Word VBA
This is a collection of recipes for scripting Microsoft Word using Visual Basic for Applications.
Macro Recording
[edit | edit source]A great way of learning about Word VBA is using its macro recording function. With the function, you tell Word to start recording, then perform various steps as if you were working without a macro recorder, and finally, tell Word to stop recording. VBA code corresponding to what you did using Word GUI has been recorded by Word. While the code often cannot be meaningfully used without a modification, by starting from it and modifying it you can save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent reading the VBA documentation.
Menu paths:
- Word 2007: View (tab) > Macros (group) > down-pointing triangle below Macros button > Record Macro
- Word 2007: Developer (tab) > Code (group) > Record Macro
Links:
- Record or run a macro (Word 2007) at microsoft.com
- Create a macro (Word 2003) at microsoft.com
- Recording a macro to generate code (Office 2000) at microsoft.com
Text Editing
[edit | edit source]You can insert and delete text as follows:
Selection.TypeText Text:="Inserted as if by typing on keyboard"
Selection.Delete 'Deleted the single char after cursor, or a non-empty selection
Moving Cursor
[edit | edit source]You can move cursor around as follows:
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell 'At the end of a row, moves to the next row
Selecting
[edit | edit source]You can select regions of text as follows:
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
Formatting
[edit | edit source]You can format text including text color, background color, and font properties as follows:
Selection.Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 255) 'Foreground color AKA text color
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow 'Background color as highlight
Selection.Font.Name = "Verdana" 'Font face
Selection.Font.Size = 8 'Font size
Selection.Font.Bold = True 'Or False
Selection.Font.Bold = wdToggle
Selection.Font.Italic = True
Selection.Font.Underline = True
Copying and Pasting
[edit | edit source]You copy and paste as follows:
Selection.Copy
Selection.Paste
Clipboard
[edit | edit source]Prerequisites: Accessing the clipboard from a Word document requires that a reference to MSForms (Microsoft Forms Object Library) is set in the document. You can set the reference by adding and subsequent removing of a user form, via Insert > UserForm in a pop-up menu. To check the presence of a reference, see Tools > References menu.
Placing text on the clipboard:
Set MyClipboard = New MSForms.DataObject
MyClipboard.SetText "My string"
MyClipboard.PutInClipboard
Getting text from the clipboard:
Set MyClipboard = New MSForms.DataObject
MyClipboard.GetFromClipboard
TextContent = MyClipboard.GetText
Links:
- DataObject Class at msdn.microsoft.com; contains a section on Visual Basic, whose applicability to Word VBA is unclear.
Various
[edit | edit source]Sub PasteTabSeparatedPlainTextToTable()
'This paste prevents loss of formatting of the table cells
Set MyClipboard = New MSForms.DataObject
MyClipboard.GetFromClipboard
TextContent = MyClipboard.GetText
SplitArray = Split(TextContent, vbNewLine)
For Each Element In SplitArray
SplitArray2 = Split(Element, vbTab)
TabSkipNeeded = False
Set OldSelection = Selection.Range
For Each CellContent In SplitArray2
If TabSkipNeeded Then
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
Else
TabSkipNeeded = True
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
End If
Selection.TypeText Text:=CellContent
Next
OldSelection.Select
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine
Next
End Sub
Related Wikibooks
[edit | edit source]External links
[edit | edit source]- Word VBA reference, docs.microsoft.com
- tags ms-word and vba, stackoverflow.com