Word VBA Hints

[agibsonsw]

Hello. Word 2003.

It must be a year since I've dabbled with Word VBA and I'm just looking for a couple of pointers in the right direction

1) How can I retrieve the 'index' of an object within a collection? A paragraph doesn't seem to have an Index property?

Code: Select all

Sub TestP()
    Dim p As Paragraph
    For Each p In ActiveDocument.Range.Paragraphs
        MsgBox p.Something ?
    Next p
End Sub

2) 'Selection' doesn't seem to have an 'applies to' as such so I suppose it always assumes the ActiveDocument. How do I obtain the Selection for a non-active document?
3) I understand that 'ThisDocument' can refer to the document or it's template. How could I reliably refer to the code's document? ActiveDocument may not always be reliable either.

Andy.

[HansV]

1. You could use

Code: Select all

For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Count
    MsgBox i
Next i

Slightly more seriously, if you have a Range object rng and you want to know which paragraph contains its end:

ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=1, End:=rng.End).Paragraphs.Count

2. Selection is (among others) a property of a Window, so you could use Documents(2).Windows(1).Selection to refer to the selection in the (first) window on another document.

3. It's best to set a variable of type Document at a moment when you "know" which one it is, e.g. if you call a macro from within a document:

Dim docCur As Document
Set docCur = ActiveDocument
...
...
' docCur will still refer to the original document even if it is not the active document any more

Or if you want to refer to a document that you create:

Dim docNew As Document
Set docNew = Documents.Add
...
...
' docNew will still refer to the new document even if it is not the active document any longer.

[agibsonsw]

@Hans. Hi and thank you.

1) So a paragraph (and a sentence, etc.) doesn't have an 'Index', unlike Excel objects? I ended up using an artificial index variable x, with 'x = x + 1' within my loop.

2) Word Help wasn't very helpful in letting me know that 'Selection' applies to a Window object , so thank you. I was (eventually) looking for a way to avoid 'Selection' as much as possible: I now understand that 'Range' is the way to go http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 11%29.aspx.

3) I had already considered the two code snippets you posted (although I used the variable name 'newDoc' he, he). I was then considering examining the 'AttachedTemplate' but this would still carry the same concerns. I was arriving at the solution you indicated: use the triggered event to store a reference to the ActiveDocument.
But if code is called from a toolbar or macro then the issue arises again . I suppose in this instance the nearest I could get would be to check the 'AttachedTemplate' and if it's not the correct one then to check this for each open document - then to store a reference to the found document.

The only other approach that (just) occurs to me is to use the New event for the template to set a global variable. I wonder how this is referenced(?) - possibly
Documents(x).MyGlobalVar
One would think there should a simple (or simpler) solution to this.. Regards, Andy.

[HansV]

Each application has its own idiosyncracies, nice and not so nice.

Access, for example, has the very useful CodeContextObject - the object (form or report) from which the code is run. If you have a procedure in a standard module, and you call it from a form, that form will be the CodeContextObject even though the code is in a standard module, not in the form module.

When you call code from a toolbar, QAT or ribbon button, you may assume that it is to run on the ActiveDocument, so again I'd assign ActiveDocument to a variable at the beginning of the code.

[agibsonsw]

When you call code from a toolbar, QAT or ribbon button, you may assume that it is to run on the ActiveDocument, so again I'd assign ActiveDocument to a variable at the beginning of the code.

I suppose we have to assume a minimum level of intelligence from our users at some point

[HansV]

No, that would be a false assumption but on the other hand, it's hard to call a toolbar button from a non-active document...