Microsoft Word: Visual Basic for Applications
Revision: 8/11/2011 Page 1 of 59
Copyright 2002–2011 by Susan J. Dorey
See also:
Access Techniques for VBA code techniques, some is specific to Access, some are general.
This document presumes you know something about VBA. It is not a primer. It is my personal resource.
CONTENTS
About Macros..................................................3
Organizing Macros ..............................................3
Export and Import Code .....................................3
Get to Know the Object Model ...........................3
Miscellaneous Subjects ....................................4
Anatomy of a Word Document ...........................4
Moving Around in a Word Document ................4
Working with Documents ...................................6
Working with Templates .....................................7
Working With Files.............................................7
Working With Styles ...........................................7
Working With Path.............................................8
Working With Text.............................................9
Portrait and Landscape ......................................13
Document Properties.........................................14
Page Numbering................................................15
Lists...................................................................16
Working with Tables.........................................16
Addressing Table Cells...........................................19
Dialog Boxes..................................................20
Message Box Object...........................................20
Present Information...............................................21
Prompt User for Choices ........................................21
Dialog Object....................................................21
Prompt User for File(s) or Directory with
FileFind Dialog – OBSOLETE.........................
22
FileDialog Object ..............................................23
Prompt User to Select Folder with FileDialog
FolderPicker.....................................................
24
Documenting Your Shortcut Keys.................24
About Keyboard Shortcut Keys..........................25
Run This Code..................................................25
DOM Background ............................................26
Field Codes in VBA.......................................27
Index Object......................................................28
Table of Contents..............................................29
RD Field Code ..................................................29
Field Codes and Page Numbers .........................30
Page Headers and Footers............................. 30
Assembling Multi-file Documents ................ 32
Approach...........................................................32
Code Samples ....................................................33
Prompt User for Directory of New File................... 33
Insert Chapter Files............................................... 33
Insert Section Break Odd Page............................... 34
Update Main Table of Contents ............................ 34
Update Main Table of Figures............................... 34
Save New Document ............................................ 34
Update Chapter Tables of Contents........................ 34
Update Indices ..................................................... 34
Delete Macros in New Document .......................... 35
Subroutines.......................................................... 35
Variations............................................................ 36
Shapes ........................................................... 36
About Shapes.....................................................36
Anchoring a Shape................................................ 36
Positioning a Shape .............................................. 37
Formatting a Shape .............................................. 37
Other Important Shape Properties.......................... 37
Remarks............................................................... 37
Converting Visio Picture into Inline Shape ........38
Key Properties....................................................38
RelativeVerticalPosition Property ........................... 38
RelativeHorizontalPosition Property....................... 38
Top Property ........................................................ 38
Left Property ........................................................ 39
Shrink Inline Shapes ..........................................40
Watermarks .................................................. 42
Background Printed Watermark ........................42
Watermark as Text Box .....................................43
Code Created by Insert Print Watermark
Background Wizard.......................................
44
Iterative Document Editing .......................... 45
Reformat Text in Square Brackets......................45
Insert RD Field Codes .......................................46
Change Styles in all Word Files in a Given
Directory.......................................................
49
Passwords and Protection ............................. 50
Microsoft Word: Visual Basic for Applications
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Copyright 2002–2011 by Susan J. Dorey
Interacting with an Access Database..............51
Automation ...................................................52
Inventorying Macros .....................................52
Relevant Object Models.....................................53
Iterating Procedures in Modules ........................55
Basic Logic to Inventory Macros ........................56
Inventorying Files ......................................... 56
Relevant Objects................................................57
Code..................................................................57
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ABOUT MACROS
Recording keyboard actions is a good way to get the needed code, then you can edit it into an efficient
macro.
Organizing Macros
Macros (in newer versions of Word) are stored in modules. They may reside in any kind of Word file,
document or template. All the macros in a file comprise a Project.
By default new recorded macros are created in the NewMacros project of normal.dot.
It can be helpful to organize macros into modules. Perhaps you put all macros used together in the same
module. Perhaps you put utility macros, like those that transpose two adjacent characters, in the same
module. But if you have 100 macros, it is better if they are distributed across 5 or so modules.
You can create a module in the VBA editor with menu Insert, Module
.
You can rename a module: First select the module, then use menu View, Properties Window
. to open the
same-named window. Properties are listed in tabular format with the names in the left column and the
values in the right column. Select the value for the Name property and retype it. Click elsewhere for it to
take effect.
You can move a macro from one module to another: In the Code window select the text of the macro,
cut it, open the Code window of the new module, position the cursor, and paste the text.
You can delete a module: select it then use menu File, Remove
.
Export and Import Code
A module’s code can be exported as a .bas text file. Such a file can be imported into a different project.
This can be a convenient method for copying code from one Word file to another.
Get to Know the Object Model
Because VBA is an object-oriented language, you will be most effective if you understand the Word object
model and how to manipulate it. Basically the model has objects. Objects are grouped into collections
which are an object unto themselves. Objects may have child objects and/or parent objects. Objects also
have methods and properties. When you are trying to figure out how to do something, you must identify
the relevant object and property or method. Sometimes you start with the property or method and work
backward to the object. Look in the help file for a diagram.
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MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS
Anatomy of a Word Document
When you are editing a Word document with VBA, it can be important to understand the different
parts—objects—and how to deal with them. You could study the Word Object Model, which you can
find in the VBA Help file. Key objects that I have needed to handle include:
Object Parent Object Contents
Window Application all the (open) windows
Pane Window the window panes for a given window
Document Application an open document
Section Document sections are used to hold text formatted differently than the base
document, including multiple columns and different page
orientation and/or margins
Footnotes Document
There are special properties that return a particular object:
ActiveDocument. Returns a Document object for the document that is active, i.e., the document with the
focus.
ActiveWindow. Returns a Window object for the active window, i.e., the window with the focus.
ActivePane. Returns a Pane object for the active pane in specified window.
SeekView. Returns or sets a View object with the document element displayed in print layout view. It
uses the WdSeekView constant to specify which view: main document, header, footer, endnotes,
footnotes. There are several variations of header and footer: current, first, even, primary. This property can
incur a run time error of 5894 if the view is not Print Layout.
Examples:
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView <> wdSeekMainDocument Then . . .
The following code will change the view/pane to Normal view, even when the document is in print layout
view and the header is open. Hence, it is very useful for resetting the state of the document prior to
editing.
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView
Moving Around in a Word Document
By “moving” I mean moving the cursor. This is accomplished with methods of the Selection object. The
selection can be extended or collapsed to an insertion point. The principal methods are those that reflect
the keyboard direction keys: Home, End, Up, Down, Left, Right.
Use the
Select property to return the Selection object. If the Selection property is used without an object
qualifier, the object is assumed to be the active pane of the active document window. It may be advisable
to not assume what the active pane is.
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Which, unfortunately, gets us into panes. A window has more than one pane if the window is split or the
view is not print layout view and information such as footnotes or comments are displayed. From this it
seems safe to assume that the first pane is the one that opens when the document is first opened.
To close all but the first pane:
MsgBox ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count > 1 Then
For i = 2 To ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes(i).Close
Next
End If
Similarly don’t assume the cursor is in the main body of the document, it might be in a header/footer or
footnote. The following code will incur a run time error if the document is not in print layout view.
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView <> wdSeekMainDocument Then
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
Better:
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView Then
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView <> wdSeekMainDocument Then
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
End If
End If
To go to the first character:
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
In the previous example, wdStory is one value of the WdUnits constants. Other values: wdCharacter,
wdWord, wdSentence, wdParagraph, wdSection, wdCell, wdColumn, wdRow, wdTable.
To go to the first character and select the first paragraph:
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
To release selection by moving cursor to the right:
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
To move down 8 paragraphs:
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=8
To move to the start of the current line:
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
To move to the end of the current line:
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine
To move to the end of the document:
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory
Move cursor:
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
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Collapse a range or selection to the starting or ending position. After a range or selection is collapsed, the
starting and ending points are equal. You can optionally specify the direction in which to collapse the
range, as start or end.
If you use wdCollapseEnd to collapse a range that refers to an entire paragraph, the range is located
after the ending paragraph mark (the beginning of the next paragraph).
Using wdCollapseEnd to collapse a selection that refers to the last table row causes the cursor to be
located after the end of the table.
Using wdCollapseStart to collapse a selection that refers to a table row causes the cursor to be located
in the first cell of that row. If you collapsed a group of rows, say after inserting them, the cursor is
located in the first cell of the first row.
Selection.Collapse
Collapse the selection to an insertion point at the beginning of the previous selection.
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
Working with Documents
Documents collection consists of all open documents.
Open a named document:
Documents.Open FileName, ConfirmConversions, ReadOnly, AddToRecentFiles, PasswordDocument,
PasswordTemplate, Revert, WritePasswordDocument, WritePasswordTemplate, Format, Encoding,
Visible, OpenConflictDocument, OpenAndRepair, DocumentDirection, NoEncodingDialog
Example:
Documents.Open FileName:="C:\MyFiles\MyDoc.doc", ReadOnly:=True
Documents.Open “c:\data\this.doc”
Close the active document:
ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges, OriginalFormat, RouteDocument
Example:
ActiveDocument.Close wdSaveChanges
Save the active document:
expression.Save(NoPrompt, OriginalFormat)
Example:
ActiveDocument.Save True
Create new empty document:
expression.Add(Template, NewTemplate, DocumentType, Visible)
Example:
Documents.Add
Make a document the active one:
Documents(1).Activate
Documents("Report.doc").Activate
Run-time errors for files and directories:
53 - file not found
55 - file already open
57 - device I/O error
75 - path/file access error
76 - path not found
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Sometimes you need to know the actual filename. The following properties apply to a Document object
and to a Template object.
Property Example
FullName c:\Data\Templates\normal.dot
Name normal.dot
Path c:\Data\Templates
PathSeparator \
Working with Templates
Generally there are two kinds of templates:
1. global template
2. document template
Both templates are identified in the “Templates and Add-Ins” dialog box. They are opened automatically
when you start Word. The universal document template is commonly called
normal.dot and may be
located anywhere on a local drive. When a particular document template is attached to a particular
document, the template is opened when the document is opened.
The Template object applies to the Application and Global objects. It is described somewhat in the
section Inventorying Macros on page
52.
Templates have the same filename properties as Documents.
Working With Files
ActiveDocument is a property that returns a Document object. ActiveDocument.Name returns the
filename of the active document.
You can perform some task for all the files in a given directory. See section
Change Styles in all Word Files
in a Given Directory on page
49 for a sample.
You can perform some task for all the files in a given directory structure. This is described in Microsoft
Access Techniques in the section titled “Walking A Directory Structure” (page 186 the last time I looked).
Working With Styles
Copy a style to a document:
Dim strFilename As String
Dim strTemplate As String
strFilename = ActiveDocument.FullName
strTemplate = "C:\Data\CMS\Template for CMS Operations Guide.dot"
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=strTemplate, Destination:=strFilename,
Name:="Default Paragraph Font", Object:=wdOrganizerObjectStyles
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Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=strTemplate, Destination:=strFilename,
Name:="Bold", Object:= wdOrganizerObjectStyles
Built-in styles cannot be deleted from a document.
Delete a custom style from the document:
Dim strFilename As String
strFilename = ActiveDocument.FullName
Application.OrganizerDelete Source:=strFilename, Name:=”unwantedStyleName”,
Object:=wdOrganizerObjectStyles
List the styles in use in a given document:
Sub ListStylesInUse()
Dim docTem As Document
Set docTem = Documents.Open("c:\Data\From Others\Stacey
Duke\NGI_Detailed_Design_Template_v01.doc")
Dim docNew As Document
Set docNew = Documents.Add
Dim s As Style
For Each s In docTem.Styles
If s.InUse Then
docNew.Activate
Selection.InsertAfter s.NameLocal & vbCrLf
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
End If
Next
End Sub
Does a given style exist in the document? If you try to access a named style that does not exist, you will get
a 5122 run time error, “This style name does not exist.”
Msgbox StyleExists("Heading 1")
Function StyleExists(strStyle as string) as Boolean
Dim t
On Error Resume Next
StyleExists=True
Set t=ActiveDocument.Styles(strStyle)
If Err.Number<>0 then StyleExists=false
Err.Clear
End Function
Working With Path
There are several functions which can be used to work with a path:
CurDir returns or sets the current path-directory. NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE
ActiveDocument.Path is reliable. Use it to get the path of a document that is open.
ChDrive changes the current default drive.
ChDir changes the current default directory.
MkDir creates a directory.
RmDir deletes an empty directory.
Kill deletes one or more files in a drive or directory. If argument is a directory, all the files in that
directory are deleted. Wildcards may be used in filename argument.
ChangeFileOpenDirectory sets the directory in which Word searches for files. The specified
directory’s contents are listed the next time the File Open dialog box is opened.
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Function CurDir returns or sets the current path-directory. If there is no argument, it returns the current
directory. If there is an argument, it sets the current directory to the value of the argument.
Syntax:
CurDir[(drive)]
Example:
' Assume current path on C drive is "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM" (on Microsoft Windows).
' Assume current path on D drive is "D:\EXCEL".
' Assume C is the current drive.
Dim MyPath
MyPath = CurDir ' Returns "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM".
MyPath = CurDir("C") ' Returns "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM".
MyPath = CurDir("D") ' Returns "D:\EXCEL".
ChDrive "D" ' Make "D" the current drive.
ChDir "D:\TMP" ' Make "TMP” the current directory on D drive.
ChDir ".." ' Moves up one directory in Microsoft Windows.
ChDir "MYDIR" ' Make "MYDIR" the current directory on current drive.
MkDir "MYDIR" ' Create directory "MYDIR" on current drive.
MkDir "D:\MYDIR" ' Create directory "MYDIR" on D drive.
RmDir "MYDIR" ' Delete directory "MYDIR" on current drive.
Kill "*.TXT" ' Delete all files ending in .TXT in current directory.
Kill "c:\DATA\THIS.DOC" ' Delete named file in named path.
ChangeFileOpenDirectory "c:\Data\this.doc"
Working With Text
Refer to all text in the current document:
ActiveDocument.Content
Select the whole word in which the cursor is located; cursor may be at the beginning, end, or in the
middle:
Selection.Expand wdWord
InsertAfter is a method of Selection or Range object.
The essential tasks are
(1) position the cursor
(2) enter the text
Interspersing fields in text characters can make this more complex.
You can insert special characters such as quotation marks, tab characters, and nonbreaking hyphens by
using the Visual Basic Chr function. You can also use the following Visual Basic constants: vbCr, vbLf,
vbCrLf, and vbTab.
Entering text is done with a range or selection object. The relevant methods and properties are:
Method
Selection.TypeText. Optionally the text can replace the original contents of the
selection.
Method
Selection.TypeParagraph inserts a new, blank paragraph. If the selection isn't collapsed
to an insertion point, it is replaced by the new paragraph.
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Property Selection/range.Text returns or sets the text.
Method
Selection/range.InsertBefore and Selection/range.InsertAfter which inserts
the specified text at the beginning/end of a selection/range. After this method is applied, the
selection/range expands to include the new text. For the InsertAfter method, if the selection/range
ends with a paragraph mark that also happens to be the end of the document (and perhaps a footer),
the text is inserted before the final paragraph mark.
Method
Selection/range.InsertParagraph replaces the specified range or selection with a
new paragraph.
Method
Selection/range.InsertParagraphAfter inserts a paragraph mark after a
selection/range.
Method
Selection/range.InsertParagraphBefore inserts a paragraph before after a
selection/range.
Method
Selection/range.InsertSymbol inserts a named symbol in place of the specified
selection/range.
Method
Selection/range.Collapse collapses a selection/range to the starting or ending
position. After a selection/range is collapsed, the starting and ending points are equal. If you use
wdCollapseEnd to collapse a range that refers to an entire paragraph, the range is located after the
ending paragraph mark (the beginning of the next paragraph).
Method
Selection/range.Move collapses the specified selection/range (must be object variable)
to its start or end position and then moves the collapsed object by the specified number of units. If
Count is a positive number, the object is collapsed to its end position and moved forward in the
document by the specified number of units. If Count is a negative number, the object is collapsed to
its start position and moved backward by the specified number of units. The default value is 1. You
can also control the collapse direction by using the Collapse method before using the Move method.
If the range or selection is in the middle of a unit or isn't collapsed, moving it to the beginning or
end of the unit counts as moving it one full unit.
This method seems to be a generic version of methods MoveLeft and MoveRight. It seems to be a way of
setting the cursor for actions that necessitate a range, such as inserting a field.
Entering a field is done:
Method
Selection.Fields.Add inserts a field in a named range. If the range isn't collapsed, the
field replaces the range.
Entering a field after text and following it with text requires:
before adding a field: collapse the range
after adding a field: set the range end to the field end
Examples of entering text:
a. With method Selection.TypeText. In the example below a field is entered in between text characters:
Selection.TypeText Text:="Revision: "
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:= _
"SAVEDATE \@ ""M/d/yyyy""
Selection.TypeText Text:=vbTab & "Page "
b. With property range.Text This technique requires additional actions to move the cursor before
and/or after entering text characters and fields.
rf.Text = "My entered text"
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For a footer, the text is usually either new or replaces existing text. Thus the text is written at the
beginning of the area in a sequential manner.
1.1 set a header-footer object = footer
Dim ftr As HeaderFooter
Set ftr = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary)
1.2 set a range object = the range of the header-footer object
Dim rf As Range
Set rf = ftr.Range
1.3 is there text present? If so prompt user to keep or replace.
Dim appTitle As String
Dim msgText As String
appTitle = "Initialize Footer"
msgText = "Footer is not empty. Do you want to replace it?"
If rf.Text <> vbCr Then ' not empty
If MsgBox(msgText, vbYesNo, appTitle) = vbYes Then rf.Text = "" Else Exit
Sub
End If
1.4 enter text characters
rf.InsertBefore Text:="Revision: "
rf.InsertAfter Text:=”Concatenated text.”
The problem is inserting fields in the desired location. My preferred footer is:
Revision: <savedate> , <tab> Page <pagenum> of <numpages><paragraph break>
<filename>
It seems as though the sequence is:
1. insert text “Revision: “ into range (assuming the range is empty, InsertBefore is fine)
2. collapse range to end point
3. insert field savedate
4. collapse range to end point
5. insert tab as vbTab and “page “ with InsertAfter
6. collapse range to end point
7. insert field pagenum
8. collapse range to end point
9. insert text “ of “ with InsertAfter
10. collapse range to end point
11. insert field numpages
12. collapse range to end point
13. insert paragraph break as vbCrLf with InsertAfter
14. collapse range to end point
15. insert field filename
The code that works:
Sub InitFooterNew()
'
' Initialize page footer with save date, page number, and file name.
'
Dim appTitle As String
Dim msgText As String
Dim ftr As HeaderFooter
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Dim rf As Range
Dim fld As Field
appTitle = "Initialize Footer"
msgText = "Footer is not empty. Do you want to replace it?"
Set ftr = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary)
Set rf = ftr.Range
If rf.Text <> vbCr Then ' not empty
If MsgBox(msgText, vbYesNo, appTitle) = vbYes Then rf.Text = "" Else Exit
Sub
End If
rf.InsertBefore Text:="Revision: "
rf.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Set fld = ActiveDocument.Fields.Add(Range:=rf, Type:=wdFieldSaveDate,
Text:="\@ ""M/d/yyyy""", _
PreserveFormatting:=False)
rf.End = fld.Result.End
rf.InsertAfter Text:=vbTab & "Page "
rf.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=rf, Type:=wdFieldPage,
PreserveFormatting:=False
rf.End = fld.Result.End
rf.InsertAfter Text:=" of "
rf.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=rf, Type:=wdFieldNumPages,
PreserveFormatting:=False
rf.End = fld.Result.End
rf.InsertParagraphAfter
rf.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=rf, Type:=wdFieldFileName, Text:="\p",
PreserveFormatting:=False
End Sub
------------
I found this code to add text to every footer. The StoryType property has a wd constant, the values in the
macro are
8 = wdEvenPagesFooterStory
9 = wdPrimaryFooterStor
11 = wdFirstPageFooterStory
Sub InsertTextAfterCurrentTextInFooters()
Dim myRng As Range
For Each myRng In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
Select Case myRng.StoryType
Case Is = 8, 9, 11
Do
myRng.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
myRng.InsertAfter vbCr & "Your text here"
Set myRng = myRng.NextStoryRange
Loop Until myRng Is Nothing
Case Else
'Do nothing
End Select
Next
End Sub
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Portrait and Landscape
Macros are useful for changing the orientation of document text. In addition the margins and styles of
the page headers and footers must be changed accordingly.
Sub MakeSectionLandscape()
' First, set orientation and margins
' Second, correct headers and footers: link to previous, styles, page numbering
Dim cntSections, thisSection, nextSection
cntSections = ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
thisSection = Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
Landscape
'x = MsgBox("Count of sections = " + CStr(cntSections), vbOKOnly)
'y = MsgBox("Number of this section = " + CStr(thisSection), vbOKOnly)
If thisSection < cntSections Then
nextSection = thisSection + 1
ActiveDocument.Sections(nextSection).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevi
ous = False
ActiveDocument.Sections(nextSection).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevi
ous = False
End If
With ActiveDocument.Sections(thisSection).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary) '
this section
.LinkToPrevious = False
.Range.Style = "HeaderLandscape"
End With
With ActiveDocument.Sections(thisSection).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary)
.LinkToPrevious = False
.PageNumbers.RestartNumberingAtSection = False
.Range.Style = "FooterLandscape"
End With
End Sub
Sub MakeSectionPortrait()
' First, set orientation and margins
' Second, correct headers and footers: link to previous, styles, page numbering
Dim cntSections, thisSection, nextSection
cntSections = ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
thisSection = Selection.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
Portrait
'x = MsgBox("Count of sections = " + CStr(cntSections), vbOKOnly)
'y = MsgBox("Number of this section = " + CStr(thisSection), vbOKOnly)
If thisSection < cntSections Then
nextSection = thisSection + 1
ActiveDocument.Sections(nextSection).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevi
ous = False
ActiveDocument.Sections(nextSection).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevi
ous = False
End If
With ActiveDocument.Sections(thisSection).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary) '
this section
.LinkToPrevious = False
.Range.Style = "Header"
End With
With ActiveDocument.Sections(thisSection).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary)
.LinkToPrevious = False
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.PageNumbers.RestartNumberingAtSection = False
.Range.Style = "Footer"
End With
End Sub
Sub Portrait()
' sets page layout to Portrait
'
With Selection.PageSetup
.Orientation = wdOrientPortrait
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(1.25)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(1.25)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.4)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.3)
End With
End Sub
Sub Landscape()
With Selection.PageSetup
.Orientation = wdOrientLandscape
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.4)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.3)
End With
End Sub
Sub MakeHeaderLandscape()
If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
End If
If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveWindow. _
ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
End If
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("HeaderLandscape")
Selection.EscapeKey
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("FooterLandscape")
Selection.EscapeKey
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
End Sub
Document Properties
A Document object can have one or more DocumentProperty objects. There are two kinds of document
properties: built-in and custom. Each kind has its own collection of DocumentProperty objects. The
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basic elements of a document property are its name and value; the DocumentProperty object has
corresponding properties of the same name.
You can return a collection of document properties. You can return a specific document property. And
you can add, change, and delete members of the collection.
Use the BuiltInDocumentProperties property to return the collection of built-in document
properties.
Use the CustomDocumentProperties property to return the collection of custom document
properties.
Use a constant to refer to a specific document property:
Dim intWords As Integer
intWords = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(wdPropertyWords)
Set the value of a specific document property:
ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Title").Value = "CMS Operations
Guide"
Use a literal to refer to a specific document property. But be careful because if the document
property does not exist, an error will occur.
x = ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties("VersionNum").Value
x = Documents("Sales.doc").CustomDocumentProperties("VersionNum").Value
Use the Add method to add a property to a collection.
Documents("Sales.doc").CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="YourName", LinkToContent:=False, Value:=thename, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString
Page Numbering
Page numbering is usually done with field codes: Page, SectionPages, and NumPages. The field codes
have optional switches for the style of the number (e.g., roman or arabic).
PageNumbers collection. Use PageNumbers(index), where index is the index number, to return a single
PageNumber object. In most cases, a header or footer contains only one page number, which is index
number 1.
