National Instruments Window, User Manual

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 National Instruments Corporation

19

LabWindows/CVI Release Notes for Windows

Using Windows System Printer Settings 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING 

applies to all print attributes for which corresponding 

Windows system settings exist. You can view and modify the Windows system settings for a 
printer in the Control Panel. The 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING

 value allows you to use the 

current settings of the operating system instead of the current values of the User Interface 
Library attributes. 

If you call one of the printing functions 

PrintCtrl

, 

PrintPanel

, 

PrintTextBuffer

, or 

PrintTextFile

 and an attribute value is 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING

, LabWindows/CVI 

changes the attribute value to the current system setting. The exact behavior depends on 
whether you instruct the printing function to invoke the print dialog box. Notice that only 

PrintCtrl

 and 

PrintPanel

 give you the option to open the dialog box:

•

If the function invokes the common print dialog box and the user invokes the 
printer-specific dialog box, LabWindows/CVI initializes the control that corresponds to 
the attribute to the current system setting. The user can modify the value. When the user 
clicks on OK in the printer-specific dialog box, LabWindows/CVI stores the current 
value of the control as the attribute value. 

•

If the function invokes the common print dialog box but the user never invokes the 
printer-specific dialog box, LabWindows/CVI stores the system setting as the attribute 
value when the user clicks on OK in the common dialog box.

•

If you suppress the dialog boxes, the print function uses the current system setting and 
stores it as the attribute value.

Notice that LabWindows/CVI does not retain 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING

 as the attribute 

value after you call a printing function. If, throughout the life of your program, you want to 
use the system settings that are in effect the first time you call a printing function, set the 
attributes to 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING

 at the beginning of your program and do not 

modify them programmatically thereafter. If, on the other hand, you always want to use the 
most recent system settings, you must set the attributes to 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING

before each call to a printing function.

You can use 

VAL_USE_PRINTER_SETTING 

with the following attributes:

•

ATTR_DUPLEX

•

ATTR_NUMCOPIES

•

ATTR_ORIENTATION

•

ATTR_XRESOLUTION

•

ATTR_YRESOLUTION

Note

The User Interface Library never changes the current system printer or the 
current system settings for a printer.