Excel VBA code to work on Mac, Create PDF Function

Question

I have coded the following function. However, I cannot get it to work on office Mac. I am not sure of the procedure to find the EXP_PDF.DLL mac equivalent

Funct         


        

Answer 1

There is no need to check for the existence of that specific DLL, because under MacOS, PDF export support is native. Your code simply works if you remove the Add-in check and remove the FileFilter string:

Function Create_PDF(Myvar As Object, FixedFilePathName As String, _
OverwriteIfFileExist As Boolean, OpenPDFAfterPublish As Boolean) As String

Dim FileFormatstr As String
Dim FName As Variant

    If FixedFilePathName = "" Then
       'Open the GetSaveAsFilename dialog to enter a file name for the pdf
       FName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename("", Title:="Create PDF")
        'If you cancel this dialog Exit the function
        If FName = False Then Exit Function
     Else
        FName = FixedFilePathName
    End If
    'If OverwriteIfFileExist = False we test if the PDF
     'already exist in the folder and Exit the function if that is True
    If OverwriteIfFileExist = False Then
        If Dir(FName) <> "" Then Exit Function
    End If

   'Now the file name is correct we Publish to PDF
   On Error Resume Next
   Myvar.ExportAsFixedFormat _
            Type:=xlTypePDF, _
            Filename:=FName, _
            Quality:=xlQualityStandard, _
            IncludeDocProperties:=True, _
            IgnorePrintAreas:=False, _
            OpenAfterPublish:=OpenPDFAfterPublish
    On Error GoTo 0

    'If Publish is Ok the function will return the file name
     If Dir(FName) <> "" Then Create_PDF = FName

End Function

But GetSaveAsFilename is crippled on MacOS and does not allow filtering files by filetype. If you need to restrict users to a certain filetype, you can resort to AppleScript and do the following:

Function Create_PDF_Mac(Myvar As Object, FixedFilePathName As String, _
OverwriteIfFileExist As Boolean, OpenPDFAfterPublish As Boolean) As String

Dim FileFormatstr As String
Dim FName As Variant

    If FixedFilePathName = "" Then
       'Open the GetSaveAsFilename dialog to enter a file name for the pdf
       'FName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename("", ".PDF", Title:="Create PDF")

        On Error Resume Next
        ThePath = MacScript("return (path to documents folder) as String")

        TheScript = _
        "set applescript's text item delimiters to "","" " & vbNewLine & _
        "set theFile to (choose file name with prompt ""Save As File"" " & _
            "default name ""untitled.pdf"" default location alias """ & _
            ThePath & """ ) as string" & vbNewLine & _
        "if theFile does not end with "".pdf"" then set theFile to theFile & "".pdf"" " & vbNewLine & _
        "set applescript's text item delimiters to """" " & vbNewLine & _
        "return theFile"

           FName = MacScript(TheScript)
        On Error GoTo 0

        'If you cancel this dialog Exit the function
        If FName = False Then Exit Function
     Else
        FName = FixedFilePathName
    End If
    'If OverwriteIfFileExist = False we test if the PDF
     'already exist in the folder and Exit the function if that is True
    If OverwriteIfFileExist = False Then
        If Dir(FName) <> "" Then Exit Function
    End If

   'Now the file name is correct we Publish to PDF
   On Error Resume Next
   Myvar.ExportAsFixedFormat _
            Type:=xlTypePDF, _
            Filename:=FName, _
            Quality:=xlQualityStandard, _
            IncludeDocProperties:=True, _
            IgnorePrintAreas:=False, _
            OpenAfterPublish:=OpenPDFAfterPublish
    On Error GoTo 0

    'If Publish is Ok the function will return the file name
     If Dir(FName) <> "" Then Create_PDF = FName

End Function

The you can use an OS selector switch to run the appropriate function for each OS:

#If Mac Then
    savedFileName = Create_PDF_Mac(...)
#Else
    savedFileName = Create_PDF_PC(...)
#End If

Given the limitations of default VB functions in MacOS, this is Microsof't suggested method as well.