User Guide

704 Chapter 2: ActionScript Language Reference
PrintJob.start()
Availability
Flash Player 7.
Usage
my_pj.start() : Boolean
Parameters
None.
Returns
A Boolean value: true if the user clicks OK when the print dialog boxes appear; false if the user
clicks Cancel or if an error occurs.
Description
Method; displays the operating system’s print dialog boxes and starts spooling. The print dialog
boxes let the user change print settings. When the
PrintJob.start() method returns
successfully, the following read-only properties are populated, representing the user’s print
settings:
For more information, see “Specifying a print area (when not using the PrintJob object)” in Using
Flash.
After the user clicks OK in the Print dialog box, the player begins spooling a print job to the
operating system. You should issue any ActionScript commands that affect the printout, and you
can use PrintJob.addPage() commands to send pages to the spooler. You can use the read-only
height, width, and orientation properties this method populates to format the printout.
Because the user sees information such as “Printing page 1” immediately after clicking OK, you
should call the
PrintJob.addPage() and PrintJob.send() commands as soon as possible.
If this method returns
false (for example, if the user clicks Cancel instead of OK in the
operating system’s Print dialog box), any subsequent calls to
PrintJob.addPage() and
PrintJob.send() will fail. However, if you test for this return value and don’t send
PrintJob.addPage() commands as a result, you should still delete the PrintJob object to make
sure the print spooler is cleared, as shown in the following example:
var my_pj:PrintJob = new PrintJob();
Property Type Units Notes
PrintJob.paperHeight
Number Points Overall paper height.
PrintJob.paperWidth
Number Points Overall paper width.
PrintJob.pageHeight
Number Points Height of actual printable area on the
page; any user-set margins are ignored.
PrintJob.pageWidth
Number Points Width of actual printable area on the
page; any user-set margins are ignored.
PrintJob.orientation
String N/A “Portrait” or “landscape.”