I have a macro which should open, edit and copy the contents of read-only documents into a new document, then closes the original ones without saving. On my computer I get a runtime error 6124: "You are not allowed to edit this selection because it is protected."
When I open the document through VBA it says I am restricted with view only, however when I open it manually I get the notification that the author would like me to open it read only, and I can refuse.
The weird thing is I sent the macro to my colleague to test it, and the same code on the same files can do the editing for them.
Is there a setting I am not aware of that allows this to happen?
Is there a way to get VBA to open the read-only document with editing access?
I have tried to change the document attribute through runtime script, but it did not work:
Dim fso, doc As Object
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set doc = fso.GetFile("path")
doc.Attributes = 0
Documents.Open("path")
End Sub
I'm trying to loop through all of the word documents that I currently have open, check the filename and pass the document to a function if the document name matches certain criteria. This is the code I currently have:
Dim doc As word.Document
For Each doc In word.Documents
If doc.Name Like "*scratchpad*" Then
Call ModifyScratchpad(doc)
End If
Next
This seems to work well some of the time but if I close the docs and reopen them, then run the sub again, I'll get an error at line 2:
"The remote server machine does not exist or is unavailable."
I'm clearly doing something wrong to loop through open Word docs but not sure what.
Does anyone have an idea of how to loop through all open Word docs and avoid this error?
It is easy to save emails in Outlook VBA with MailItem.SaveAs
But I don't see any option to save additional details like i.e. the Author and Categories.
The 3rd party program MessageSave allows to save mails with Categories and Author in .msg format. In Windows Explorer the columns Author and Categories show the same information like in Outlook.
Does anybody know how to save messages using Outlook VBA including these additional information?
I bought MessageSave and it's a good program but they don't allow their save function to be used in VBA. The only workaround is to let MessageSave save messages when they "arrive" in a specific folder. If necessary I can use this function but this is just a workaround.
Here is a sample how the emails saved with MessageSave are shown in Windows Explorer:
here is a process i followed: (win7 64)
web search "windows vba set extended file property"
first hit: StackOverfow 16989882
web search: "DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties"
hit microsoft: The Dsofile.dll files lets you edit Office document properties when you do not have Office installed
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/224351/the-dsofile.dll-files-lets-you-edit-office-document-properties-when-yo
that is not a typo ... it ends in "when-yo"
download: DsoFileSetup_KB224351_x86.exe
open DsoFileSetup_KB224351_x86.exe using 7-zip program (from 7-zip.org)
copy dsofile.dll from DsoFileSetup_KB224351_x86.exe (using 7-zip) into a folder desktop (named "testFiles" in this example) (this could be anywhere ... maybe windows system32 or syswow64 ... i only tried on desktop )
open command prompt window as administrator
navigate to folder that contains dsofile.dll
execute following: regsvr32 dsofile.dll
should receive success confirmation
start outlook ... vba editor ... tools ... references
and find "DSO OLE Document Properties Reader 2.1" and check the box on left
back to vba editor ... create new module
paste in the following: (this is just a minimal test script)
Sub extendedProperties()
Dim objFile As OleDocumentProperties
Set objFile = CreateObject("DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties")
objFile.Open ("C:\Users\js\Desktop\testFiles\myMessage.msg") ' adjust to match your system
objFile.SummaryProperties.Subject = "My Subject"
objFile.Save
Set objFile = Nothing
End Sub
copy (drag&drop) an email "myMessage" from outlook to folder (on desktop in this example)
right-click on folder column header ... click on more ... find "subject" ...
click checkbox
ran script
subject column should contain "My Subject" next to myMessage.msg (or whatever your message is named)
there may be a simpler way ... maybe windows PowerShell has a command that could be called from vba
here is a more usable script
it has no error checking
no check for duplicate message names
no check for illegal filenames (except for ":" character)
just select a bunch of emails in any outlook folder and run this
' make sure you have a reference to "DSO OLE Document Properties Reader"
Sub extendedProperties()
Dim msg As mailItem
Dim objFile As OleDocumentProperties
' Set objFile = CreateObject("DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties")
Set objFile = New OleDocumentProperties
Dim fileName As String
Dim subjectText As String
' !!!!!!!! select a bunch of messages before running this !!!!!!!!
For Each msg In ActiveExplorer.Selection
subjectText = Replace(msg.Subject, ":", "_") ' get rid of illegal file name character (there are others)
' adjust the destination folder for your liking
fileName = "C:\Users\js\Desktop\testFiles\" & subjectText & ".msg"
Debug.Print fileName
msg.SaveAs fileName
objFile.Open fileName
objFile.SummaryProperties.Subject = "My Subject"
'objFile.Save
objFile.Close True ' save and close !!!!! duplicate filenames get overwritten !!!!!
' stop ' uncomment this line and the code will stop. press F5 to run, F8 to single-step
Next msg
Set msg = Nothing
Set objFile = Nothing
End Sub
I am reading a word document inside a folder with vb.net, then I fill some data fields inside the document, after that I convert the word document into a pdf file and I save it in the same folder of my word document.
The problems becomes when I go to the folder where my word template is located, if I try to delete the word file, it shows me an error that say: "The document is been using by XML process", the only way to delete my file is killing the process in the task manager, which is means after finishing executing the code, the word file is still opened.
I try to use at the end of the code: Doc.Close() but the compiler says that the sentences are ambiguous.
This is the code I am using:
Dim missing As Object = Type.Missing
Dim app As New Word.Application()
Dim doc As Word.Document=app.Documents.Open(Server.MapPath("~\\App_Tmp\\WordTemplate1.docx"), missing, True)
Dim fields As Word.FormFields = doc.FormFields
fields("tLegalName").Result = lawFirmObj.DisplayName
doc.Activate()
doc.SaveAs2(Server.MapPath("~\App_Tmp\Filled.pdf"), WdSaveFormat.wdFormatPDF)
I have a number of large Microsoft Word documents with many linked files from many Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. When opening a Word document, even with the 'update linked files at open' option unchecked:
Word still checks each link at its source by opening and closing the relevant excel spreadsheet for each individual link (so for x number of links, even if from the same spreadsheet, Word will open and close the spreadsheet x times). This means opening documents takes a very long time.
I have found that documents open faster if the spreadsheets containing the source of linked objects are already open, so Word doesn't keep opening, closing, reopening them.
So far, the beginnings of a solution I have is to create a list of all the filepaths of the linked objects, done by following VBA code:
Sub TypeArray()
Dim List(), Path As String
Dim i, x As Integer
Dim s As InlineShape
Dim fso As FileSystemObject, ts As TextStream
Set fso = New FileSystemObject
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile("C:\MyFolder\List.txt", 8, True)
With ts
.WriteLine (ActiveDocument.InlineShapes.Count)
End With
For Each s In ActiveDocument.InlineShapes
Path = s.LinkFormat.SourcePath & "\" _
& s.LinkFormat.SourceName
With ts
.WriteLine (Path)
End With
Next s
End Sub
'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Private Sub WriteStringToFile(pFileName As String, pString As String)
Dim intFileNum As Integer
intFileNum = FreeFile
Open pFileName For Append As intFileNum
Print #intFileNum, pString
Close intFileNum
End Sub
'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Private Sub SendFileToNotePad(pFileName As String)
Dim lngReturn As Long
lngReturn = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & pFileName, vbNormalFocus)
End Sub
which works well, but can only be used after a document is already open, which defeats its purpose.
So, finally, my question(s) are these:
1) Is there a way to run this code (or any better, more efficient code - suggestions are welcome) before opening a Word document and waiting through the long process of checking each link at its source?
2) Is there a way to avoid all this and simply have Word not check the links when it I open a document?
Sorry for the long question, and thank you for the help!
If I am not wrong there should be Document_Open event according to msdn. This should actually be a before open document and should be fired before updating links (at least it in excel it is fired before calculation).
Try opening the files on document open. Then you will face another problem, and so when to close the files, but that is a much easier thing to do. (probably document_close event...)
EDITTED:
As comments state, this is too late. You can create a word opener (as a single app or as an addin). The logic basically is:
'1) on something_open run GetOpenFileName dialog
'2) before opening the real thing, open all files accompanied
'3) open the document itself
'4) close all files
'5) close the opener itself
This is not the most trivial way, but I use this logic for exampe to make sure, that my applications always runs in a fresh copy of excel etc. But I understand that this is a workaround rather then a solution.
