PrinterSetup Question

rbuser

What is the difference between the

1) ppReport1.PrinterSetup.MarginLeft := myMargin

and

2) ppReport1.Printer.PrinterSetup.MarginLeft := myMargin

The reason I ask is that if I make a margin change in 1) in the
OnPrintDialogClose the statement

Height :=
ppFromMMThousandths(ppReport1.PrinterSetup.PageDef.mmPrintableHeight,
utInches, pprtVertical, ppReport1.Printer);

does not reflect the new printable height, whereas if I make the
change as in 2), the change is reflected in PrintableHeight.

How do I know which one to use and when?

TIA.

digitalmetaphors

I assume you mean MarginTop, not MarginLeft:)

In this case you'll want to use the Printer object's PrinterSetup as you
have found that this works. The PrinterDevice is created by the producer
(the TppReport is a decendent of TppProducer). The printer setup is assigned
to the PrinterDevice before the print dialog is created. See
TppProducer.PrintToPrinter in ppProd.pas.

if FPrinterDevice.Printer <> nil then
FPrinterDevice.Printer.PrinterSetup := PrinterSetup;

What happens is that the Printer is assigned to the dialog, and it is not
copied, just assigned, as this is the declaration of this property:
property Printer: TObject read FPrinter write FPrinter;

Further along in the PrintToPrinter method, here is the call that assigns it
in TppProducer.PrintToPrinter;
lPrintDialog.Printer :=
TppPrinterDevice(FPrinterDevice).Printer;

Then after the print dialog is closed, and before the report is printed,
this is called:

{get printer device's printersetup - note: do not use assign here}
PrinterSetup := FPrinterDevice.Printer.PrinterSetup;

So, when you assign the printer setup, the real setup that is used is the
PrinterDevice.Printer.PrinterSetup. Your change to the Report.PrinterSetup
in the OnPrintDialogClose event gets overwritten with the
PrinterDevice.Printer.PrinterSetup. Remember that the PrintDialog had a
handle to the PrinterDevice.Printer which allowed it to make changes to the
PrinterSetup on the PrinterDevice.

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors