Handling the the Page Setup Panel

If the default implementation is not sufficient you can handle the Page Setup panel yourself. You create an NSPageLayout object by invoking the pageLayout method. To display the Page Setup user interface app-modally, use the runModal or runModalWithPrintInfo: methods. To display the Page Setup user interface document-modally as a sheet, use the beginSheetWithPrintInfo:modalForWindow:delegate:didEndSelector:contextInfo: method.

You rarely need to subclass NSPageLayout because you can augment its display by adding your own accessory view using the addAccessoryController: method. Place controls for setting app-specific print settings in your accessory view.

The accessory view is displayed when the user chooses the appropriate entry—which is the name of your app—in the Settings pop-up menu in the Page Setup panel. The panel automatically resizes in the vertical direction to accommodate the height of the view you add. You must make sure the width of your accessory view fits with the maximum width of the Page Setup panel. If possible, you should make your accessory view the same size as the standard views in the panel.

When running an app that is not document based, you must override the runPageLayout: method of the NSApplication class. You can also implement the method earlier in the responder chain. If you want to add an accessory view, your runPageLayout: method needs to call the addAccessoryController: method.

When running a document-based app, the NSDocument class default implementation of runPageLayout: creates the page layout panel and then passes the object to its preparePageLayout: method. Override the preparePageLayout: method to add an accessory view. NSDocument then runs the panel as a sheet attached to its window.

Customizing a Page Setup Panel in a Document-based App

The NSDocument class implements the runPageLayout: method to handle the Page Setup menu command instead of letting NSApplication handle it. When the document receives this message, it gets the document’s NSPrintInfo object and invokes the method runModalPageLayoutWithPrintInfo:delegate:didRunSelector:contextInfo: to display the Page Setup panel. To give your NSDocument subclass an opportunity to customize the NSPageLayout object, the printing system passes the NSPageSetup object to preparePageLayout: before displaying the panel. Override this method if you want to add an accessory view to the panel.

When the panel is dismissed with the OK button, NSDocument checks the return value of its shouldChangePrintInfo: method. If it returns YES(the default) the printing system updates the NSPrintInfo object to reflect the new print settings. You can override this method to validate the new settings and return NO if the new settings should be discarded.