Print multiple files from Windows Explorer file manager

Issues with installing under all versions of MS Windows
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rhdavis2
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:36 pm

Print multiple files from Windows Explorer file manager

Post by rhdavis2 »

On a Windows Vista machine, if you open the Documents folder and select several Word files in the file manager interface (Windows Explorer), you can click the Print option and all of the selected files will be printed. On a Windows Vista machine with M$ Office 2007 installed, this works fine. But when attempting this same action on a Win 7 machine with OO 3.2 and no copy of M$ Office installed, only the first file selected will print. After that, it is impossible to open any file with OO Writer. The computer needs to be rebooted to clear the issue. The files in question can all be opened successfully in OO Writer and they will all print properly if you print them as I described from the Windows Explorer file manager, provided that you only select one file at a time. The problem is 100% reproducible on the machine. OO Writer always locks up requiring a reboot and only the first selected file prints.

We need to be able to select 5-10 files from a folder and print them in one step as was possible with Word.

Is there a way to print multiple document files using OpenOffice, as can be done from the Documents folder on a machine with M$ Office installed? Thanks in advance for any advice.
OpenOffice 3.2 on Windows XP / Vista / Win7 / CentOS 5.4
alexsupra
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 3:44 am

Re: Print multiple files from Windows Explorer file manager

Post by alexsupra »

i have the same problem on all machines that was installed with OpenOffice 3.2 on Windows XP SP3.
i think its possible to overcome it by changing system registry values that are being used to process this operation.
so what are they? lets consider print operation provided via context shell menu for *.doc files in reg-file format (please note that on differnet systems and ooo distributions these settings can differ).

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[hkey_classes_root\.doc]
@="swriter.doc"
[hkey_classes_root\.doc\openwithlist\swriter.exe]
[hkey_classes_root\swriter.doc]
[hkey_classes_root\swriter.doc\shell\open\command]
@="swriter.exe \"%1\""
; this line provides print shell menu item
[hkey_classes_root\swriter.doc\shell\print\command]
@="\"soffice.exe\" -p \"%1\""
[hkey_classes_root\swriter.doc\shell\printto\command]
@="\"soffice.exe\" -pt \"%2\" \"%1\""
its evident from this part of code that only the first parameter %1 of command line is being processed thus we get the only one document sent to printer. i found some information about "-p" - it should process "documents" i.e. so many parameters as you need where each parameter is... full path + filename? or filename, filename,.. +full path? i dont know right now but it could help us.

one more fact that can help as temp. problem solution.
create new shortcut in %userprofile%\sendto dir: "soffice.exe -p"
now printing multiple files from Windows Explorer file manager works via SendTo context menu!

but it seems to me that there is more adequate way of problem solution.
OpenOffice 3.2 on Windows XP SP3
SkyBeam
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:35 pm

Re: Print multiple files from Windows Explorer file manager

Post by SkyBeam »

This topic is related to http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... f=6&t=3472

From my point of view it's a lock detection issue when detecting multiple instances.

In any case it's very annoying. Creating a SendTo link does also not solve the problem entirely:
SendTo links get all documents selected as arguments. The maximum number of arguments which can be passed is 20 so if you need to print more than 20 documents at once it's PITA since you have to print in multiple chunks.
OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 on Windows 7 x64 / OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 on Windows XP SP3 x86
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