VBA Word macro not working as expected with field results in document - vba

Question

I have a word document (report) and in that document, I'm importing many text files with fields like this:
{INCLUDETEXT "C:\\PATH\\TOXMLFILES\\Request.xml" \*CHARFORMAT}
Also I'm updating all those fields with a macro on opening the document...
Sub AutoOpen()
With Options
.UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
.UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
End With
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
End Sub
Now I need to highlight the text of those imported XMLs (in the IncludeText fields) between <faultstring></faultstring> tags
Here is code I got here on stackoverflow for highlighting text (making it bold)
Sub BoldBetweenQuotes()
' base for a quotes finding macro
Dim blnSearchAgain As Boolean
Dim blnFindStart As Boolean
Dim blnFindEnd As Boolean
Dim rngFind As word.Range
Dim rngFindStart As word.Range
Dim rngFindEnd As word.Range
Set rngFind = ActiveDocument.content
Set rngFindStart = rngFind.Duplicate
Do
' set up find of first of quote pair
With rngFindStart.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "<faultstring>"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.wrap = wdFindStop
blnFindStart = .Execute
End With
If blnFindStart Then
rngFindStart.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
Set rngFindEnd = rngFindStart.Duplicate
rngFindEnd.Find.Text = "</faultstring>"
blnFindEnd = rngFindEnd.Find.Execute
If blnFindEnd Then
rngFindStart.End = rngFindEnd.Start
' make it bold
rngFindStart.Font.Bold = True
rngFindStart.Start = rngFindEnd.End
rngFindStart.End = rngFind.End
blnSearchAgain = True
Else
blnSearchAgain = False
End If
Else
blnSearchAgain = False
End If
Loop While blnSearchAgain = True
End Sub
Problem is, when I run the macro in my Word document (with the IncludeText fields) it keeps cycling and bolding just the first appearance of text between faultstring tags. When I run it in a new Word document with some random text and faultrstring tags it works well...
EDIT: It turns out the problem is due to the faultstring tags being inside the IncludeText fields. I need to turn the fields into static text after opening the document and updating the fields. How can I do that?

Answer 1

In order to convert dynamic field content to static text using Word's object model (such as VBA) the Fields.Unlink method is required. For the entire document:
ActiveDocument.Fields.Unlink
This is also possible for any given Range; to remove the fields in the last paragraph, for example:
ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Last.Range.Fields.Unlink
In order to unlink only a certain type of field, loop the Fields collection, test the Field.Type and unlink accordingly. For example, for IncludeText:
Sub DeleteIncludeTextFields()
Dim doc As word.Document
Set doc = ActiveDocument
Debug.Print DeleteFieldType(wdFieldIncludeText, doc)
End Sub
Function DeleteFieldType(fldType As word.WdFieldType, doc As word.Document) _
As Long
Dim fld As word.Field
Dim counter As Long
counter = 0
For Each fld In doc.Fields
If fld.Type = wdFieldIncludeText Then
fld.Unlink
counter = counter + 1
End If
Next
DeleteFieldType = counter
End Function
Assuming you want to do this for all the fields in your document, after updating it:
Sub AutoOpen()
With Options
.UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
.UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
End With
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
ActiveDocument.Fields.Unlink
End Sub