Catalog word file data in MS Access using VBA - vba

Question

I've been asked to create a MS access database that catalogs all the data that is stored in MS Word Files. The Word files have tables that contain the data.
For example, "Customer Name:" | Customer data | "Date" | Date data
I have used MS Access to loop and open each file using objects Word.Application and Word.Document .
Then I use a 2nd loop on i using this command to get the value in the cell: worddoc.Tables(tableindex).Range.Cells(i).Range.Value
HOWEVER if the cell contains a dropdown box, I do not get the value in the dropdown box; I get a square character.
1) Is there a way to determine what type of data is in the cell? Most of the time it would be Text, Textbox, or Dropdown box.
2) When it is a Dropdown box, how do I get the data from it?
I hope I provided enough information. please ask if you need more info.

Answer 1

Maybe something like this (for example - assuming you have "content controls" and not some other type of control...)
Sub Tester()
Dim t As Table, r, c, rw, cel As Cell, cc
Set t = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
For r = 1 To t.Rows.Count
Set rw = t.Rows(r)
For c = 1 To rw.Cells.Count
Set cel = rw.Cells(c)
Debug.Print r, c, GetContent(cel)
Next c
Next r
End Sub
Function GetContent(c As Cell)
Dim cc, con, sep
Set cc = c.Range.ContentControls
If cc.Count = 0 Then
'stripping off "end of cell" marker...
GetContent = Right(c.Range.Text, Len(c.Range.Text) - 2)
Else
For Each con In cc
GetContent = GetContent & sep & con.Range.Text
sep = " "
Next con
End If
End Function

Answer 2

The little square box you are getting is the end of cell marker. In a table cell, it functions kind of like a last paragraph. So ... you have to get rid of it before you do anything else.
The following is some example test code, just looking at one cell in a table, but use it as a guide to fit into your process of looping thru the various cells. My other caveat is I took your reference to a "Textbook" literally in this example. If what you meant was a text box content control, then you can ignore that portion of this example.
Dim rng As Range, cc As ContentControl, shp As Shape
Set rng = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).rows(1).Cells(1).Range
rng.MoveEnd wdCharacter, -1
If rng.ContentControls.Count > 0 Then
Set cc = rng.ContentControls(1)
Debug.Print cc.Range.Text
ElseIf rng.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then
If rng.ShapeRange(1).Type = msoTextBox Then
Set shp = rng.ShapeRange(1)
If shp.TextFrame.HasText Then
Debug.Print shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text
End If
End If
Else
If Not rng.Text = vbNullString Then
Debug.Print rng.Text
End If
End If