UseDefaultPrinter Setting For Access Forms No Longer Exposed in Design View?

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UseDefaultPrinter Setting For Access Forms No Longer Exposed in Design View?

Robert S 0

I have inherited an Access database that is being used as a front-end. One of the users has reported a bug where a specific print function is not respecting the default printer set in Windows. Upon investigation, it looks like whomever made this part of the program utilized some bad design and has designed the print function to print the form containing data instead of a separate report. I am working on converting this form over to a more proper solution, but some searching suggested I change UseDefaultPrinter to True. The only issue is that this is only write-able in Design View, but the property doesn't actually display in the Properties panel. I can still read it via VBA. I assume this got hidden for forms since you shouldn't really be printing them anyway, but since it's a property that may be useful for converting older projects this should still be exposed in design view.

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Answer 1

UseDefaultPrinter is still supported for Access forms and reports. For a Form or Report object, it is a Boolean property that indicates whether the object uses the system default printer. It is read/write only in Design view and read-only in all other views.

If the goal is to clear saved printer settings so the form uses the Windows default printer again, set the form’s UseDefaultPrinter property to True while the form is open in Design view. Setting it to True is equivalent to opening Page Setup and selecting Default Printer on the Page tab.

Key behavior:

If UseDefaultPrinter = True, the form inherits printer settings from the default printer.
If code assigns the form’s Printer property to a specific Printer object, Access sets UseDefaultPrinter to False.
Once printer settings are saved with a form, Access keeps those saved settings; later changes to the default printer do not automatically flow into that form.

A VBA approach is:

DoCmd.OpenForm "FormName", acDesign
Forms("FormName").UseDefaultPrinter = True
DoCmd.Save acForm, "FormName"
DoCmd.Close acForm, "FormName"

That is the supported way to clear saved printer settings from a form.

The provided documentation confirms the property exists and is writable in Design view, but it does not state whether Access still exposes that property in the Property Sheet UI for forms. Based on the available documentation, only the VBA/object-model behavior is confirmed.

Also relevant to the current issue: Access can save printer settings with a form, and those saved settings can override the current Windows default printer. That matches the symptom where printing from the form does not respect the Windows default printer.