Printing faster in Excel - vba

Question

The print functionality of Excel (using VBA) is extremely slow. I'm hoping someone has a way of speeding the printing up (without using the Excel 4 Macro trick). Here's how I do it now:
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveSheet.PageSetup
-various setup statements which I've already minimized-
End With
ActiveSheet.PrintOut
Application.ScreenUpdating = True

Answer 1

Yes, the PageSetup properties are very slow when you set them.
You have already set Application.ScreenUpdating = False, which is good, but an equally (or more) important step in this case is to set Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual. (It is best if you save these settings and then restore them to the original at the end.)
Additionally, the property get for each PageSetup property is very fast, while it is only the property set that is so slow. Therefore, you should test the new property setting to make sure it isn't already the same as the existing property value in order to prevent an unnecessary (and expensive) call.
With all this in mind, you should be able to use code that looks something like the following:
Dim origScreenUpdating As Boolean
origScreenUpdating = Application.ScreenUpdating
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim origCalcMode As xlCalculation
origCalcMode = Application.Calculation
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
With ActiveSheet.PageSetup
If .PrintHeadings <> False Then .PrintHeadings = False
If .PrintGridlines <> False Then .PrintGridlines = False
If .PrintComments <> xlPrintNoComments Then .PrintComments = xlPrintNoComments
' Etc...
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = origScreenUpdating
Application.Calculation = origCalcMode
Edit: A couple of updates:
For Excel 2010 and above you can make use of the 'Application.PrintCommunication' property, while for Excel 2007 and below, you can make use of 'ExecuteExcel4Macro'. For more details, see Migrating Excel 4 Macros to VBA.
For Excel 2007 and below, another interesting trick is to temporarily assign the printer driver to the 'Microsoft XPS Document Writer' and then set it back. Printing speed can improve by 3x. See: Slow Excel PageSetup Methods.
Hope this helps...

Answer 2

In furthering Michael's post and answering #rhc's question, the following code may also help you if need to copy Page Setup customizations from a single worksheet to multiple worksheets in a workbook:
Public Sub CopyPageSetupToAll(ByRef SourceSheet As Worksheet)
' Raise error if invalid source sheet is passed to procedure
'
If (SourceSheet Is Nothing) Then
Err.Raise _
Number:=vbErrorObjectVariableNotSet, _
Source:="CopyPageSetupToAll", _
Description:="Unable to copy Page Setup settings: " _
& "invalid reference to source sheet."
Exit Sub
End If
SourceSheet.Activate
With SourceSheet.PageSetup
' ...
' place PageSetup customizations here
' ...
End With
SourceSheet.Parent.Worksheets.Select
Application.SendKeys "{ENTER}", True
Application.Dialogs(xlDialogPageSetup).Show
End Sub
Alternatively, you could also modify the procedure to create a temporary worksheet to host your Page Setup changes, and then propagate those changes out to the other worksheets in your workbook:
Public Sub CopyPageSetupToAll(ByRef SourceBook As Workbook)
Dim tempSheet As Worksheet
' Raise error if invalid workbook is passed to procedure
'
If (SourceBook Is Nothing) Then
Err.Raise _
Number:=vbErrorObjectVariableNotSet, _
Source:="CopyPageSetupToAll", _
Description:="Unable to copy Page Setup settings: " _
& "invalid reference to source workbook."
Exit Sub
End If
Set tempSheet = SourceBook.Worksheets.Add
tempSheet.Activate
With tempSheet.PageSetup
' ...
' place PageSetup customizations here
' ...
End With
SourceBook.Worksheets.Select
Application.SendKeys "{ENTER}", True
Application.Dialogs(xlDialogPageSetup).Show
tempSheet.Delete
Set tempSheet = Nothing
End Sub
Due to the use of the SendKeys() function and Application.Dialogs functionality, this code does not offer the cleanest possible solution. However, it gets the job done. :)

Answer 3

if you want to have basicly the same page settings for every tab in a workbook can you speed things up by setting up one workshet and then copying that worksheet's settings somehow to the other worksheets? Is this possible?