PageNumbers(1).Alignment = wdAlignPageNumberCenter
PageNumbers properties: | Application Property | ChapterPageSeparator Property | Count Property |
Creator Property | DoubleQuote Property | HeadingLevelForChapter Property | IncludeChapterNumber
Property | NumberStyle Property | Parent Property | RestartNumberingAtSection Property |
ShowFirstPageNumber Property | StartingNumber Property. Note that formatting properties apply to all
objects in the collection.
PageNumbers methods: | Add Method | Item Method
PageNumbers parent Objects: | HeaderFooter
Determine the page number at the current cursor position
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Selection.Information (wdActiveEndPageNumber)
Determine the number of pages in a document
Selection.Information(NumberOfPagesInDocument)
ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Number of Pages")
ActiveDocument.Content.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticPages)
The third method is the most reliable, but the slowest.
Lists
ActiveDocument.Lists
returns the Lists collection
For Each li In
ActiveDocument.Lists
returns an individual list; lists are in reverse order, from the end
of the document forward
List.ListParagraph
returns all the paragraphs in the list
List.SingleListTemplate
returns True/False if the entire list uses the same list template
List.StyleName
returns the name of the style
List.CanContinuePreviousList
returns a WdContinue constant that indicates whether
formatting from previous list can be continued:
wdContinueDisabled
wdContinueList
wdResetList
Working with Tables
The hierarchy of relevant objects. Collection names are followed by en empty pair of parentheses:
Tables()
Table
Rows()
Row
Cells()
Cell
Columns()
Column
Cells()
Cell
Borders()
Border
Shading
Range
Cells()
Cell
How many tables are there in the document:
ActiveDocument.Tables.Count
How to tell if the cursor is in a table:
If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) = True. . .
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Select the table in which the cursor is located:
Selection.Tables(1)
Select the first table.
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Range.Select
or
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Select
Deselect the table while leaving cursor at the beginning of it:
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Create a table at the current cursor position. The Range object is required, it is the range where you want
the table to appear. The table replaces the range, if the range isn't collapsed.
ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Range:=Selection.Range, NumRows:=1, NumColumns:=4,
DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord9TableBehavior
Create a table at the beginning of the document:
Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=0, End:=0)
ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Range:=myRange, NumRows:=3, NumColumns:=4
Move to the next cell on the right:
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Select the last row in a table:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Last.Range.Select
Insert one row when the cursor is in the table:
Selection.InsertRows 1
Insert one row regardless of where cursor is, add a row after the first row:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Add BeforeRow:=.Rows(1)
Insert a row at the bottom of a table:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Add
Make the first row in the selected table a repeating heading row:
Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).HeadingFormat = True
Is the second row in the selected table a repeating heading row:
If Selection.Tables(1).Rows(2).HeadingFormat = True
Then . . .
Change the font formats within the selected table:
Selection.Tables(1).Range.Font.Size = 9
Change the font formats within a row:
Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).Range.Font.Italic = True
Set a paragraph format within a row:
Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).Range.ParagraphFormat.KeepWithNext = True
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Generally formatting all table rows is done like:
With Selection.Tables(1)
.AllowAutoFit = False
.TopPadding = InchesToPoints(0.03)
.BottomPadding = InchesToPoints(0.03)
.LeftPadding = InchesToPoints(0.08)
.RightPadding = InchesToPoints(0.08)
With .Borders(wdBorderLeft)
.LineStyle = wdLineStyleDouble
.LineWidth = wdLineWidth050pt
.Color = wdColorGray25
End With
End With
Select the table that is the subject of a variable (set via the object model):
Dim i As Long
Dim docTables As Tables
Set docTables = ActiveDocument.Tables
With docTables
For i = 1 To .Count
With docTables(i)
. . .
docTables(i).Select
. . .
End With
Next
End With
Iterate through all tables in the active document:
Dim i as Long
With ActiveDocument.Tables
For i = 1 To .Count
. . .
Next
End With
Delete a single row:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows(1).Delete
Caution when deleting a group of rows: if you use a For loop to delete rows 3 through 7 of a 7-row table,
when you delete row 3, the next row becomes 3; your code will fail trying to access a row that is no longer
in the table (4). In this case use a reverse loop, starting with the last row and deleting the previous ones.
Delete the contents of a row, leaving the row empty:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows(2).Select
Selection.Delete
Delete all but the first row (this example is a backwards loop):
For i = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Count To 2 Step -1
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows(i).Delete
Next
Sort a table:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Sort ExcludeHeader:=True, FieldNuumber:=1,
SortFieldType:=wdSortFieldAlphanumeric, SortOrder:=wdSortOrderAscending
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Up to two more columns may be specified for the sort as FieldNumber2 and FieldNumber3.
ExcludeHeader is by default false. SortFieldType is by default alphanumeric. SortOrder is by default
ascending. The default “field” is the first column. Hence this next example is the same as the first example:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Sort ExcludeHeader:=True
Count rows and columns., This makes a handy tool to add to a toolbar or menu.
Dim rCnt1, rCnt2, x
rCnt1 = Selection.Tables(1).Rows.Count
rCnt2 = Selection.Tables(1).Columns.Count
x = MsgBox("Row count = " + CStr(rCnt1) + ", Column count = " + CStr(rCnt2),
vbOKOnly)
Addressing Table Cells
Use Cell(row, column), where row is the row number and column is the column number, or Cells(index),
where index is the index number, to return a Cell object. The following example applies shading to the
second cell in the first row.
Set myCell = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(Row:=1, Column:=2)
myCell.Shading.Texture = wdTexture20Percent
Word adds a end-of-cell mark, Chr(07), at the end of each cell.
The contents of a cell can be accessed with the Range object: Note, this also returns the end-of-cell
marker.
Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1,2).Range
this may not work, you may have to do more:
Set myTable = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Range(myTable.Cell(1, 1).Range.Start,
myTable.Cell(1, 2).Range.End)
Or:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1,2).Range.Text = “wow”
Return cell contents without end-of-cell marker (not sure this is necessary):
Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1, 2).Range
myRange.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
cellText = myRange.Text
Set value of a cell:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1,1).Range.Text = “this text”
Delete the contents of a cell:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1,1).Select
Selection.Delete
Delete a cell (why would you ever do this?):
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1,1).Delete
Return a numbered cell in the last row of a table:
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Last.Cells(1)
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Rows.Last.Cells(2) )
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DIALOG BOXES
Message Box Object
The basic syntax is
MsgBox(prompt[, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])
The button constants are:
The first group of values describes the number and type of buttons displayed in the dialog box; the second
group describes the icon style; the third group determines which button is the default; and the fourth
group determines the modality of the message box. Buttons can be combined—no more than one button
from each group—by adding their numbers You can add numbers:
vbYesNo + vbCritical
vbOKOnly Display OK button only.
vbOKCancel Display OK and Cancel buttons.
vbAbortRetryIgnore Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons.
vbYesNoCancel Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons.
vbYesNo Display Yes and No buttons.
vbRetryCancel Display Retry and Cancel buttons.
vbCritical Display Critical Message icon.
vbQuestion Display Warning Query icon.
vbExclamation Display Warning Message icon.
vbInformation Display Information Message icon.
vbDefaultButton1 First button is default.
vbDefaultButton2 Second button is default.
vbDefaultButton3 Third button is default.
vbDefaultButton4 Fourth button is default.
vbApplicationModal Application modal; the user must respond to the message box
before continuing work in the current application.
vbSystemModal System modal; all applications are suspended until the user
responds to the message box.
vbMsgBoxHelpButton Adds Help button to the message box
VbMsgBoxSetForeground Specifies the message box window as the foreground window
vbMsgBoxRight Text is right aligned
MsgBox can return an integer corresponding to the button selected:
vbOK OK
vbCancel Cancel
vbAbort Abort
vbRetry Retry
vbIgnore Ignore
vbYes Yes
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vbNo No
Present Information
Dim msgTitle as String, msgText as String
msgTitle = "the process title"
msgText = "Count of sections = " + CStr(cntSections)
MsgBox msgText, vbOKOnly, msgTitle
Prompt User for Choices
You can use MsgBox to prompt the user for simple choices by directing the user to press a button that
corresponds with a certain condition.
msgTitle = "Aggregate Document Files for NPI Business Requirements"
msgText = "Where are the the document files located? " + vbCrLf
msgText = msgText + "Select [Yes] for " & HomeDirectory + vbCrLf
msgText = msgText + "Select [No] for " & WorkDirectory
c = MsgBox(msgText, vbYesNoCancel, msgTitle)
On Error Resume Next
Select Case c
Case vbYes
ChangeFileOpenDirectory (HomeDirectory)
Case vbNo
ChangeFileOpenDirectory (WorkDirectory)
Case Else
Exit Sub
End Select
If Err.Number = 4172 Then
msgText = "That directory does not exist. Stopping."
MsgBox msgText, vbOKOnly, msgTitle
Exit Sub
End If
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
Dialog Object
The object model has a Dialogs collection that represents all the built-in dialog boxes in Word. The
collection has two parents: Application and Global.
Use Dialogs(index), where index is a wdWordDialog constant that identifies the dialog box, to return a
single Dialog object. Dialog boxes you are likely to use include:
wdDialogEditFind
wdDialogFileFind
wdDialogFileOpen
wdDialogFilePrint
wdDialogFileSaveAs
The Dialog object has methods:
Display: Displays the specified built-in Word dialog box until either the user closes it or the
specified amount of time has passed.
Execute: Applies the current settings of a Microsoft Word dialog box.
Show: Displays and carries out actions initiated in the specified built-in Word dialog box.
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Update: Updates the values shown in a built-in Microsoft Word dialog box.
The Show method of the Dialog object displays and executes any action taken in a built-in Word dialog
box. The return value (Long) indicates which button was clicked to close the dialog box:
Return value Description
-2 The Close button.
-1 The OK button.
0 (zero) The Cancel button.
> 0 (zero) A command button: 1 is the first button, 2 is the second button, and so on.
Open a particular dialog box:
Dialogs(wdDialogFileOpen).Show
This example displays the built-in Find dialog box, with "Hello" in the Find What box.
Dim dlgFind As Dialog
Set dlgFind = Dialogs(wdDialogEditFind)
With dlgFind
.Find = "Hello"
.Show
End With
This example displays the built-in Open dialog box showing all file types.
With Dialogs(wdDialogFileOpen)
.Name = "*.*"
.Show
End With
This example prints the active document, using the settings from the Print dialog box.
Dialogs(wdDialogFilePrint).Execute
Prompt User for File(s) or Directory with FileFind Dialog –
OBSOLETE
This used to work, but the better approach with Word 2003 is to use the FileDialog object.
Dim pn, r, t, m
r = MsgBox("Select directory from the following window, then [Open].",
vbOKCancel, t)
If r = vbCancel Then End
With Dialogs(wdDialogFileFind)
.Display
.Update
pn = .SearchPath
End With
m = "Confirm directory: " + pn
r = MsgBox(m, vbOKCancel, t)
If r = vbCancel Then End
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FileDialog Object
New with Office 2003 is the FileDialog object. It provides file dialog box functionality similar to the
functionality of the standard Open and Save dialog boxes found in Microsoft Office applications.
The object can to used in four ways, determined by a single parameter, DialogType:
Constant Action
msoFileDialogOpen lets users select one or more files that you can then open in the host
application using the Execute method
msoFileDialogSaveAs lets users select a single file that you can then save the current file as
using the Execute method
msoFileDialogFilePicker lets users select one or more files; the file paths that the user selects are
captured in the FileDialogSelectedItems collection
msoFileDialogFolderPicker lets users select a path; the path that the user selects is captured in the
FileDialogSelectedItems collection
It has two methods:
Execute: carries out a user's action right after the Show method is invoked.
Show: Displays a file dialog box and returns a Long indicating whether the user pressed the action
button (-1) or the cancel button (0). When you call the Show method, no more code will execute
until the user dismisses the file dialog box. In the case of Open and SaveAs dialog boxes, use the
Execute method right after the Show method to carry out the user's action.
Has properties:
AllowMultiSelect: if the user is allowed to select multiple files from a file dialog box. Has no effect
on Folder Picker dialog boxes or SaveAs dialog boxes because users should never be able to select
multiple files in these types of file dialog boxes.
InitialFileName: Set or returns a String representing the path and/or file name that is initially
displayed in a file dialog box.
