automate some printing

i need to automate some printing...

basically i need the script to check for files in a directory (generally
they'll all be PDF).

for each file it finds, it needs to print it, then move it into a different
directory.

it'd be nice if it could confirm a successful print
it'd also be nice if there's a way to obtain the printer status prior to
printing (i.e. out of paper, low on toner, etc).

i know how to write the foreach file stuff, but how do i call the file, open
it, and tell it to print, then check for successful print...

thanks!!

Ben Christian wrote: What kind of environment do you have? You have a print server? You can
typically query the status of a printer using WMI (get-wmiobject). In
addition, you may be able to get the printer status:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...63(VS.85).aspx. There's
a very useful PrinterState property, but it looks like it is deprecated.

As for how to open the file and print, what do you have? Do you have an
Office plugin for dealing with PDF docs? You could use Adobe Reader,
but you'd have to go with keystroke automation as I'm not aware of any
scripting API for Adobe's PDF reader.

As for checking for a successful print, assuming you end up using Word
2007 to print the document, I'm not sure if the print() method will
return an appropriate code, or you may have to go to the print server or
printer to find out how you might be able to get the info. With a print
server, you may need to check if there's sufficient auditing to get that
info.

Marco

--
Microsoft MVP - Windows PowerShell
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

PowerGadgets MVP
http://www.powergadgets.com/mvp

Blog:
http://marcoshaw.blogspot.com

It looks like it will need to be keyboard automation then. i've never done
keyboard automation in powershell before...do you have any good resources i
could reference?

To answer your questions - it would use a print server, and Adobe Reader.

Thanks!

"Marco Shaw [MVP]" wrote: