HOWTO: Access Word for Windows Document Variables from VB

ID: Q117830

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Standard and Professional Editions for Windows, versions 2.0, 3.0
Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a

SUMMARY

This article describes and demonstrates how to pass information from Word for Windows to Visual Basic using Word document variables. The example included in this article uses a WordBasic macro and a Visual Basic Sub procedure.

You can pass information from Word to Visual Basic using any of the following methods:

Store the information in a text file.

Store the information in a Word AutoText entry.

Store the information in document variables.

This article demonstrates the document variable approach.

For more information about retrieving dialog box values in Word, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ole and automation and retrieving and settings and dialog

MORE INFORMATION

Using WordBasic (the Word for Windows macro language), you can retrieve values stored in Word dialog boxes and use them in Visual Basic. The example in this article uses OLE automation to launch a WordBasic macro that retrieves all the values from the File Summary Info dialog box in Word and displays them in a Visual Basic message box. (The File Summary Info dialog box corresponds to the FileSummaryInfo statement in WordBasic.)

The WordBasic macro, named PassSummaryInfo, creates a ParamList document variable, which is a comma-delimited string of all the document variables to be extracted. Then, using OLE automation, Visual Basic extracts and displays the document variables.

The advantage of using this method is that you can save the document variables along with your document, where you can retrieve them at any future time.

Visual Basic Sub Procedure

Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

Add the following code in the Form_Click event of the form:


Sub File_Click ()
   'Dimension variables:
   Dim sReturn As String, Msg As String
   Dim ParamArray() As String, ParamElement As String
   Dim count As Integer, j As Integer
   Dim wb As Object

   'Run Word Macro Block:
   Macro$ = "PassSummaryInfo"
   On Error Resume Next
   Set wb = CreateObject("Word.basic")
   wb.FileNew
   wb.ToolsMacro Macro$, True

   If Err Then
      MsgBox "Err #" & Str$(Err) & ", " & Error
   End If

   'Extract Document variables:
   sReturn = wb.[getdocumentvar$]("ParamList")
   If Err Then
      MsgBox "Err #" & Str$(Err) & ", " & Error
      Exit Sub
   End If
   'Parse Document variable list from ParamList:
   Do While InStr(sReturn, ",")
      j = InStr(sReturn, ",")
      ParamElement = Left(sReturn, j - 1)
      sReturn = Mid$(sReturn, j + 1)
      ReDim Preserve ParamArray(count)
      ParamArray(count) = ParamElement
      count = count + 1
   Loop
   'Retrieve Last Document variable name:
   ReDim Preserve ParamArray(count)
   ParamArray(count) = sReturn
   'Extract values from document variables:
   For j = 0 To count
      Msg = Msg & ParamArray(j) & " = "
      Msg = Msg & wb.[getdocumentvar$]((ParamArray(j))) & Chr$(10)
   Next
   'wb.FileClose (2)
   If Err Then
      MsgBox "Err #" & Str$(Err) & ", " & Error
   End If
   'Display values in message box:
   MsgBox Msg

End Sub

WordBasic Macro

Create the following WordBasic macro in Word and name it PassSummaryInfo. Store the macro in the global template (NORMAL.DOT).

Start Word for Windows.

Create the macro by choosing Macro from the Tools menu.

Type in the name as PassSummaryInfo, and choose Create.

Add the following code to the macro. When you are done, choose Close from the File menu and respond Yes to the "save" dialog box.


Sub MAIN
Dim dlg As FileSummaryInfo
GetCurValues dlg
ParamList$ = "Title,Subject,Author,KeyWords,Comments,FileName,Directory"
ParamList$ = ParamList$ + ",Template,CreateDate,LastSavedDate"
ParamList$ = ParamList$ + ",LastSavedBy,RevisionNumber,EditTime"
ParamList$ = ParamList$ + ",LastPrintedDate,NumPages,NumWords,NumChars"
ParamList$ = ParamList$ + ",NumParas,NumLines,FileSize"
SetDocumentVar "ParamList", ParamList$
SetDocumentVar "Title", dlg.Title
SetDocumentVar "Subject", dlg.Subject
SetDocumentVar "Author", dlg.Author
SetDocumentVar "Keywords", dlg.Keywords
SetDocumentVar "Comments", dlg.Comments
SetDocumentVar "FileName", dlg.FileName
SetDocumentVar "Directory", dlg.Directory
SetDocumentVar "Template", dlg.Template
SetDocumentVar "CreateDate", dlg.CreateDate
SetDocumentVar "LastSavedDate", dlg.LastSavedDate
SetDocumentVar "LastSavedBy", dlg.LastSavedBy
SetDocumentVar "RevisionNumber", dlg.RevisionNumber
SetDocumentVar "EditTime", dlg.EditTime
SetDocumentVar "LastPrintedDate", dlg.LastPrintedDate
SetDocumentVar "NumPages", dlg.NumPages
SetDocumentVar "NumWords", dlg.NumWords
SetDocumentVar "NumChars", dlg.NumChars
SetDocumentVar "NumParas", dlg.NumParas
SetDocumentVar "NumLines", dlg.NumLines
SetDocumentVar "FileSize", dlg.FileSize
End Sub

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word User's Guide," version 6.0, pages 216-217, 220-223, 749, 755

"Microsoft Word Developer's Kit," version 6.0, Microsoft Press, 1994, pages 174-182, 446-447, 492, 679-680

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbinterop kbmacro kbAutomation kbVBp300 kbWord kbvbp200
Version : WINDOWS:6.0,6.0a
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :