WD97: How to Use Other Converters with the FileFormat Property

ID: Q185052

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

The SaveAs method of the Document object in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications has an optional parameter called FileFormat that you can use to specify the save format for the document.

This article describes how to use the FileFormat property of the SaveAs method to specify a converter that is not supported with one of the supplied constants (values).

MORE INFORMATION

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http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

FileFormat accepts the following built-in conversion constants:

wdFormatDocument

Save as a Word document.

wdFormatText

Text Only: Saves text without its formatting. Converts all section breaks, page breaks, and newline characters to paragraph marks. Uses the ANSI character set. Select this format only if the destination program cannot read any of the other available file formats.

wdFormatDOSText

MS-DOS Text: Converts files the same way as Text only format (wdFormatText). Uses the extended ASCII character set, which is the standard for MS-DOS-based programs. Use this format to share documents between Word and non-Windows-based programs.

wdFormatTextLineBreaks

Text only with line breaks: Saves text without formatting. Converts all line breaks, section breaks, and page breaks to paragraph marks. Use this format when you want to maintain line breaks. For example, when transferring documents to an electronic mail system.

wdFormatDOSTextLineBreaks

MS-DOS text only with line breaks: Saves text without formatting. Converts all line breaks, section breaks, and page breaks to paragraph marks. Use this format when you want to maintain line breaks, for example, when transferring documents to an electronic mail system.

wdFormatRTF

Rich Text Format (RTF): Saves all formatting. Converts formatting to instructions that other programs, including compatible Microsoft programs, can read and interpret.

wdFormatTemplate

Save as a Word template.

wdFormatUnicodeText

Saves as a Unicode text file. Converts text between common character encoding standards, inclucing Unicode 2.0, Mac OS, Windows, EUC and ISO-8859 series.

Other File Types

If you record a macro that saves a file as a type not supported by one of the constants described earlier, the FileFormat property will contain a number. The following sample macro was recorded using HTML as the Save As Type:


   Sub Macro1()
      ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:="myHTMLdoc", FileFormat:=103
   End Sub

Note the number 103 that was recorded for the HTML FileFormat argument. This number may not be the same on another computer.

To retrieve the correct FileFormat number for a conversion type for any computer, use the FileConverters collection. The following sample Visual Basic for Applications macro saves a document in HTML format on any computer:

NOTE: In the following example, replace "HTML" with the class name you want to Save As. For a list of class names, see the "Obtaining Class Names" section later in this article.


   Sub SaveAsHTML()
      Dim fcCnv As FileConverter
      Dim strClass As String
      Dim strFileName As String

      ' If there are no documents open to
      ' save, exit this routine.
      If Documents.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub

      ' Set the ClassName to use for saving.
      strClass = "HTML"

      ' Set the FileName to use for saving.
      strFileName = "MyHTMLdoc"

      ' Loop through all installed converters.
      For Each fcCnv In FileConverters
         With fcCnv
            ' Test for conversion ClassName.
            If .ClassName = strClass Then
               ' Save using the FileConverters.ClassName.
               ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strFileName, _
                  FileFormat:=.SaveFormat
            End If
         End With
      Next fcCnv
   End Sub

For more information about the SaveFormat Property, from the Visual Basic Editor, click the Office Assistant, type "SaveFormat," click Search, and then click to view "SaveFormat Property."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q176476 Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

Obtaining Class Names

The following list contains converters and class names installed by Word that you can use for saving a document:


   Converter                                  ClassName
   ----------------------------------------------------
   HTML Document                              HTML
   MS-DOS Text with Layout                    MS-DOS Text with Layout
   Text with Layout                           Text with Layout
   Word 2.x for Windows                       MSWordWin2
   Converter: Word 4.0 for Macintosh          MSWordMac4
   Word 5.0 for Macintosh                     MSWordMac5
   Word 5.1 for Macintosh                     MSWordMac51
   WordPerfect 5.0                            WrdPrfctDOS50
   WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS                    WrdPrfctDOS51
   WordPerfect 5.x for Windows                WrdPrfctWin
   WordPerfect 5.1 or 5.2 Secondary File      WrdPrfctDat
   WordPerfect 5.0 Secondary File             WrdPrfctDat50
   Works 3.0 for Windows                      MSWorksWin3
   Works 4.0 for Windows                      MSWorksWin4
   Word 6.0/95                                MSWord6Exp
   Word 97 & 6.0/95 - RTF                     MSWord6RTFExp

To retrieve other class names for an installed converter to Save As, you can loop through the FileConverters collection.

The following sample macro loops through all installed converters that you can use for saving, and then inserts the converter name and associated class name into a blank document:


      Sub GetConvClassName()
     Dim fcCnv As FileConverter

     ' Create blank document.
     Documents.Add

     ' Loop through all installed converters.
      For Each fcCnv In FileConverters
         With fcCnv
            ' If the converter can be used to save...
            If .CanSave = True Then
               ' Insert the converter name and class name in the document.
               Selection.TypeText "Converter: " & .FormatName & vbTab _
                  & "ClassName: " & .ClassName & vbCr
            End If
         End With
      Next fcCnv
   End Sub

For more information about the ClassName property, from the Visual Basic Editor, click the Office Assistant, type "ClassName," click Search, and then click to view "ClassName Property."

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q173707 How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q163435 Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vba vbe vb

Keywords : kbdta kbconversion kbdtacode OffVBA word8 word97
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto