Context: I'm setting up a macro to format textboxes independently of current template or textbox defaults, in Word 2016. To be clear, No, I cannot depend on the "Set Textbox Defaults" option.
The design I have to replicate puts a linear gradient on the outer textbox's border, going from a dark color at the top to white at the bottom. Pretty simple, right? Except I can't figure out how to tell VBA to accomplish this.
Normally I record a macro to see which properties to change, but the Macro recorder isn't saving any edits to the Shape format.
Manually I got as far as outputting the .Pattern used on the textbox.Line object via Debug.Print: Word returns -2 (msoPatternMixed) which is "Not supported" according to Microsoft's reference docs.
I don't know how to get any further.
Could anyone share some example code that'd let me set the line gradient through VBA?
Or: tell me how to force the Macro Recorder to save the changes I'm making in the Format Shape dialog? It's incredibly annoying that it refuses to show me anything.
Thanks!
Related
I have been searching off and on, high and low, for many months, to no avail, for VBA code that I can include in my macros to highlight text using the current default highlight color. I have looked through my personal resource books and all up and down the land of Google, including here.
I have a bazillion macros created that highlight text every which way to Sunday, in every possible (basic) color, and they all work great. But sometimes I have a scenario where I want to highlight random text in an ongoing manner, multiple times, in a particular color. Then I'll want to switch colors ... for a while. And switch again ... for a while.
I have keyboard shortcuts (many) for a lot of highlighting options, including the built-in command shortcut to highlight text that I have selected manually. So, for example, I can manually select three words to my left, and use Ctrl+Alt+H to invoke the built-in Highlight command, and it will use the current default color.
But I'm unable to automate that further with a macro. For example, I have used numerous different iterations of macros to highlight text as I'm typing it, or to automatically highlight X number of words to my left, or a line or sentence or paragraph. But with each of those macros, I'm forced to declare a specific color. That means that I then have to have voluminous series of macros to be able to do the same thing with each (basic) color variation. That's fine if I just want to infrequently highlight text in a specific color. But when I know I will be using a specific color for the next, say, 20 or 40 highlights, I'd love to set a default color and then just use a generic highlight command rather than a color-centric command (which is more steps).
After much experimentation, I've finally figured out a way to do it. I'm not sure if this is the most efficient way, but it works!
I have many highlight-centric macros that will use this feature, but here is an example of one of them using this feature. I declared the existing color as a string and then used the string rather than a specific color (which I erroneously thought was a requirement). The following macro allows me to highlight while I'm typing:
Sub honHighlightOnTypingSelectWord_DEFAULTCOLOR()
CurColor = Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex
Application.ActiveDocument.Application.Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = CurColor
Selection.Words(1).Select
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = CurColor
End Sub
Problem solved!
Please help as I am new to Vba and custom style in MS Word 2013.
I want to create a new custom style that provides heading as INTRODUCTION when a paragraph is been selected, and the rest of the text should come in normal style of paragraphs. Is this possible to make it in custom style or should Vba macro be used. If Vba macro is the only option then how can we add this into the particular custom file.
Styles are for formatting only, they don't contain text (such as INTRODUCTION). If I understand your request, you will need a simple macro you can write, or, actually, record.
So, let's say you have a paragraph in your document. You would like to make this paragraph have the "Normal" style. You would like to insert BEFORE this paragraph the word "INTRODUCTION", and give it the style "Heading 1".
Record the Word macro: InsertIntroduction
Position the cursor at the start of the paragraph.
Enable "Record a macro" - varies by release of Word, but, for 2010, View > Macro > Record. Be sure to specify a good name and a carefully thought out Description. Do NOT shirk this step! Put in the Description! If you are going to use it a lot, assign a keystroke to it also, that will save you a lot of time.
Type INTRODUCTION. Using cursor keys (not mouse), select it (perhaps up-arrow, Home, Shift-End). Apply style "Heading 1" (for this, you can use the mouse: Home > Style group > Heading 1 or a keystroke, usually Ctrl-Alt-1).
Arrow down to the next paragraph. Select the full paragraph using the keyboard, not the mouse (perhaps by hitting the F8 key four times, then ESC).
Apply the appropriate style (again, you can use the mouse, but the Normal style is usually linked to Ctrl-Shift-N).
You've completed the steps you wanted, based on your original request. Note that you can add a lot more, of course. But, let's say you're done.
View > Macro > Stop recording.
You've now written a program and it will be saved. Use it going forward. Cool, hunh? And you can write these things a lot faster yourself than asking others "how do I...?"
Like any other program, it can be modified to do more, or fix little errors. Let's say you misspelled INTRODuCTIoN. Tap Alt-F11 to see your program. Adjust.
9 steps seems like a lot, but, believe me, it's easier done than said. Give it a try. Do it carefully. In theory, if you make a mistake, you can simply modify the program to fix it. But, at your level of experience, you may find it easier to simply Stop recording and start over.
To Use Macro
Position cursor at start of relevant paragraph.
Execute macro. If you took my advice and assigned it to a keystroke, just tap the keystroke. If not, tap Alt-F8 to see a list of your macros. Select the one you want, and click Run.
To avoid an XY problem, here's what I'm trying to accomplish: when a shape is selected, I want detail text about that shape to appear on the screen.
I first tried using Shape Data, but it supports only single-line name=value pairs. My detail information is an arbitrary, multiline text blob.
My next thought was to used the shape's ScreenTip (aka tooltip) to hold the text data, then write some VBA code to handle the _SelectionChanged event. When a shape is selected I want to copy it's ScreenTip text into the text of another object (my details panel).
I got the _SelectionChange event-handling working, but poking around the Selection object in the debugger I can't find any property of the selected object that exposes the ScreenTip information.
Is Visio's programming API too anemic to support his kind of thing? Is there another way I might be able to do this? Is there another tool that might be better for this (preferably free)?
Visio's API is capable of doing this, handily.
It seems you're not aware of Visio's shapesheet, which is where the screen tip text is stored, along with pretty much anything you'd want to know about a shape.
To access the screen tip text you simply read the Comment cell from the selected shape's shapesheet:
Application.Selection(1).CellsU("Comment").ResultStr(visNone)
This code will return the comment text.
You're on the right track using the SelectionChange event, though of course you're checking that the selection count = 1, or at least >0.
I'm beyond the limits of my kindergarten-level VBA skills so would like to ask if anyone here can help me write a VBA script to help me work stepwise through my Word document and adjust the anchoring position of all the AutoShapes in the document.
I have a 400-page book in Microsoft Word with at least one and sometimes several marginalia (sidenote) on each page in a thin column to the left of the main body text column. These sidenotes are a concise 'pointer' to a particular point made in the body text and need to appear directly to that point's left.
Each sidenote is in its own AutoShape (within a textbox in that shape). The AutoShapes were placed by the author in an inconsistent way. Mostly they are anchored to a position on the page.
However, I need to repaginate. This will cause the body text to flow differently and I need the sidenotes to flow with it (approximately or exactly)!
So before I repaginate I want to make sure I anchor each AutoShape to the paragraph it belongs to and not to the page it is currently on.
I don't know if that can be done automatically, since I don't know how Word could deduce a purely spatial relationship between an AutoShape and a paragraph.
So I'm guessing I have to make do with a "semi-automatic" process. Something like this:
Press a button to start VBA script
Select next AutoShape
Prompt for user to enter cursor in body text where anchor is to be placed
Resume macro
Place anchor for that AutoShape in that position
Change vertical position paramater of AutoShape to "relative to paragraph"
and "0 mm"
(Alternative, not 0 mm but another value deduced to more
accurately position AutoShape)
Change width parameter of AutoShape to
a particular fixed value 37 mm (some of them were a little
inaccurately drawn)
End cycle and go back to beginning to
Select next AutoShape
Hope that is all understandable.
I've tried to record a VBA script to do some of this but have no idea how to build in the user prompt.
Any help much appreciated!
Craig
You may be better off creating a macro that works on one shape at a time, or anchor all the shapes manually (which you're almost doing anyway) and then write a macro to take care of the various parameters and settings you want.
If you really want to prompt the user while the macro is running you'll need to look into modeless dialogs (not possible on the Mac). See this link: http://www.bettersolutions.com/vba/VXV113/SE846743531.htm
Basically, you'd have to create your own dialog and then show it modelessly so that the user could still place the cursor before hitting OK. If you're new to VBA, this could be difficult to set up.
While searching for solutions to this, I found a post on another forum from someone trying to do something very similar. He was developing a set of tools for editors using Word and until I find the ultimate solution I am using his "Shapes" tool which allows me to change parameters on each AutoShape I select at-a-click instead of opening up and closing a dialogue box each time, plus selecting a different tab each time... His tools can be downloaded at his Editors' Toolkit website.
I'm working on a VBA macro to automatically add hyperlinks within a drawing file, so that when a certain word is mentioned in the text, I can link to another page in the drawing.
According to MSDN and Visio's help, a Hyperlink object can be associated with a cell, characters, row, or section object. However, I can't find any way to actually associate a hyperlink with anything but a shape.
So the question is, how can I hyperlink a single word within a paragraph of text in a single shape in Visio?
I'm only familiar with two ways to trigger a hyperlink navigation within Visio:
Add a Hyperlink to a shape and click on the shape (or select the hyperlink from the shape's context menu).
Add a call to the Hyperlink shapesheet function in a cell formula. Making a change that triggers that cell's recalc would then follow the hyperlink.
The best idea I can think of, and it isn't very good, is:
Make sure your shape is a group - if it isn't, convert it to group.
Change the group's properties to SelectMode=visGrpSelModeMembers1st and DisplayMode=visGrpDisModeBack.
Drop a new shape, sized and centered over the word in question. Make the new shape transparent (partial transparency here could be used for highlighting).
Change the DblClick event's formula to "Hyperlink("yourURLhere")".
Add that shape to the group.
Now, double-clicking on the word should actually involve double-clicking on the new subshape, which will trigger the hyperlink. This is really only viable if your shape is designed to work with this idea - many out-of-the-box shapes will not work well here, as steps 1 and 2 can have ugly side-effects.
I hope someone else knows a more elegant way around this problem.