Title: Sets or returns the title of a file dialog box displayed using the FileDialog object.
Display the Open dialog box and limit the user to select only one item:
Dim dlgOpen As FileDialog
Set dlgOpen = Application.FileDialog( FileDialogType:=msoFileDialogOpen)
With dlgOpen
.AllowMultiSelect = False
.Show
End With
The FileDialog object has two sub objects.
FileDialogSelectedItems
FileDialogFilter
FileDialogFilter object represents a file filter in a file dialog box displayed through the FileDialog object.
Each file filter determines which files are displayed in the file dialog box. It has a collection
FileDialogFilters.
Access the collection:
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Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).Filters
Clear the default filters:
Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker).Filters.Clear
Add a filter that includes all files:
Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker).Filters.Add "All files", "*.*"
Add a filter that includes GIF and JPEG images and make it the first item in the list:
Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker).Filters.Add "Images", "*.gif;
*.jpg; *.jpeg", 1
Prompt User to Select Folder with FileDialog FolderPicker
This code can be used in a number of places.
dim strDir As String
strDir = PromptForDirectory
If strDir = "" Then Exit Sub
. . .
Function PromptForDirectory()
‘ returns empty string if no directory selected
Dim strDir As String
Dim r As Long
Dim dlgOpen As FileDialog
Set dlgOpen = Application.FileDialog(FileDialogType:=msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
repeat:
With dlgOpen
.Title = "Select Directory"
.InitialFileName = "C:\"
.AllowMultiSelect = False
If .Show = 0 Then
r = MsgBox("Do you want to cancel this macro?", vbYesNo, "Select
Directory")
If r = vbYes Then
Exit Function
Else
GoTo repeat
End If
End If
strDir = .SelectedItems(1)
End With
r = MsgBox("You selected " & strDir, vbYesNo, "Select Directory")
If r = vbNo Then GoTo repeat
PromptForDirectory = strDir
End Function
DOCUMENTING YOUR SHORTCUT KEYS
This can be done with VBA.
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About Keyboard Shortcut Keys
Shortcut keys—combinations of keys—can be assigned to menu items, toolbar items, macros, Word
commands, styles, fonts, and common symbols. Menu and toolbar items have Alt shortcut keys which are
identified by underlining. For example, the File menu is presented in the menu bar as F
ile where the
underlining indicates that [Alt+F] is the shortcut key.
There are two ways of creating custom shortcut keys:
For menu and toolbar items, open the Customize dialog box, select the desired menu or toolbar
item, then click [Modify Selection] to open a context menu. In the Name text box, type the
ampersand character (&) to the left of the letter you want to use for an Alt shortcut key.
For all objects, open the Customize Keyboard dialog box, select the desired object as an item in a
category, enter the desired shortcut key combination, and save it. If you assign an Alt shortcut key
that is already in use (as visible on the menu or a toolbar), your new assignment has precedence
(until you delete it). So use caution.
Run This Code
1. Open an empty Word document.
2. Run the code:
CustomizationContext = NormalTemplate
For Each aKey In KeyBindings
Selection.InsertAfter aKey.Command & vbTab _
& aKey.KeyString & vbCr
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Next aKey
3. Select all text in the Word document and convert text to a table separating text into columns with
tabs.
4. Reformat the table to suit yourself.
Or run:
Sub DocumentKeys()
Documents.Add DocumentType:=wdNewBlankDocument
CustomizationContext = NormalTemplate
For Each aKey In KeyBindings
Selection.InsertAfter aKey.Command & vbTab _
& aKey.KeyString & vbCr
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Next aKey
MsgBox "Count of custom shortcut keys = " & KeyBindings.Count
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.ConvertToTable Separator:=wdSeparateByTabs, NumColumns:=2, _
AutoFitBehavior:=wdAutoFitContent
With Selection.Tables(1)
.AllowPageBreaks = False
.AllowAutoFit = True
.Style = "Table Grid"
.ApplyStyleHeadingRows = True
.ApplyStyleLastRow = True
.ApplyStyleFirstColumn = True
.ApplyStyleLastColumn = True
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End With
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
End Sub
You can differentiate between types of commands easily. They are typically either style names, Word
command names, or macro names. The latter have names like Normal.General.Keep; Normal is the name
of the template file, General is the name of the module, and Keep is the name of the macro.
DOM Background
The relevant DOM collection is KeyBindings. This is a collection of KeyBinding objects that represent
the custom key assignments in the current context. (Custom key assignments are made in the Customize
Keyboard dialog box.) The collection excludes Alt keys assigned to menu and toolbar items. The
collection is returned by property KeyBindings, a property of the Application and Global objects.
Property Context: Returns an object that represents the storage location of the specified key binding.
Note that built-in key assignments (for example, CTRL+I for Italic) return the Application object as the
context. Any key bindings you add will return a Document or Template object, depending on the
customization context in effect when the KeyBinding object was added.
Methods:
Item: returns a single item; expression.Item(Index)
Key: Returns a KeyBinding object that represents the specified custom key combination. If the key
combination doesn't exist, this method returns Nothing.
MsgBox KeyBindings(1).Command
Property CustomizationContext: Returns or sets a Template or Document object that represents the
template or document in which changes to menu bars, toolbars, and key bindings are stored. Corresponds
to the value of the Save in box on the Commands tab in the Customize dialog box. Applies to the
Application object and to the Global object.
Examples:
CustomizationContext = NormalTemplate
CustomizationContext = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate
Object KeyBinding: Represents a custom key assignment in the current context.
Application Property
Command Property: the command assigned to the key combination
CommandParameter Property: the command parameter
Context Property: the storage location (example: normal.dot)
Creator Property
KeyCategory Property: WdKeyCategory constants:
wdKeyCategoryAutoText
wdKeyCategoryCommand
wdKeyCategoryDisable
wdKeyCategoryFont
wdKeyCategoryMacro
wdKeyCategoryNil
wdKeyCategoryPrefix
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wdKeyCategoryStyle
wdKeyCategorySymbol
KeyCode Property: unique number for first key in the combination
KeyCode2 Property: unique number for second key in the combination
KeyString Property: the key combination string for the specified keys (for example, CTRL+SHIFT+A)
Parent Property
Protected Property
FIELD CODES IN VBA
The Fields collection belongs to three objects: Document, Range, and Selection.
There is a Fields collection and a Field object. The Fields collection is a child of Range and Selection.
The Field object has properties:
Code
property returns a Range object that contains all the text enclosed by the { } including leading
and trailing spaces.
Result
property returns a Range object that represents the field’s result.
Type
property returns an expression that is a value of the WdfieldType constant. Sample values:
wdFieldNumPages, wdFieldPage, wdFieldSaveDate, wdFieldSectionPages, wdFieldSequence,
wdFieldIndex, wdFieldIndexEntry, wdFieldTOC.
Kind
property identifies the field as a constant value:
wdFieldKindCold has no result
wdFieldKindHot result is automatically updated
wdFieldKindNone invalid
wdFieldKindWarm result auto updated when source changes or can be manually updated
Field methods:
Select
Copy
Cut: removes the field and puts it on the Clipboard.
Delete
Add
Update: updates the field’s result.
A Range object’s Text
property returns the text in the range. Can be useful for extracting the text in a
field’s result.
The Add method: Adds a Field object to the Fields collection. Returns the Field object at the specified
range.
expression.Add(Range, Type, Text, PreserveFormatting)
expression Required. An expression that returns a Fields object.
Range Required Range object. The range where you want to add the field. If the range isn't
collapsed, the field replaces the range.
Type Optional Variant. Can be any WdFieldType constant. The default value is wdFieldEmpty.
Text Optional Variant. Additional text needed for the field. For example, if you want to specify a
switch for the field, you would add it here.
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PreserveFormatting Optional Variant. True to have the formatting that's applied to the field
preserved during updates.
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, _
Type:=wdFieldListNum, Text:="\s 3"
To remove all XE field codes:
Dim fld As Field
For each fld in ActiveDocument.Fields
If fld.Type = wdFieldIndexEntry Then fld.Delete
Next
If you iterate through field codes at the Document level, you only access those in the Main Text story. To
iterate through all field codes in the document, you have to iterate through the StoryRanges at the top
level, then for each StoryRange you can iterate through its Fields collection.
You can access fields in page headers/footers with the HeadersFooters collection.
How to access a particular field code? How to learn if a document has a particular field code?
Access the nth field code: ActiveDocument.Fields(n)
x = ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryFooterStory).Fields.Count
Field methods:
Unlink: replaces the field with its most recent result (converts it to plain text)
When a document has a table of contents created by the TOC field code, an iteration of the Fields
collection will return one field for the TOC itself (13) and two fields for each TOC entry (37
FieldPageRef and 88 Hyperlink).
Dim sty as Range
Dim fc As Field
For Each sty in MyDoc.StoryRanges
If sty.Fields.Count <> 0 Then
For Each fc In sty.Fields
MsgBox “
Select Case fc.Type
Case wdFieldSaveDate
fc.Unlink
Case wdFieldDate
fc.Delete
Case wdFieldPrintDate
fc.Delete
End Select
Next fc
End If
Next sty
Index Object
The Index object is a member of the collection Indexes. It has properties:
Type: constant wdIndexType has values wdIndexRunin, wdIndexIndent.
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Methods:
Update: updates the values.
Table of Contents
The object is TableOfContents. It belongs to the collection TablesOfContents, which belongs to the
object Document.
Methods:
UpdatePageNumbers: updates only the page numbers.
Update: updates the entries (“update entire table”).
ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
The following code updates the page numbers in TOCs other than the first one. This is useful in a multi-
chapter document with a master TOC and individual chapter TOCs.
Dim t as TableOfContents
For Each t in ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents
If not t is ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1) Then
t.UpdatePageNumbers
End If
Next
or
Dim t as TableOfContents
For Each t in ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents
If t is ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1) Then
t.Update
Else
t.UpdatePageNumbers
End If
Next
RD Field Code
URL strings always encode space characters to prevent the possibility of being misunderstood. URL
encoding of a character consists of a "%" symbol, followed by the two-digit hexadecimal representation
(case-insensitive) of the ISO-Latin code point for the character. As hex 20 is the representation of a space,
“%20” is used in lieu of the space character in URL-encoded strings.
When you copy a filename from a website into an RD field, it will be encoded. And while you can create
an RD field with spaces in the filename, the filename becomes encoded after the document with the RD
field is saved. For instance,
“RD “Using%20SharePoint.doc” \f”
The encoded value may be useful when the file in question resides on a web server, but not on a file server.
Use a simple function like the following example to replace “%20” with a space.
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Private Function URLDecode(URLtoDecode As String) As String
URLDecode = Replace(URLtoDecode, "%20", " ")
End Function
Field Codes and Page Numbers
If you needed to change a switch in a field code, you would have to edit the Result property. If you
needed to change the numbering style, you might do some string manipulation
NUMPAGES \* roman
NUMPAGES \* arabic
Replace(Field.Code, “arabic”, “roman”)
Or you could replace one field with another. In the following example, the cursor is immediately to the
left of a Page field:
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:= _
"PAGE \* roman ", PreserveFormatting:=True
Why would you need to do this when the HeaderFooter.PageNumbers property is supposed to return a
PageNumbers collection that represents all
the page number fields included in the specified header or
footer? Because when I changed the PageNumbers.NumberStyle property, the NumPages field did not
change, only the Page field.
How would you find the page number field codes?
PAGE HEADERS AND FOOTERS
HeadersFooters is the main collection, has HeaderFooter objects. A collection belongs to each section,
e.g., ActiveDocument.Sections(n).
Each section can have several HeaderFooter objects represented by the following WdHeaderFooterIndex
constants: wdHeaderFooterEvenPages, wdHeaderFooterFirstPage, and wdHeaderFooterPrimary (returns
an odd-numbered header/footer when there are different odd and even ones).
Headers property returns a HeadersFooters collection that represents the headers for the specified section
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage)
.Range.InsertAfter("First Page Text")
.Range.Paragraphs.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphRight
End With
Footers
property returns a HeadersFooters collection that represents the footers for the specified section
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1)
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Text = "Header text"
.Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Text = "Footer text"
End With
The Exist property indicates if the specified type of header/footer exists.
If secTemp.Headers(wdHeaderFooterFirstPage).Exists = True Then . . .
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The InsertAfter method inserts the specified text at the end of a Range object or Selection object. After
this method is applied, the range or selection expands to include the new text. If you use this method
with a range or selection that refers to an entire paragraph, the text is inserted after the ending paragraph
mark (the text will appear at the beginning of the next paragraph). To insert text at the end of a
paragraph, determine the ending point and subtract 1 from this location (the paragraph mark is one
character), as shown in the following example.
Set doc = ActiveDocument
Set rngRange = _
doc.Range(doc.Paragraphs(1).Start, _
doc.Paragraphs(1).End - 1)
rngRange.InsertAfter _
" This is now the last sentence in paragraph one."
HeaderFooter objects can have a Range sub-object but not a Selection sub-object. The Range object is
established with the Range property:
ActiveDocument.Section(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range
Text can be inserted at the end of a header with the InsertAfter property on a Range object.
ActiveDocument.Section(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter
“Draft”
ActiveDocument.Section(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter
vbCrLf + “Draft”
To select the inserted paragraph, use the Paragraphs collection:
ActiveDocument.Section(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs(Last)
To apply a style to a Range object:
Selection.Range.Style = "Bolded"
ActiveDocument.Section(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs.Last.
Style = "Watermark"
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Watermark")
To do something to every header, do it for each header in each section (but perhaps not to headers linked
to previous ones, see below):
Sub PutWatermarkTextInAllHeaders()
' inserts text at end of each header
WorkDirectory = "C:\Data\NPI Requirements\"
ChangeFileOpenDirectory (WorkDirectory)
Documents.Open FileName:="All Business Requirements.doc"
Dim sec As Section
Dim cnt As Integer
Dim s As Integer
cnt = ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
'For Each sec In ActiveDocument.Sections 1 skip first page
For s = 2 To cnt
Set sec = ActiveDocument.Sections(s)
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter vbCrLf + "Draft"
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs.Last.Style =
ActiveDocument.Styles("Watermark")
Next
End Sub
Property LinkToPrevious returns True/False reflecting if current HeaderFooter object is linked to the
previous one. Can be used to change the setting. If you put a two-column table inside a continuous
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section break, you do not want to change that section’s header. Continuous sections are linked to the
previous heading. The following code works when only continuous sections are linked to the previous
heading. (On the other hand there’s no point in changing a header that is linked to a previous one.)
If sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = False Then ' ignore
section break continuous
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter vbCrLf + "Draft"
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs.Last.Style =
ActiveDocument.Styles("Watermark")
End If
ASSEMBLING MULTI-FILE DOCUMENTS
Large and/or complex documents can be written such that each chapter is its own file and the entire
document is assembled by concatenating the chapter files with VBA code and saved as a single file. The
key issues for this assembly are:
maintaining page headers and footers
maintaining page margins
maintaining page numbers and styles
handling a mix of page orientations (landscape and portrait)
Approach
The approach I use these days is as follows:
a. Use a master document that contains the front matter (title page, revision history, TOC, list of
figures) and the macro that concatenates the chapter files. The user opens this file and runs the
macro. The macro does the rest.
b. Prompt user for directory in which to save the finished document.
c. Move cursor to the end of the document.
d. Insert each file. Before all but the first file insert a section break next page.
e. When an inserted file has a landscape orientation, before inserting it change the orientation of the
open document and change the styles of the page header and footer text. After inserting the file and
the section break next page, reset the orientation to portrait and change the styles of the page header
and footer.
f. After the last file:
g. Update the table of contents.
h. For any chapter table of contents, update only its page numbers.
i. Save the file with a new name in the location from step b.
j. Remove all macros from the new file.
k. Leave document open on first page in print layout view.
Now you should check the new document for correctness. Check the table of contents for correct page
numbering. Check the page headers and footers to be sure that the title page has none, that they match
each page’s orientation, and that they reflect the correct chapter name. If you find problems, you must
make a note of them, close this file, correct the chapter files, and start over. When all is well, change the
version number and revision date on the title page and save the document with a different name.
Some formatting details:
The master document has portrait orientation.
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Each page is in its own section, i.e., there is a section break next page between each page, including
after the last page.
The title page has no header and footer.
The other front matter pages share the same header and footer. The last page—where the first
chapter file will be inserted—is not linked to the previous header and footer.
Page numbering starts on the second page with “ii”. Page numbering on the last page is reset to start
with “1”.
The chapter files have the same size of header and footer so they will look seamless when
concatenated.
The chapter files have one header and footer. They do not have different header/footer for the first
page, nor do they have different ones for odd and even pages. If your chapters have several headers
and/or footers, you may have to tinker with the code here.
Code Samples
Prompt User for Directory of New File
Sub GetDir()
Dim strDir As String
With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
.InitialFileName = "C:\"
.Show
strDir = .SelectedItems(1)
End With
MsgBox "You selected " & strDir
End Sub
Insert Chapter Files
The key method is InsertFile. Each file is inserted in order, preceded by a page break next section. Care
must be taken to know where the cursor is. After InsertFile the cursor is at the end of the contents of the
inserted file. Because this may change with different versions of Word, be sure to confirm this with a test.
If the cursor does not move you will need code to move the cursor: Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory.
‘ use strChapDir only if documents are in a different directory
Dim strChapDir As String
strChapDir = "\\www.your-url.com\whee\more\"
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory ' go to end of doc
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
Selection.InsertFile FileName:=strChapDir & "Component Design.doc"
LinkFooterToPrevious
Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakNextPage
When a chapter begins in landscape orientation, change the orientation in the new document to match.
Landscape ‘ a subroutine
Selection.InsertFile . . . ‘ landscape file
When the previous chapter ended in landscape and the new one is portrait, change the orientation in the
new document to match.
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Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakNextPage
Portait
Selection.InsertFile . . . ‘ portrait file
Insert Section Break Odd Page
When you are compiling a document to be printed on both sides (duplex), you may want it to adhere to
the book publishing verso-recto convention: the first page of the “book,” of each section, and the first
chapter of a section, is a recto page (right-handed). All recto pages will have odd numbers and all verso
pages (left-handed) will have even numbers.
The way to make this happen is by setting Mirror Margins on and using section break next page (yes,
there is a wdSectionBreakOddPage, but it does not work the way you want or expect.)
Dim r As Integer
r = MsgBox("Will document be printed duplex?", vbYesNo, "Build Operations
Guide")
If r = vbYes Then ActiveDocument.PageSetup.mirrormargins = True
Then when you
Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdSectionBreakNextPage
it will insert a section break odd page at the correct point.
Update Main Table of Contents
ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1).Update
Update Main Table of Figures
ActiveDocument.TablesOfFigures(1).Update
Save New Document
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDir & "All One File.doc", FileFormat:=_
wdFormatDocument, AddToRecentFiles:=True
Update Chapter Tables of Contents
Sub UpdateChapterTOCs()
Dim t As TableOfContents
For Each t In ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents
If Not t Is ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents(1) Then
t.UpdatePageNumbers
End If
Next
End Sub
Update Indices
Sub UpdateIndexes()
Dim it As Index
For Each i In ActiveDocument.Indexes
i.Update
Next
End Sub
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Delete Macros in New Document
In this code, the macros reside in a module named BuildDocuments.
Sub DeleteModuleInAll()
Application.OrganizerDelete Source:=ActiveDocument.Name, _
Name:="BuildDocuments", Object:=wdOrganizerObjectProjectItems
End Sub
Subroutines
Sub LinkFooterToPrevious()
With Selection.Sections(1).Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).PageNumbers
.NumberStyle = wdPageNumberStylearabic
.RestartNumberingAtSection = False
End With
With Selection.Sections(1)
.Footers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = True
End With
End Sub
Sub Portrait()
' First, set orientation and margins
' Second, change styles
With Selection.PageSetup
.Orientation = wdOrientPortrait
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(0.9)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(1.25)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(1.25)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.4)
End With
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Header")
Selection.EscapeKey
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Footer")
Selection.EscapeKey
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
End Sub
Sub Landscape()
With Selection.PageSetup
.Orientation = wdOrientLandscape
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(1.1)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(0.9)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.4)
End With
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
Selection.WholeStory
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Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("HeaderLandscape")
Selection.EscapeKey
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("FooterLandscape")
Selection.EscapeKey
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
End Sub
Variations
Sub SetVersionNumber()
msgText = "Which version of the document is this?"
Dim v As String
v = InputBox(msgText, msgTitle, cv)
ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="VersionNum", LinkToContent:=False, Value:=v, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString
End Sub
Sub DraftWatermark()
' insert draft watermark
msgText = "Do you want the DRAFT watermark to appear in the document?"
c = MsgBox(msgText, vbYesNo, msgTitle)
If c = vbYes Then SetDraftWatermark
End Sub
SHAPES
The detail here is meant to support writing macros to manipulate shapes, hence the discussion of the
object model.
Represents an object in the drawing layer, such as an AutoShape, freeform, OLE object, ActiveX control,
or picture. The Shape object is a member of the
Shapes collection, which includes all the shapes in the
main story of a document or in all the headers and footers of a document.
A shape is usually attached to an anchoring range. You can position the shape anywhere on the page that
contains the anchor.
There are three objects that represent shapes: the Shapes collection, which represents all the shapes on a
document; the
ShapeRange collection, which represents a specified subset of the shapes on a document
(for example, a ShapeRange object could represent shapes one and four on the document, or it could
represent all the selected shapes on the document); the Shape object, which represents a single shape on a
document. If you want to work with several shapes at the same time or with shapes within the selection,
use a ShapeRange collection.
About Shapes
Anchoring a Shape
Every Shape object is anchored to a range of text. A shape is anchored to the beginning of the first
paragraph that contains the anchoring range. The shape will always remain on the same page as its anchor.
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You can view the anchor itself by setting the ShowObjectAnchors property to True. The shape's Top and
Left properties determine its vertical and horizontal positions. The shape's RelativeHorizontalPosition and
RelativeVerticalPosition properties determine whether the position is measured from the anchoring
paragraph, the column that contains the anchoring paragraph, the margin, or the edge of the page.
If the
LockAnchor property for the shape is set to True, you cannot drag the anchor from its position on
the page.
Positioning a Shape
The position of the shape can be described in English by its vertical and horizontal position relative to a
line, paragraph, margin, or page. Four properties can be used:
RelativeVerticalPosition
identifies what object controls the vertical position
Top
specifies the vertical position
RelativeHorizontalPosition
identifies what object controls the horizontal position
Left
specifies the horizontal position
You use a combination of these properties. For example, to center a shape vertically relative to the page:
Top = wdShapeCenter, RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionPage
Formatting a Shape
Use the Fill property to return the FillFormat object, which contains all the properties and methods for
formatting the fill of a closed shape. The Shadow property returns the
ShadowFormat object, which you
use to format a shadow. Use the Line property to return the
LineFormat object, which contains properties
and methods for formatting lines and arrows. The TextEffect
property returns the TextEffectFormat
object, which you use to format WordArt. The Callout property returns the
CalloutFormat object, which
you use to format line callouts. The WrapFormat
property returns the WrapFormat object, which you use
to define how text wraps around shapes. The ThreeD
property returns the ThreeDFormat object, which
you use to create 3-D shapes. You can use the
PickUp and Apply methods to transfer formatting from one
shape to another.
Use the
SetShapesDefaultProperties method for a Shape object to set the formatting for the default shape
for the document. New shapes inherit many of their attributes from the default shape.
Other Important Shape Properties
Use the Type property to specify the type of shape: freeform, AutoShape, OLE object, callout, or linked
picture, for instance. Use the
AutoShapeType property to specify the type of AutoShape: oval, rectangle,
or balloon, for instance.
Use the
Width and Height properties to specify the size of the shape.
The TextFrame
property returns the TextFrame object, which contains all the properties and methods for
attaching text to shapes and linking the text between text frames.
Remarks
Shape objects are anchored to a range of text but are free-floating and can be positioned anywhere on the
page.
InlineShape objects are treated like characters and are positioned as characters within a line of text.
You can use the
ConvertToInlineShape method and the ConvertToShape method to convert shapes from
one type to the other. You can convert only pictures, OLE objects, and ActiveX controls to inline shapes.
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WordArt objects may not be anchored.
Converting Visio Picture into Inline Shape
Sub ConvertVisioPicture()
' When Visio drawing is pasted as Picture, it becomes a shape with
an anchor and
' is essentially free-floating.
