>Ninety per cent of the output is from Microsoft Word--a mixture of 2000, 2003 and 2007. Whatever solution I settle upon, it should be designed to work well with Word. I don't want to depend upon any tricks or sleight of hand. That can be difficult to maintain over time and when faced with Microsoft updates!


Well, we are slaves of Microsoft, nothing we can do with it unless we do not use MS products. But contrary to Excel, with MS Word there are no tricks, and the solution is simple:

WITH oWord
  .documents.open("c:\foxwork\daily.doc")
* .visible=.t.
    lcActivePrinter=.ActivePrinter	
    .ActivePrinter = "Win2PDF"		&& it sets the WIndows Default Printer!!?
   lcout="c:\daily.pdf"
    erase (lcout)
    .PrintOut(.f.,.f.,"",lcout,,,,,,,.t.)
    .ActivePrinter = lcActivePrinter		&&set default printer back