If you are still looking for something on this front, I created the following in a combination of VBA and VB.NET (in VS 2010) to show what can be done quite easily using that system. If VB.NET is no use to you, sorry, but there are reasons why I don't really want to spend time on the pure VBA approach.
At present, it is a "console" application which means you'll probably see a box flash up when it runs, but also means that you are more likely to be able to create this app without VS if you absolutely had to (AFAICR the VB.NET /compiler/ is actually free). It just fetches the link info. (i.e. there's currently no facility to modify links).
The overview is that you have a small piece of VBA (say, in your Normal template) and you need an open document. The VBA starts a Windows Shell, runs the VB.NET program and passes it the full path name of the document you want to open.
The VB.NET program opens the .docx (or whatever) and looks at all the Relationships of type "oleObject" that are referenced from the Main document part (so right now, the code ignores headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes and anywhere else you might have a link)
The VB.NET program automates Word (which we know is running) and writes each link URL into a sequence of Document Variables in the active document. These variables are called "Link1", "Link2", etc. If there are no links (I haven't actually tested that path properly) or the program can't find the file, "Link0" should be set to "0". Otherwise it should be set to the link count.
The shell executes synchronously, so your VBA resumes when it's done. Then you either have 0 links, or a set of links that you can process.
The VBA is like this:
Sub getLinkInfo()
' the full path name of the program, quoted if there are any spaces in it
' You would need to modify this
Const theProgram As String = """C:\VBNET\getmaindocumentolelinks.exe"""
' You will need a VBA reference to the "Windows Script Host Object Model"
Dim oShell As WshShell
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' plug your document name in here (again, notice the double quotes)
If oShell.Run(theProgram & " ""c:\a\testdocexplorer.docx""", , True) = 0 Then
With ActiveDocument.Variables
For i = 1 To CInt(.Item("Link0").Value)
Debug.Print .Item("Link" & CStr(i))
Next
End With
Else
MsgBox "Attempt to retrieve links failed"
End If
End Sub
For the VB.NET, you would need the Office Open XML SDK (I think it's version 2.5). You need to make references to that, and Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.
The code is as follows:
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Xml.Linq
Imports DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging
Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word
Module Module1
Const OLEOBJECT As String = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/oleObject"
Sub Main()
Dim s() As String = System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()
If UBound(s) > 0 Then
Dim wordApp As Word.Application
Try
wordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
Dim targetDoc As Word.Document = wordApp.ActiveDocument
Try
Dim OOXMLDoc As WordprocessingDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open(path:=s(1), isEditable:=False)
Dim linkUris As IEnumerable(Of System.Uri) = From rel In OOXMLDoc.MainDocumentPart.ExternalRelationships _
Where rel.RelationshipType = OLEOBJECT _
Select rel.Uri
For link As Integer = 0 To linkUris.Count - 1
targetDoc.Variables("Link" & CStr(link + 1)).Value = linkUris(link).ToString
Next
targetDoc.Variables("Link0").Value = CStr(linkUris.Count)
OOXMLDoc.Close()
Catch ex As Exception
targetDoc.Variables("Link0").Value = "0"
End Try
Finally
wordApp = Nothing
End Try
End If
End Sub
End Module
I originally wrote the .NET code as a COM object, which would be slightly easier to use from VBA, but significantly harder to set up on the .NET side and (frankly) much harder to modify & debug as you have constantly to close Word to release the references to the COM DLLs.
If you actually wanted to fix up the LINK paths, as far as I can tell, modifying them in the relationship records is enough to get Word to update the relevant LINK fields when it opens Word, which saves having to modify the XML code for the LINK fields as well. But that's another story...
I just found out that you can set/modify a DelayOleSrvParseDisplayName registry entry and a NoActivateOleLinkObjAtOpen registry entry to modify the global behaviour:
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970154
I also found that activedocument.fields can contain links to external objects (in my case, an Excel sheet).
Use this code to parse them:
for each f in activedocument.fields
debug.print f.code
next
And use activedocument.fields(FIELDNUMBER) to select each object, to figure out where it is in the document.
Maybe also activedocument.Variables and activedocument.Hyperlinks can contain links to external objects? (not in my case).