' This macro converts it to an Inline Shape which is treated like
text characters
' and positioned within a line of text.
If Selection.ShapeRange.Type = msoPicture Then
Selection.ShapeRange.ConvertToInlineShape
End If
End Sub
Key Properties
RelativeVerticalPosition Property
Specifies to what the vertical position of a frame, a shape, or a group of rows is relative. Read/write
Can be one of the following WdRelativeVerticalPosition constants.
wdRelativeVerticalPositionLine Relative to line.
wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin Relative to margin.
wdRelativeVerticalPositionPage Relative to page.
wdRelativeVerticalPositionParagraph Relative to paragraph.
RelativeHorizontalPosition Property
Specifies to what the horizontal position of a frame, a shape, or a group of rows is relative. Read/write
Can be one of the following WdRelativeHorizontalPosition constants.
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionCharacter Relative to character.
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionColumn Relative to column.
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionMargin Relative to margin.
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage Relative to page.
Top Property
Returns or sets the vertical position of the specified shape or shape range in points. Can also be any valid
constant, especially WdShapePosition (see Left Property for values). Read/write Single.
expression.Top
expression Required. An expression that returns one of the above objects.
Remarks
The position of a shape is measured from the upper-left corner of the shape's bounding box to the shape's
anchor. The
RelativeVerticalPosition property controls whether the shape's anchor is positioned alongside
the line, the paragraph, the margin, or the edge of the page.
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For a
ShapeRange object that contains more than one shape, the Top property sets the vertical position of
each shape.
Example
As it applies to Shape object.
This example sets the vertical position of the first shape in the active document to 1 inch from the top of
the page.
With ActiveDocument.Shapes(1)
.RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionPage
.Top = InchesToPoints(1)
End With
This example sets the vertical position of the first and second shapes in the active document to 1 inch
from the top of the page.
With ActiveDocument.Shapes.Range(Array(1, 2))
.RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionPage
.Top = InchesToPoints(1)
End With
This example was created automatically by wizard:
Selection.ShapeRange.Top = wdShapeCenter
Left Property
Returns or sets a Single that represents the horizontal position, measured in points, of the specified shape
or shape range. Can also be any valid constant. Read/write.
WdShapePosition can be one of these WdShapePosition constants.
wdShapeBottom At the bottom.
wdShapeCenter In the center.
wdShapeInside Inside the selected range.
wdShapeLeft On the left.
wdShapeOutside Outside the selected range.
wdShapeRight On the right.
wdShapeTop At the top.
expression.Left
expression Required. An expression that returns one of the above objects.
Remarks
The position of a shape is measured from the upper-left corner of the shape's bounding box to the shape's
anchor. The
RelativeHorizontalPosition property controls whether the anchor is positioned alongside a
character, column, margin, or the edge of the page.
For a
ShapeRange object that contains more than one shape, the Left property sets the horizontal position
of each shape.
Example
As it applies to the Shape object.
This example sets the horizontal position of the first shape in the active document to 1 inch from the left
edge of the page.
With ActiveDocument.Shapes(1)
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.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage
.Left = InchesToPoints(1)
End With
This example sets the horizontal position of the first and second shapes in the active document to 1 inch
from the left edge of the column.
With ActiveDocument.Shapes.Range(Array(1, 2))
.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
wdRelativeHorizontalPositionColumn
.Left = InchesToPoints(1)
End With
Shrink Inline Shapes
In my work I frequently insert Visio drawings into Word documents. I insert the drawings as Picture
(Enhanced Metafile), because it conserves file size while being able to print on different printers. I style
the drawings by inserting a border with an inside margin. When the drawing is wider than the text
boundaries, I resize it to fit within the text boundaries (text and diagrams are left justified).
I prefer to use macros to do this. I have a macro which adds the border with inside margin (to put some
space between it and the diagram), but have been adjusting the size manually. Now I want to do this
automatically. I’ll create a new macro for the shrinking and call it from the border macro.
Approach:
1. Make sure the requirements are met. If any are not, display an error message and stop.
a. Only one pane open. This is so the code can assume the first pane, reasonable for my use.
b. Only one column of text. For ease of programming, but reasonable for my use.
c. Cursor is immediately to the right of an inline shape. The program has to know where to find
the drawing and be sure it is an inline shape.
d. Drawing is wider than column width. Otherwise no shrinking would be necessary.
2. Set width of inline shape = text column width.
3. Collapse selection to the insertion point.
Doing this manually uses the following UI features:
“Paste Special” dialog box to insert the drawing. On the Edit
menu.
“Format Picture” dialog box to change the size settings and insert inside margins. On the Format
menu.
“Borders and Shading” dialog box to insert the border. On the Format
menu.
Relevant VBA objects:
TextColumns collection. A child object of the Page Setup object.
TextColumns(x).Width property returns/sets the width of the actual line of text in points.
InlineShapes collection. A child object of the Selection, Document, and Range objects.
InlineShapes(x).LockAspectRatio method returns/sets value to true/false. True is needed here. While
Word may set this by default, it is wise not to count on it. I want the aspect ratio of my drawings to
remain unchanged.
InlineShapes(x).Reset method removes changes made to the inline shape. In the context of an
inserted Visio drawing, a drawing wider than the column is automatically resized to fit. When I add
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a border with inside margins, it no longer fits. So it is best to reset the shape to 100% of its natural
size before making my own changes.
InlineShapes(x).Width property returns/sets the width of the shape in points.
InlineShapes(x).ScaleWidth property returns/sets the scale of the width as a percentage of its original
size.
InlineShapes(x).ScaleHeight property returns/sets the scale of the height as a percentage of its
original size.
InchesToPoints() function converts inches to points.
Selection.Type property returns the type of the selection. Value wdSelectionInlineShape is needed
here.
Panes collection. A child object of the ActiveWindow object.
Panes.Count property returns the number of panes open.
Surprises:
I first tried to shrink the shape by decrementing the ScaleWidth, as this is what I do with Word’s UI.
But the code
.ScaleWidth = .ScaleWidth - 1 actually incremented the value.
When I ran the macro to set the border and inside margin before resizing, the ScaleWidth changed
differently from the ScaleHeight, thus distorting the aspect ratio.
I found it necessary to run InlineShapes(x).Reset before comparing the shape width with the text
column width.
Before setting the border and inside margins but after doing the reset and setting the shape width,
the ScaleHeight was 100% while the ScaleWidth was less. If I did this manually, doing the reset
after inserting the drawing changed the ScaleHeight and ScaleWidth to 100%. Then changing the
picture width caused the ScaleHeight and ScaleWidth to change equally. The solution in the macro
is to set ScaleHeight = ScaleWidth after changing the width.
I notice that Reset is on both the Size and Picture tabs of the “Format Picture” dialog box. They
differ in their effect on the size of the drawing: Reset on the Picture tab does not change the size,
only the cropping and image controls.
Design:
Because this code is run before that for the border and inside margin, the actual width of the shape
needs to be the column width less the combined left and right margins.
Code:
Sub ShrinkPictureToPageWidth()
Dim title, msg As String
Dim x, y, z As Long
title = "Shrink Picture to Page Width"
z = ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count
If z > 1 Then
msg = "Cannot shrink picture while more than 1 pane is open. Pane count = "
& z
MsgBox msg, vbOKOnly, title
Exit Sub
End If
Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
z = Selection.PageSetup.TextColumns.Count
If z > 1 Then
msg = "Cannot shrink picture when there is more than one column. Column
count = " & z
MsgBox msg, vbOKOnly, title
Exit Sub
End If
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Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
If Selection.Type <> wdSelectionInlineShape Then
msg = "Object is not an inline shape, cannot continue."
MsgBox msg, vbOKOnly, title
Exit Sub
End If
x = Selection.PageSetup.TextColumns(1).Width
With Selection.InlineShapes(1)
.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
.Reset
y = .Width - InchesToPoints(0.4)
If y <= x Then
Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
Exit Sub
End If
.Width = x - InchesToPoints(0.4)
.ScaleHeight = .ScaleWidth
End With
Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
End Sub
WATERMARKS
Background Printed Watermark
This is inserted manually with menu Format, Background, Printed Watermark. The watermark is a
WordArt Shape object. When I recorded a macro for this, it put the shape into the header of the first
section; this might be a problem with a multi-section document. Inserting it with code into
ActiveDocument.Shapes puts it on the last page only.
Apparently the only way to get something to appear on every page is to put it in a header/footer.
When you add WordArt to a document, the height and width of the WordArt are automatically set based
on the size and amount of text you specify.
The key method is AddTextEffect of the Shape object. Adds a WordArt shape to a document. Returns a
Shape object that represents the WordArt and adds it to the Shapes collection. Once the shape is added,
you must select it in order to set its properties.
expression.AddTextEffect(PresetTextEffect, Text, FontName, FontSize, FontBold, FontItalic, Left, Top,
Anchor)
expression Required. An expression that returns a Shapes object.
PresetTextEffect Required MsoPresetTextEffect constant. A preset text effect. The values of the
MsoPresetTextEffect constants correspond to the formats listed in the WordArt Gallery dialog box
(numbered from left to right and from top to bottom).
Text Required String. The text in the WordArt.
FontName Required String. The name of the font used in the WordArt.
FontSize Required Single. The size, in points, of the font used in the WordArt.
FontBold Required. MsoTrue to bold the WordArt font.
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FontItalic Required . MsoTrue to italicize the WordArt font.
Left Required Single. The position, measured in points, of the left edge of the WordArt shape relative to
the anchor.
Top Required Single. The position, measured in points, of the top edge of the WordArt shape relative to
the anchor.
Anchor Optional Variant. A Range object that represents the text to which the WordArt is bound. If
Anchor is specified, the anchor is positioned at the beginning of the first paragraph in the anchoring range.
If this argument is omitted, the anchoring range is selected automatically and the WordArt is positioned
relative to the top and left edges of the page.
Example:
Sub NewTextEffect()
ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextEffect _
PresetTextEffect:=msoTextEffect11, _
Text:="This is a test", FontName:="Arial Black", _
FontSize:=36, FontBold:=msoTrue, _
FontItalic:=msoFalse, Left:=1, Top:=1, _
Anchor:=ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
End Sub
Sub SetDraftWatermark()
' DOES NOT WORK AS DESIRED
' ONLY PUTS WATERMARK ON FIRST PAGE
Dim wm As Shape
Set wm = ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextEffect(powerpluswatermarkobject1, _
"DRAFT", "Arial Black", 40, False, False, 0, 0)
wm.Name = "Watermark"
wm.Rotation = 315
wm.LockAspectRatio = True
wm.Height = InchesToPoints(0.77)
wm.Width = InchesToPoints(2.04)
wm.RelativeHorizontalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin
wm.RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin
wm.Left = wdShapeCenter
wm.Top = wdShapeCenter
wm.TextEffect.NormalizedHeight = False
wm.Line.Visible = False
wm.Fill.Visible = True
wm.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(196, 120, 120)
wm.Fill.Transparency = 0.5
wm.WrapFormat.AllowOverlap = True
wm.WrapFormat.Side = wdWrapNone
wm.WrapFormat.Type = 3
End Sub
Watermark as Text Box
This approach works. There are two versions, the first is a subroutine, the second is standalone.
Sub PutWatermarkTextInAllHeaders()
' inserts text at end of each header
' acts on current document, should be called
Dim sec As Section
Dim cnt As Integer
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Dim s As Integer
cnt = ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
' For Each sec In ActiveDocument.Sections
' skip first section which is title page
For s = 2 To cnt
Set sec = ActiveDocument.Sections(s)
If sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = False Then '
ignore section break continuous
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter vbCrLf + "DRAFT"
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs.Last.Style =
ActiveDocument.Styles("Watermark")
End If
Next
End Sub
Sub PutWatermarkTextInNamedDocument()
' inserts text at end of each header
WorkDirectory = "C:\Data\NPI Requirements\"
ChangeFileOpenDirectory (WorkDirectory)
Documents.Open FileName:="All Business Requirements.doc"
Dim sec As Section
Dim cnt As Integer
Dim s As Integer
cnt = ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
'For Each sec In ActiveDocument.Sections
For s = 2 To cnt
Set sec = ActiveDocument.Sections(s)
If sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).LinkToPrevious = False Then '
ignore section break continuous
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.InsertAfter vbCrLf + "DRAFT"
sec.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Paragraphs.Last.Style =
ActiveDocument.Styles("Watermark")
End If
Next
Code Created by Insert Print Watermark Background Wizard
This watermark was defined with text in a given font, size, and color and positioned diagonally.
