveAs or Export.
You could either install an additional printer driver that does not initiate such a diaog or start an additional script to automate the print dialog (like _OL_Open does to handle security warnings).

[PoojaKrishna]

Thanks for the reply Water.

The _OL_Warnings.exe  is not able to handle the warning window in the Citrix machine, I am manually closing that warning window.

The win, control, and send commands have no effect in the Citrix environment.

I am searching for a solution to handle the dialog appearing on the Citrix machine. I will post back if I get any.

 

[water]

To make sure I correctly understand your setup:
You are running the AutoIt script on the Citrix machine?

[PoojaKrishna]

Yes, I am executing the AutoIt script on the Citrix machine.

In my Windows10 machine, the script is working perfect but in the Citrix machine, it is unable to handle the dialog boxes.

[water]

It seems that PowerShell allows to automate printing without the dialog window: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/04ddfe8c-a07f-4d9b-afd6-04b147f59e28/automating-printing-to-pdf?forum=winserverpowershell

[PoojaKrishna]

Thank you for sharing the link.

I am new to Powershell script but will give a try and will update.

The last post on the given page says that the script was printing only blank files as the PDFs.

[PoojaKrishna]

Water, thank you so much for giving an idea of installing a new printer which saves the file without prompting .

Please refer to the following link to see how to add a new printer to save the file to the given name without prompt.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/2528405/how-to-print-to-file-without-user-intervention

In the above information, I used PDF as the file extension for the file name(port), selected Microsoft as the manufacturer and Print to PDF as the printer.

 

[water]

👍