Using VBA in Word 2010 to change column widths in a table - vba

Question

I am just getting started with VBA, using my old copy of Word 2010. I want to resize two of the columns in a three column table and format the text that is in the columns. This code was generated by Word's macro recorder:
Selection.ConvertToTable Separator:=wdSeparateByCommas, NumColumns:=3, _
NumRows:=14, AutoFitBehavior:=wdAutoFitContent
With Selection.Tables(1)
.Style = "Table Grid"
.ApplyStyleHeadingRows = True
.ApplyStyleLastRow = False
.ApplyStyleFirstColumn = True
.ApplyStyleLastColumn = False
End With
Selection.Cells.VerticalAlignment = wdCellAlignVerticalCenter
Now I want the first two columns to be 1.3 inches wide and the third column to be 5.1 inches wide. Then I want to change the formatting of the text in the third column to increase the font size. The macro recorder doesn't seem to record when I resize columns. Any suggestions as to how to edit this code?

Answer 1

Controlling tables is rather complicated. Word does much of it the way it sees fit, but if you use VBA you must take control. It really isn't desirable that you should make your life even more miserable by invoking the Selection object. Try and make your object the table itself, for example, like this.
Dim Tbl As Table
Set Tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, _
NumRows:=14, _
NumColumns:=3, _
DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord8TableBehavior, _
AutoFitBehavior:=wdAutoFitFixed)
' wdWord8TableBehavior = doesn't change table size to match content
The table will be inserted following the selection. You may want to collapse your selection range before running this code. But now that you have a table object you can format it to your heart's content without selecting anything. There are dozens of properties. One of them which you will want to determine is Tbl.PreferredWidth = InchesToPoints(7.7) Word will not set this property automatically to the total width of your columns.
Your table has 3 columns which you can address as Tbl.Columns(1) to 3. You can set the width for each column, like Tbl.Columns(3).Width = InchesToPoints(5.1)
Similarly, you can address each row as Tbl.Rows(1) and up. Individual cells are addressed by Row and Column numbers, for example, Tbl.Cell(1, 3) which is the 3rd cell in the first row. Avoid merging cells because that will prevent VBA from being able to count them off.
The text in a cell is contained in its range, for example, Tbl.Cell(1, 3).Range.Text. You can both read and write this property. Bear in mind that Word keeps a paragraph-end mark at the end of each cell's range. When you write to a cell Word will add it for you, even if you thought of adding it yourself. But when you read a cell's text you need to remove the last character, for example,
Dim Rng As Range
Set Rng = Tbl.Cell(1, 3).Range
With Rng
.End = .End - 1
Fun = .Text
End With
Here Fun is the variable (As String) that contains the actual text part of the cell's contents.
You can address the paragraphs within a cell as part of the range, for example, Tbl.Cell(1, 3).Range.Paragraphs(1). I always avoid having more than 1 paragraph into any cell. However, you could address more paragraphs as (2) etc. You can apply all formatting available for paragraphs to each paragraph in each cell, and all the text in each paragraph can be subjected to all the formatting Word has available for text.