Apparently it can be positioned differently.
Sub SetDraftWatermark()
'
' SetDraftWatermark Macro
' Macro recorded 3/22/2006 by Susan J. Dorey
'
ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Range.Select
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
Selection.HeaderFooter.Shapes.AddTextEffect(PowerPlusWaterMarkObject1, _
"DRAFT", "Arial Black", 40, False, False, 0, 0).Select
Selection.ShapeRange.Name = "PowerPlusWaterMarkObject1"
Selection.ShapeRange.TextEffect.NormalizedHeight = False
Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = False
Selection.ShapeRange.Fill.Visible = True
Selection.ShapeRange.Fill.Solid
Selection.ShapeRange.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(196, 120, 120)
Selection.ShapeRange.Fill.Transparency = 0.5
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Selection.ShapeRange.Rotation = 315
Selection.ShapeRange.LockAspectRatio = True
Selection.ShapeRange.Height = InchesToPoints(0.77)
Selection.ShapeRange.Width = InchesToPoints(2.04)
Selection.ShapeRange.WrapFormat.AllowOverlap = True
Selection.ShapeRange.WrapFormat.Side = wdWrapNone
Selection.ShapeRange.WrapFormat.Type = 3
Selection.ShapeRange.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin
Selection.ShapeRange.RelativeVerticalPosition = _
wdRelativeVerticalPositionMargin
Selection.ShapeRange.Left = wdShapeCenter
Selection.ShapeRange.Top = wdShapeCenter
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
End Sub
ITERATIVE DOCUMENT EDITING
Here are some samples of iterative document editing.
Reformat Text in Square Brackets
The following macro illustrates several points:
how to make the same kind of change throughout a document
use of FindText
In this example, the text enclosed by square brackets is set to italics. I use square brackets to insert my
editor/author comments in a document that is in development. Sometimes I highlight this text.
Sub SetNotesToItalics()
'
' Loops through active document, finds instances of paired [], then sets text
inbetween to italics. This is necessary because Word in all its wisdom removes
the italics in an inconsistent and unpredictable manner; reinstating it each
time I edit a document is a time-consuming nuisance.
Dim x As Integer
x = 0
Do While x = 0
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Execute FindText:="["
End With
If Selection.Find.Found = False Then
x = 1
Exit Do
End If
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
' next code extends selection through next occurrence of "]",
' then decreases selection by one character to unselect the ] character
With Selection
.Extend Character:="]"
.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
If .Font.Italic = False Then
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.Font.Italic = True ' applies italics to selection
End If
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2 'unselect text
End With
Loop
End Sub
Insert RD Field Codes
This code constitutes a single module.
Attribute VB_Name = "TOC"
Option Compare Text
Private cntAll As Integer
Private cntMod As Integer
Private title As String
Private thisDoc As Document
Private strDir As String
Sub PutTCInEachRDFile()
' Context: active document contains field codes to build TOC from referenced
documents, that is TOC and RD field codes.
' Referenced documents do not have high-level heading that identifies them,
instead the Title property and header do.
' So, an improved TOC is built based on both the heading styles in the
referenced documents and a TC field code
' at the beginning of each referenced document that uses the text of the Title
property; this is effected with
' the TITLE field code embedded within the TC field code.
' This macro (1) determines the path of the referenced documents and (2) reads
the RD field codes in active document.
' For each, it opens the file and inserts a TC field code if one is not already
present.
Dim oField As Field
Dim strCode As String
Dim strMsg As String
Dim oDoc As Document
cntAll = 0
cntMod = 0
title = "Put TC in Each RD File"
Set thisDoc = ActiveDocument
If DirectoryOK = False Then
MsgBox "Macro cancelled because no directory selected.", vbOKOnly, title
Exit Sub
End If
'With ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View
' .ShowAll = False
' .ShowHiddenText = False
' .ShowFieldCodes = False
' .Type = wdPrintView
'End With
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For Each oField In ActiveDocument.Fields
If oField.Type = wdFieldRefDoc Then
cntAll = cntAll + 1
' get filename, strip off RD text
strCode = Trim$(oField.Code)
strCode = Trim$(Mid$(strCode, InStr(strCode, " ")))
' strip off leading \f switch
If LCase$(Left$(strCode, 2)) = "\f" Then
strCode = Trim$(Mid$(strCode, 3))
End If
' strip off trailing \f switch
If LCase$(Right$(strCode, 2)) = "\f" Then
strCode = Trim$(Left$(strCode, Len(strCode) - 2))
End If
' strip off leading double prime
If Asc(strCode) = 34 Then
strCode = Trim$(Mid$(strCode, 2, Len(strCode) - 2))
End If
' open file
strCode = URLDecode(strCode)
Set oDoc = Documents.Open(FileName:=strDir & "\" & strCode)
oDoc.Activate
'With oDoc.ActiveWindow.View
' .ShowAll = False
' .ShowHiddenText = False
' .ShowFieldCodes = False
' .Type = wdPrintView
'End With
' run macro to insert TC field
If AlreadyHasTC = False Then
InsertTCTitle
oDoc.Close wdSaveChanges
cntMod = cntMod + 1
Else
oDoc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges
End If
thisDoc.Activate
End If
Next oField
strMsg = "Count of referenced documents: " & cntAll & vbCrLf & "Count of docs
with new TC field code: " & cntMod
MsgBox strMsg, vbOKOnly, title
End Sub
Function DirectoryOK()
' the original design had this function performing a ChDir, but its results
proved unreliable
If MsgBox("Are documents in directory: " & ActiveDocument.Path, vbYesNo, title)
= vbYes Then
strDir = ActiveDocument.Path
DirectoryOK = True
Exit Function
End If
DirectoryOK = GetDir()
End Function
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Function GetDir()
With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
.InitialFileName = ActiveDocument.Path
If .Show = -1 Then
strDir = .SelectedItems(1)
MsgBox "You selected " & strDir
GetDir = True
Else 'The user pressed Cancel.
GetDir = False
End If
End With
End Function
Function AlreadyHasTC()
' is the first line a TC field? If created automatically it will comprise 2
field codes, TC and TITLE, types 9 and 15.
' first select first paragraph
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
With Selection
If .Fields.Count = 0 Then
AlreadyHasTC = False
ElseIf .Fields.Count > 0 And .Fields(1).Type = wdFieldTOCEntry Then
AlreadyHasTC = True
Else
AlreadyHasTC = False
End If
End With
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1 ' release selection
End Function
Private Function URLDecode(URLtoDecode As String) As String
URLDecode = Replace(URLtoDecode, "%20", " ")
End Function
Sub InsertTCTitle()
' Macro inserts TC field code with value = TITLE field code.
' To be used with documents being included with RD field code into consolidated
TOC
' and having no Heading 1 styled paragraph.
' Creates TC formatted like: { TC "{ TITLE }" \l 1 }, then generates value of
TITLE field code.
'
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.TypeParagraph
Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
Selection.Range.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty,
PreserveFormatting:=False
Selection.TypeText Text:="TC """
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty,
PreserveFormatting:=False
Selection.TypeText Text:="TITLE"
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2
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Selection.TypeText Text:=""" \l 1"
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=7
Selection.Fields.Update
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.Fields.Update
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=8
Selection.Fields.Update
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1
End Sub
Change Styles in all Word Files in a Given Directory
My need was to change certain styles in all Word files in a given directory. I found, through trial and
error, that the best way to change styles is with Organizer.
Note that in this example the name of the directory is hard-coded. You could instead prompt the user for
the directory name. The first SUB can be used to apply other changes to all files in a directory structure.
Sub ChangeFilesInDirectoryWithFSO()
Dim cntAll As Long
Dim cntChanged As Long
cntAll = 0
cntChanged = 0
Dim strPath As String
Dim fso As Object
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strPath = "C:\Data\CMS\Ops Guide Chapters"
'strPath = "C:\Data\Ops Guide Chapters"
Dim ThisFolder
Set ThisFolder = fso.GetFolder(strPath)
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim fs
Set fs = ThisFolder.Files
For Each f In fs
cntAll = cntAll + 1
If Right(f.Name, 3) = "doc" Then
Documents.Open f.Path, AddToRecentFiles:=False
cntChanged = cntChanged + 1
OrganizerCopyStyles
ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdSaveChanges
End If
Next f
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
MsgBox "Count of files read: " & cntAll & vbCrLf & "Count of files changed: " &
cntChanged, vbOKOnly, "Change Files in Directory"
End Sub
The following macro was recorded. I selected all the styles in the dialog box, so they all were named
individually in the macro. I then deleted the lines for the styles I did not want to copy. I also added code
to use variables. I could not figure out how to do a Find-and-Replace to get rid of the continuation marks.
Sub OrganizerCopyStyles()
Dim strFilename As String
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Dim strTemplate As String
strFilename = ActiveDocument.FullName
strTemplate = "C:\Data\CMS\Template for CMS Operations Guide.dot"
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=strTemplate, Destination:=strFilename,
Name:="Default Paragraph Font", Object:=wdOrganizerObjectStyles
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=strTemplate, Destination:=strFilename,
Name:="Bold", Object:= _
wdOrganizerObjectStyles
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:= _
strTemplate, Destination:= _
strFilename, Name:="Normal", Object:= _
wdOrganizerObjectStyles
Application.OrganizerCopy Source:= _
strTemplate, Destination:= _
strFilename, Name:="CaptionAutoNum", _
Object:=wdOrganizerObjectStyles
. . .
End Sub
PASSWORDS AND PROTECTION
There can be three passwords in a Word document:
a. password to open the document, set on Tools, Options
, Save tab
b. password to modify the document, set on Tools, Options
, Save tab
c. document protection password, set on Tools, Protect Document
; this password can apply to tracked
changes, comments, or forms
VBA modules can have a password. It can lock the project for viewing and/or restrict viewing properties.
It is set from menu Tools, Project Properties
, Protection tab.
So far I have not learned how to detect these with VBA.
Protection
The Document object has property ProtectionType which returns the protection type for the specified
document. Can be one of the following WdProtectionType constants: wdAllowOnlyComments,
wdAllowOnlyFormFields, wdAllowOnlyReading, wdAllowOnlyRevisions, or wdNoProtection.
The Document object has two methods related to protection:
Protect: Applies protection. If the document is already protected, this method generates an error.
Unprotect: Removes protection from the specified document. If the document isn't protected, this
method generates an error.
expression.Protect(Type, NoReset, Password, UseIRM, EnforceStyleLock)
where:
Type: is a WdProtectionType constants
NoReset: applies only to Type = wdAllowOnlyFormFields
Password: the password required to remove protection from the specified document;optional.
UseIRM: Specifies whether to use Information Rights Management (IRM) when protecting the
document from changes; optional.
EnforceStyleLock: Specifies whether formatting restrictions are enforced in a protected document;
optional.
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expression.UnProtect(Password)
where
Password: The password string used to protect the document; optional. Passwords are case-sensitive. If
the document is protected with a password and the correct password isn't supplied, a dialog box prompts
the user for the password
If Doc.ProtectionType <> wdNoProtection Then Doc.Unprotect
If ActiveDocument.ProtectionType := wdNoProtection Then
ActiveDocument.Unprotect Password:="readonly"
End If
Read-Only
There are two document properties that involve read-only:
ReadOnlyRecommended property
ReadOnly property
The ReadOnly property only returns the value, it cannot be used to set the value.
The ReadOnlyRecommended property is read/write meaning it returns the current value and can change
the current value.
You can turn off Read-Only Recommended when saving a document:
ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:="C:\Temp\MyFile.doc",
Password:="", WritePassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False
ActiveDocument.ReadOnlyRecommended = True
INTERACTING WITH AN ACCESS DATABASE
If you are using data in an Access database to control processing of one or more Word documents, you
can use DAO and not Access directly. In this case
first set a reference to Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library.
Define an object corresponding to an Access database using DAO:
Private dbsThis As Database
Open database:
Set dbsThis = DBEngine.OpenDatabase("\\server\share\Data\Migrate.mdb")
Use a recordset to iterate through a table or query:
Private rstQ As Recordset
Set rstQ = dbsMigrate.OpenRecordset("WordFilesNotChecked")
With rstQ
Do Until .EOF
txtFilename = ![FullName]
Documents.Open FileName:=txtFilename, ReadOnly:=False,
AddToRecentFiles:=False
. . .
.Edit
![ControlDate] = Now()
.Update
Loop
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.Close
End With
Set rstQ = Nothing
Set dbsThis = Nothing
AUTOMATION
Automation is the running of one application from a second. Examples: (1) editing a Word document
with code in an Access database and (2) using data from an Access table to control processing of a Word
document.
Per Microsoft: You can use another Office application's objects (or the objects exposed by any other
application or component that supports Automation) without setting a reference in the References dialog
box by using the CreateObject or GetObject function and declaring object variables as the generic Object
type. If you use this technique, the objects in your code will be late-bound, and as a result you will not be
able to use design-time tools such as automatic statement completion or the Object Browser, and your
code will not run as fast.
Early-Bound Declarations
Early binding allows you to declare an object variable as a programmatic identifier, or class name, rather
than as an Object or a Variant data type. The programmatic identifier of an application is stored in the
Windows registry as a subkey below the \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree. For example, the
programmatic identifier for Access is "Access.Application"; for Excel it is "Excel.Application."
When you are using early binding, you can initialize the object variable by using the CreateObject or
GetObject function or by using the New keyword if the application supports it. All Office 2000
applications can be initialized by using the New keyword. Because the Outlook 2000 programming
environment for Outlook items supports only scripting, you can't use early binding declarations of any
sort in its VBScript programming environment; however, you can use early binding in VBA code in a
local Outlook VBA project or COM add-in, or in Automation code that works with Outlook from
another host application.
Use early binding whenever possible. Early binding has the following advantages:
Syntax checking during compilation rather than at run time.
Support for statement-building tools in the Visual Basic Editor.
Support for built-in constants. If you use late binding, you must define these constants in your code
by looking up the values in the application's documentation.
Better performance—significantly faster with early binding than with late binding.
INVENTORYING MACROS
Word provides you with two tools to see which macros you have: the Macros dialog box and the Visual
Basic IDE (with the Project Explorer). Both make it difficult to actually find a macro when you have more
than one module.
It is possible to write VB code to inventory your macros in a non-hierarchical list.
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You need a reference to the VBIDE—Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Extensibility,
VBE6EXT.OLB.
1
This library provides objects that you can use to work with the Visual Basic Editor and
any VBA projects that it contains. Help for this object model is available in
VBOB6.CHM.
2
It can be useful
to place a shortcut to this help file on the Desktop.
Relevant Object Models
The relevant Word object model objects:
Entity Type Description
Templates collection all templates that are currently available including open
template files, document template attached to open documents,
and loaded global templates
Template object a DOT file
VBProject object see the VBIDE object model
VBProject property returns the VBProject object for the specified template or
document; applies to Document and Template objects
Set normProj = NormalTemplate.VBProject
Set currProj = ActiveDocument.VBProject
FullName property name of document/template file including the path
NormalTemplate property returns a Template object that refers to the Normal template
(normal.dot)
3
; applies to the Application and Global objects
AttachedTemplate property returns a Template object that refers to the template attached to
the specified document, this is the document template and is
usually “normal.dot”; applies to the Document object
A problem with AttachedTemplate is that it is often used prefixed with ActiveDocument. If there is no
document open, there will be an error. The solution is to test the value of the count of open documents:
If Documents.Count >= 1 Then
MsgBox ActiveDocument.Name
Else
MsgBox "No documents are open"
End If
The relevant VBIDE object model:
VBE
+VBProjects
VBProject
+References
Reference
+VBComponents
VBComponent
1
The VBIDE file is located in directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6
\.
2
The help file is located in directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA\VBA6\1033\.
3
It is safe to assume there is ALWAYS a normal.dot file. Even if you delete it, Word recreates it.
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+Properties
Property
CodeModule
Entity Type Description
VBE object root object (in Excel this is VBIDE)
ActiveVBProject property returns active project (in the Project window); applies to VBE
object
VBProjects collection all projects that are open in the VBIDE
Count property returns count of items in a collection
VBProject object refers to a VBA project that is open in the Visual Basic Editor
VBComponents collection refers to all components in the current project
VBComponent object component in the project, such as a standard module, class
module, or form
VBComponent.Type property returns type of module
Find method searches active module for a specified string
GetSelection method returns the selection in a code pane
Item method returns the indexed member of a collection
CountOfLines method returns count of lines in procedure (macro)
ProcCountLines property returns the count of all lines in a named procedure, including
blank or comment lines preceding the procedure declaration
and, if the procedure is the last procedure in a code module,
any blank lines following the procedure; applies to a
CodeModule
ProcOfLine property returns the name of the procedure that the specified line is in
Lines property returns a string containing the specified number of lines;
applies to a CodeModule
VBE property returns the root of the VBE object; applies to all collections and
objects
Name property returns/sets name of the object
FileName property full path name of the document/template file for the current
project; see NOTE below
Type property type of object ; “1” for code module
Examples of use:
MsgBox VBE.ActiveVBProject.Name
MsgBox ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName
MsgBox NormalTemplate.FullName
MsgBox VBE.VBProjects(1).VBComponents(1).Name
Set normproj = NormalTemplate.VBProject
Dim norm As VBProject
Set norm = VBE.VBProjects("Normal")
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NOTE: After the following code located in normal.dot was run:
Set norm = VBE.VBProjects("Normal")
strFileName = norm.FileName
variable strFileName = “c:\documents and settings\owner\normal”
This is in error because this normal.dot is located in c”\data\template\”.
An accurate approach is to use the FullName property that applies to a document or template file.
Iterating Procedures in Modules
In this context it is important to remember that a module can contain declaratives, subs, and functions.
The subs and functions are procedures. How to iterate procedures?
Found basic idea on
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/vbe.aspx. It inventories macros in a module by
iterating through the lines of code, recognizing a macro, getting its information, and moving on to the
next macro. It wrote the information to an Excel spreadsheet. My code, below, writes information to a
table in a Word document.
In this example I limit the template file to
normal.dot wherever it may be.
Sub InventoryMacros()
Dim LineNum As Long
Dim NumLines As Long
lngLineCount = 0
NewDocForInventory ' opens blank doc, inserts table
Dim norm As VBProject
Set norm = NormalTemplate.VBProject
strFileName = NormalTemplate.FileName
Dim modl As VBComponent
For Each modl In norm.VBComponents
strModuleName = modl.Name
With modl.CodeModule
LineNum = .CountOfDeclarationLines + 1
Do Until LineNum >= .CountOfLines
strMacroName = .ProcOfLine(LineNum, vbext_pk_Proc)
LineNum = .ProcStartLine(strMacroName, vbext_pk_Proc) + _
.ProcCountLines(strMacroName, vbext_pk_Proc) + 1
lngLineCount = .ProcCountLines(strMacroName, vbext_pk_Proc)
WriteLine
Loop
End With
Next modl
End Sub
Sub WriteLine()
Selection.TypeText Text:=strFileName
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Selection.TypeText Text:=strModuleName
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Selection.TypeText Text:=strMacroName
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Selection.TypeText Text:=lngLineCount
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
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Selection.InsertRows 1
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
End Sub
This code is fine as long as you are using only the document template. You can expand it to select a
different template (which I did).
Basic Logic to Inventory Macros
1. Which document/template file
use the Normal template normal.dot?
if No prompt for file — must be normal.dot
open file
set object for template:
if Documents.Count = 0 Then
Set tmpl = NormalTemplate.VBProject
Else
Set tmpl = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.VBProject
End If
create new Word doc, create table with one row of 4 columns (filename, module name, macro name,
count of lines)
for each module
get macro name
write in
INVENTORYING FILES
Goal: Dynamically create an index of files in a given directory, save it as a Word document. Provide for
portability of the program code so that it can be easily shared with others.
Functionality: Index is created as a table populated with file properties. Index can be re-created any time.
Architecture: Program logic is composed of Word VBA macros that reside in a Word document file named
Index.doc. The content of the document is title, table (holding index), directions, and macrobutton (used
to run the indexing macro). The Word document is thus self-sufficient. A copy can be placed into any
directory for which an index is desired, and emailed to others.
Example of index:
Filename Date Last Saved
Last Tango in Paris.doc 6-1-1988 3:48:34 PM
Logic:
Document file is open when macro is run. Table exists and is formatted; the first row is a repeating header
row.
BEGIN
1. Get current directory.
2. IF table exists
delete all but first two rows (row #1 is heading row)
Microsoft Word: Visual Basic for Applications
Revision: 8/11/2011 Page 57 of 59
Copyright 2002–2011 by Susan Dorey Designs
ELSE
create table and format it
3. Position cursor at the end of the table. Insert rows to hold all files in the current directory, except for
the Index file itself. (This technique keeps new rows from being flagged as repeating header rows.)
4. Initialize row counter to 1.
5. For each file in the current directory, except the active one and temporary ones (filename begins with
“~”)
a. increment row counter
b. set value of first cell
c. set value of second cell
6. Sort table on first column.
7. Delete empty rows. These will exist if any files were excluded (the temporary files).
8. Display message box with count of files.
END
Relevant Objects
Document
Table, Row
FileSystemObject
Code
Private txtDir As String
Private txtFile As String
Private cntFiles As Integer
Private rowIdx As Integer
Private idxTbl As Table
Sub IndexCurrentDirectory()
' Get current directory and filename
txtDir = ActiveDocument.Path
txtFile = ActiveDocument.Name
cntFiles = 0
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count > 1 Then
For i = 2 To ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes.Count
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes(i).Close
Next
End If
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView
' if table exists
If ActiveDocument.Tables.Count = 0 Then CreateIndexTable
Set idxTbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
If ActiveDocument.Tables.Count > 1 Then
MsgBox "Fatal error: There should be only one table!", vbOKOnly, "Index the
Current Directory"
Exit Sub
Microsoft Word: Visual Basic for Applications
Revision: 8/11/2011 Page 58 of 59
Copyright 2002–2011 by Susan Dorey Designs
End If
' delete all but first two rows, row 2 will be overwritten by first indexed
file
If idxTbl.Rows.Count > 1 Then
For i = idxTbl.Rows.Count To 3 Step -1
idxTbl.Rows(i).Delete
Next
End If
' establish connection to the current directory
Dim fso As Object
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strPath = txtDir
Dim ThisFolder
Set ThisFolder = fso.GetFolder(strPath)
Set fs = ThisFolder.Files
' size the table to hold the actual number of files
If fs.Count > 2 Then
n = fs.Count - 1 ' exclude the Index file
idxTbl.Rows.Last.Select ' selects last row
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.InsertRows n
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
End If
' position on first row
rowIdx = 1
' For each file in the current directory
For Each f In fs
IndexThisFile f.Name, f.DateLastModified
Next f
' sort table on first column
idxTbl.Sort ExcludeHeader:=True
' Make first table row a repeating header
idxTbl.Rows(1).HeadingFormat = True
' delete empty rows
' these will correspond to the temporary files that were not indexed
With idxTbl
For j = .Rows.Count To 1 Step -1
If Len(.Cell(j, 1).Range.Text) = 2 Then .Rows(j).Delete
Next j
End With
' Display message box with count of files
MsgBox "Files indexed = " & cntFiles, vbOKOnly, "Index the Current Directory"
End Sub
Sub IndexThisFile(n, d)
' insert row in table for file in directory
If n = txtFile Then Exit Sub ' exclude the active Index file
If Left(n, 1) = "~" Then Exit Sub ' exclude temporary files
Microsoft Word: Visual Basic for Applications
Revision: 8/11/2011 Page 59 of 59
Copyright 2002–2011 by Susan Dorey Designs
rowIdx = rowIdx + 1
idxTbl.Rows(rowIdx).Cells(1).Range.Text = n
idxTbl.Rows(rowIdx).Cells(2).Range.Text = d
cntFiles = cntFiles + 1
End Sub
Sub CreateIndexTable()
' create table and format it
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory 'move to end of document
ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Range:=Selection.Range, NumRows:=1, NumColumns:=2,
DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord9TableBehavior
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1, 1).Range.Text = "Filename"
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1, 2).Range.Text = "Last Save Date"
Set idxTbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
End Sub
