I'm having to convert some documents which had been built in OpenOffice over to word, and one thing which seems overly complicated in Word is conditional text. OO had some features which made this a breeze, but I'm thinking I'm missing something in Word.
For more simple pieces of text I've used the {IF {DOCVARIABLE xxxx} = ...} method which seems to work well with single lines of text.
For longer blocks of text I've tried using a similar method but inserting an Autotext block. This works well if the content is static, but if the content I'm inserting needs to be edited, updating the document ends up replacing any changes with the Autotext block. So this method won't work for parts of my document.
Most of the search results I'm seeing use some variation of the two methods above. Is there something else I can use which allows blocks of text, possibly including tables, to be conditionally inserted or hidden and also editable?
Macros are okay since this is how I'm setting various DOCVARIABLE parameters in the document.
I'm using Word 2016 on Windows 7.
After doing more experimenting, it looks like I can use bookmarks to do what I need.
I can select the block of text I want to conditionally show/hide, then create a bookmark for the selection.
Then in my macro I can hide the section when necessary with:
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmarkName").Range.Font.Hidden = True
or show it again using False instead of True. This seems to hide tables and other things within that block of text. I'd love it if the Word developers would add some of the features for this type of thing which are in OpenOffice.
Related
This question is related to my other question: Range.InsertXML using Transform
In MS Word it is easy to insert a content control using VBA, for example:
ThisDocument.ContentControls.Add wdContentControlRichText, Selection.Range
I've recently started exploring more in the XML side of things, e.g.:
Debug.Print ThisDocument.Range.XML seems to (or actually does) produce the XML for a Word document. However, if I create a NEW, BLANK document and add a Content Control I am unable to extract and reinsert the Content Control (oCC).
My steps:
added 2 blank paragraphs to a new document
added oCC to the 2nd paragraph
selected the oCC paragraph
immediate window: thisdocument.Paragraphs(1).Range.InsertXML selection.Range.XML
At first glance it LOOKS like the Content Control was duplicated, BUT on closer inspection, it was deleted and only the formatted text remains (see image, top paragraph is actually just formatted text).
Thinking I could out smart MS Word I set the properties of the Content Control to '...can not be deleted', but that didn't help.
I've also tried to insert into a separate document in case the issue had something to do with duplication of something that ought to have been unique.
In a nutshell:
To answer this question I need a way to insert a Content Control to a document using a combination of VBA and XML (or confirmation that what I am attempting is not possible).
Just realized I should use Selection.Range.WordOpenXML instead of Selection.Range.XML
I have a PDF form that I'm filling out with data using progress-4gl. To date, I've been only filling in text fields using the following syntax:
put stream stream1 unform
"^global CHX_SINGLE_CE_PLAN3" skip(0)
"X" skip
CHX_SINGLE_CE_PLAN3 is the field name...
This code works when dealing with text fields but I'm trying to check a box instead of fill in a text field. I cannot find any documentation on this. Is checking a box on a fillable pdf form even possible with 4gl?
As far as I remember PDF Include has support for filling fillable forms. Whilst it's probably a bit over the top in terms of what you want to achieve, it's an open source project and so you may well find the answer to your question within the code itself.
Here's a link to the project page: http://www.oehive.org/pdfinclude
I discovered the answer, which I thought I had already tried before asking this question. The answer is you need to pass the value "Yes" (with capital "Y") in order to check the checkbox. The correct code in this instance is:
put stream stream1 unform
"^global CHX_SINGLE_CE_PLAN3" skip(0)
"Yes" skip
I believe this is the case no matter which language you're using
I have a Microsoft Office 2013 Word template, in which I have some text-field elements, created by using Quick Parts -> Field -> MACROBUTTON noname [Type your text here].
If I fill only some of these fields (i.e. "[Name]", "[Address]") and I print or save as PDF, all the fields that I have not filled will display as [Insert your text here] in the printed paper or PDF. To be clear, the placeholder text must be manually removed (or replaced with the text you want).
I've readed somewhere, that you can create a macro, which will not display the placeholder text in the PFD- or printed version of the document, if there is no text written manually to that specific field (you leave it as it was). As this would be handy in cases, where you don't fill all the neccessery fields, my question is:
Q: Can this be achieved only by using Macro Button, and if not, what is needed to create text fields as described below that are not included in the printed or PDF saved version of the document?
This cannot be achieved without using actual macro code. Right now your solution contains no macro code, the fields simply function as "targets" and when the user types on the field it is deleted. Where the user does not type, the prompt remains. You'd need code to delete these fields from the document.
Given your requirement, the code would have to fire in the DocumentBeforeSave and the DocumentBeforePrint events. These events require a class and supporting code in a standard module. The basic information on how to set these up is in the Word object model language reference: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff821218.aspx
An alternative to MacroButton fields would be to use ContentControls. But here, again, code and the same events would be required to remove/hide placeholder text.
I created a word document where I use fields (with Document properties) in the text, in the Footers but I also created an Word Art object with the Title-field in it.
I can Update the fields in the document using:
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
For the Footers I use the PrintPreview
ActiveDocument.PrintPreview
ActiveDocument.ClosePrintPreview
But none of those updates my Field in the Word Art Object.
How can I update this?
A wordart object is a shape, is it really the case, that a word art object can contain a field instead of just overlaying? Can you put out some more information/ did you double check if the field may have been updated but the content stays the same?
I have found a suitable work arround in Word for my problem.
It is not realy neccesary to use Word Art, I can use the same with "Text Effects and Typography"
I am still curious if there is a real solotion for this, but for now it works dor me
I'd like to be able to create a page element which I can feed text and it will form itself into the preferred layout. For instance:
{MACRO DocumentIntro("Introduction to Business Studies", "FP015", "Teachers' Guide")}
with that as a field, the output should be a line, the first two strings a certain size and font, centred, another line and then the third string fonted, sized and centred.
I know that's sort of TeX-like and perhaps beyond the scope of VBA, but if anyone's got any idea how it might be possible, please tell!
EDIT:
Ok, if I put the required information into Keyword, as part of the document properties, with some kind of unique separator, then that gets that info in, and the info will be unique to each document. Next one puts a bookmark where the stuff is going to be displayed. Then one creates an AutoOpen macro that goes to that bookmark, pulls the relevants out of the keywords, and forms the text appropriately into the bookmark's .Selection.
Is that feasible?
You're certainly on the right track here for a coding solution. However, there is a simpler way with no code - this is the type of scenario that Content Controls in Word 2007 were built for and with Fields/Properties, you can bind to content controls (CC). These CC can hold styles (like centered, bold, etc.). No VBA required.
The very easiest thing to do is to pick 3 built-in document properties that you will always want these to be. For example, "Title" could be your first string, "Subject" your second string and "Keywords" your third. Then, just go to the Insert ribbon, Quick Parts, Document Properties and insert, place and format those how you like. Then go to Word's start button (the orb thingy) and then under Prepare choose Properties. Here you can type, for example "Introduction to Business Studies", into the Title box and then just deselect it somehow (like click in another box). The Content Control for Title will be filled in automatically with your text.
If you want to use this for multiple files, just create this file as a .dotx (after CC insertion/placement/formatting and before updating the Document Properties' text). Then every time all you'll have to do is set these three properties with each new file.
Well, yes, it did turn out to be feasible.
Sub autoopen()
Dim sKeywords As String
sKeywords = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(4)
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("foo").Select
Selection.Text = sKeywords
End Sub
Okay, I have some filling out to do, but at least the guts of it are there.