HOWTO: Invoke Word 6.0 Font Dialog for Word Object from VB

• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard and Professional Editions for Windows, version 3.0
• Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0

SUMMARY

This article shows by example how to show the Word font dialog directly in Visual Basic without using a Word macro.

You cannot run macros in Word for Windows while a Word object is activated in a container application. When you attempt to run the ToolsMacro command, you are doing essentially the same thing as choosing Macro... from Word's Tools menu. When a Word object is active in a container, Word enables only those menu items that apply to editing in a container application; the Macro... item is not one of those. However, there are techniques you can use to run a Word macro while editing a Word object in Visual Basic, so if you want to know how to run Word macros, please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q116040 HOWTO: Run a Word Macro While Editing a Word Object in VB

1. How to place a button on a toolbar in a Visual Basic application to run a macro.



2. How to call an assigned shortcut key in a Word macro from Visual Basic.



3. How to call the nested main macro that calls the other macros from Visual Basic.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example Calls Pre-Assigned Shortcut Key for Font Dialog

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



2. Add a command button (Command1) and one MSOLE2.VBX control to Form1.



3. Select the Create from File option in the Insert Object window. Then click the Browse button and locate a document. Next, select the Display As Icon option, and click the OK button.



4. Add the following code to the Command1_Click event procedure:

   
      Sub Command1_Click()
         ole1.action = 7
         SendKeys "^+F" '** note: you may need to send a second SendKeys "^+F"
      End Sub 




5. Press the F5 key to run the application. Click the Command1 button to see if the font dialog window and Formatting toolbar appear.

Alternative Code for Step 3 to Hide the Formatting Toolbar

1. Add the following code to the Command1_Click event procedure:

   
      Sub Command1_Click()
         Dim Wordobj as Object
         ole1.action = 7
         Set Wordobj = ole1.Object.application.wordbasic
         Wordobj.ViewToolbars "Formatting",,,,,,,,True     ' Eight commas
         SendKeys "^+F"
         DoEvents   ' Pause to let the sendkeys go through to Word.
         Wordobj.ViewToolbars "Formatting",,,,,,,True      ' Seven commas
         Set Wordobj = Nothing
      End Sub 




2. Run the application, and click the Command1 button to see if the font dialog window appears without the Formatting toolbar.

Additional query words: officeinterop w_VBApp W_Word WM_OLE OA OLE Automation

Keywords : kbprg IAPOLE vbwin
Version : WINDOWS:3.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto