Macro to update all fields in a word document - vba

Question

I have built - over the years - a vba macro that is supposed to update all fields in a word document.
I invoke this macro before releasing the document for review to ensure all headers and footers etc are correct.
Currently - it look like this:
Sub UpdateAllFields()
'
' UpdateAllFields Macro
'
'
Dim doc As Document ' Pointer to Active Document
Dim wnd As Window ' Pointer to Document's Window
Dim lngMain As Long ' Main Pane Type Holder
Dim lngSplit As Long ' Split Type Holder
Dim lngActPane As Long ' ActivePane Number
Dim rngStory As Range ' Range Objwct for Looping through Stories
Dim TOC As TableOfContents ' Table of Contents Object
Dim TOA As TableOfAuthorities 'Table of Authorities Object
Dim TOF As TableOfFigures 'Table of Figures Object
Dim shp As Shape
' Set Objects
Set doc = ActiveDocument
Set wnd = doc.ActiveWindow
' get Active Pane Number
lngActPane = wnd.ActivePane.Index
' Hold View Type of Main pane
lngMain = wnd.Panes(1).View.Type
' Hold SplitSpecial
lngSplit = wnd.View.SplitSpecial
' Get Rid of any split
wnd.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone
' Set View to Normal
wnd.View.Type = wdNormalView
' Loop through each story in doc to update
For Each rngStory In doc.StoryRanges
If rngStory.StoryType = wdCommentsStory Then
Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsNone
' Update fields
rngStory.Fields.Update
Application.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsAll
Else
' Update fields
rngStory.Fields.Update
If rngStory.StoryType <> wdMainTextStory Then
While Not (rngStory.NextStoryRange Is Nothing)
Set rngStory = rngStory.NextStoryRange
rngStory.Fields.Update
Wend
End If
End If
Next
For Each shp In doc.Shapes
If shp.Type <> msoPicture Then
With shp.TextFrame
If .HasText Then
shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields.Update
End If
End With
End If
Next
' Loop through TOC and update
For Each TOC In doc.TablesOfContents
TOC.Update
Next
' Loop through TOA and update
For Each TOA In doc.TablesOfAuthorities
TOA.Update
Next
' Loop through TOF and update
For Each TOF In doc.TablesOfFigures
TOF.Update
Next
' Header and footer too.
UpdateHeader
UpdateFooter
' Return Split to original state
wnd.View.SplitSpecial = lngSplit
' Return main pane to original state
wnd.Panes(1).View.Type = lngMain
' Active proper pane
wnd.Panes(lngActPane).Activate
' Close and release all pointers
Set wnd = Nothing
Set doc = Nothing
End Sub
Sub UpdateFooter()
Dim i As Integer
'exit if no document is open
If Documents.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Get page count
i = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(14)
If i >= 1 Then 'Update fields in Footer
For Each footer In ActiveDocument.Sections(ActiveDocument.Sections.Count).Footers()
footer.Range.Fields.Update
Next
End If
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
'Update only the fields in your footer like:
Sub UpdateHeader()
Dim i As Integer
'exit if no document is open
If Documents.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Get page count
i = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(14)
If i >= 1 Then 'Update fields in Header
For Each header In ActiveDocument.Sections(ActiveDocument.Sections.Count).Headers()
header.Range.Fields.Update
Next
End If
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
I have noticed recently that it sometimes misses some sections of the document. Today it missed First page footer -section 2- (the document version was not updated).
I have built this macro over a number of years and several bouts of research but I am not proud of it so please suggest a complete replacement if there is now a clean way of doing it. I am using Word 2007.
To test, create a word document and add a custom field named Version and give it a value. Then use that field {DOCPROPERTY Version \* MERGEFORMAT } in as many places as you can. Headers, Footers, first-page, subsequent page etc. etc. Remember to make a multi-section document with different header/footers. Then change the property and invoke the macro. It currently does quite a good job, handling TOCs and TOAs an TOFs etc, it just seems to skip footers (sometimes) in a multi-section document for example.
Edit
The challenging document that seems to cause the most problems is structured like this:
It has 3 sections.
Section 1 is for the title page and TOC so the first page of that section has no header/footer but does use the Version property on it. Subsequent pages have page numbering in roman numerals for the TOC.
Section 2 is for the body of the document and has headers and footers.
Section 3 is for the copyright blurb and this has a very strange header and a cut-down footer.
All footers contain the Version custom document property.
My code above seems to work in all cases except sometimes it misses first page footer of sections 2 and 3.

Answer 1

For years, the standard I've used for updating all fields (with the exception of TOC, etc. which are handled separately) in a document is the one the Word MVPs use and recommend, which I'll copy here. It comes from Greg Maxey's site: http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/word_fields.html. One thing it does that I don't see in your version is update any fields in Shapes (text boxes) in the header/footer.
Public Sub UpdateAllFields()
Dim rngStory As Word.Range
Dim lngJunk As Long
Dim oShp As Shape
lngJunk = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(1).Range.StoryType
For Each rngStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
'Iterate through all linked stories
Do
On Error Resume Next
rngStory.Fields.Update
Select Case rngStory.StoryType
Case 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
If rngStory.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then
For Each oShp In rngStory.ShapeRange
If oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then
oShp.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields.Update
End If
Next
End If
Case Else
'Do Nothing
End Select
On Error GoTo 0
'Get next linked story (if any)
Set rngStory = rngStory.NextStoryRange
Loop Until rngStory Is Nothing
Next
End Sub

Answer 2

Some research and experimentation produced the following addition which seems to solve the additional problem of updating the headers/footers in a multi-section document.
Add the following dimensions to the earlier answer:
dim sctn as Word.Section
dim hdft as Word.HeaderFooter
And then, add to the earlier code
for each sctn in doc.Sections
for each hdft in sctn.Headers
hdft.Range.Fields.Update
next
for each hdft in sctn.Footers
hdft.Range.Fields.Update
next
next
However - I am still not happy with this code and would very much like to replace it with something less hacky.

Answer 3

Thanks for these answers! I found the answers very good and learned some stuff about ms-word macros. I thought I'd make my own answer for consideration (and adding some more search engine keywords - my searches didn't bring me here immediately).
I took inspiration from the citations in the footnotes.
I had an issue where MS Word fields were not updating in Textbox (Shapes).
I was working on a 70 page word document (Word 2013) that contained a lot of figures/images/captions and cross-references. A common practice is for an image to be captioned e.g. Figure 7, so it can be easily cross-referenced. Often the caption is inside a textbox (shape) and grouped with/to the object its captioning.
So after some document editing and content reorganisation, the fields and cross-references can easily get out of logical sequence.
OK - no problem... pressing CTRL+A then F9 to update the document fields should solve this?
Unfortunately that didn't work as expected to update fields in textboxes (shapes).
In this scenario where fields exist inside textboxes (shapes) CTRL+A then F9 only updated the fields not inside a textbox (shape).
One can assume this behaviour is because field updating (F9) works on selected text, and with the CTRL+A then F9 approach only text outside of the textboxes (shapes) is selected, so the field update only applies outside of textboxes (shapes).
I'm surprised there is not a button on the ribbon to perform an "update all fields". There could even be a toggle option to prompt the user to update all fields when closing a document?
I checked Word's (2013) ribbon command list, and didn't find an Update All command.
Solution UpdateAllFields()
Like the code shared by #Cindy here, the following code should update fields wherever they are in the doc, header, footer, main doc, textbox, grouped and nested grouped textbox.
Create a macro with the following code, and then add to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)
Press ALT+F8 to open the Macros dialogue.
Enter a name for the Macro: UpdateAllFields
Press Create button
Paste the code:
Sub UpdateAllFields()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument
.Fields.Update
.PrintPreview
.ClosePrintPreview
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Finally add the Macro to the Quick Access Toolbar.
Citations and inspirations:
The Q&A's in this post!
There is a related post on the Microsoft Community here: Word 365 Fields not updating in Textbox [serious reproducible error]. This suggests the issue is present in at least Word 2013 and Word 365.
There is a related post on Stack Overflow here: Macro to update fields in shapes (textboxes) in footer in Microsoft Word.
Another example UpdateTextboxFields()
This was the first version of code I wrote as I was in research and solution mode. Its a recursive approach to update fields inside textboxes, even if they are inside a group, or nested group. This doesn't update fields outside shapes.
Public Sub UpdateTextboxFields()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument
Call IterateShapesCollection(.Shapes)
.PrintPreview
.ClosePrintPreview
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Private Sub IterateShapesCollection(col)
Dim shp As Shape
For Each shp In col
' https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/vba/api/office.msoshapetype
' Ignore images and
If 1 = shp.Type Or 13 = shp.Type Then
GoTo NextIteration
End If
'Debug.Print ("Name: " & shp.Name & ", Type: " & shp.Type)
' if the type is a group, recurse
If 6 = shp.Type Then
Call IterateShapesCollection(shp.GroupItems)
Else
Call UpdateShapeFields(shp)
End If
NextIteration:
Next
End Sub
Private Sub UpdateShapeFields(shp)
With shp.TextFrame
If .HasText Then
.TextRange.Fields.Update
End If
End With
End Sub
Word display option: Update fields before printing
cite: Microsoft article Some fields are updated while other fields are not
The concept behind this option/approach is: all document fields are updated when you open print preview.
It looks like this option in Word (tested in 2013) updates all fields with a caveat - see below - you may need to open and close print preview twice.
File → Options → Display → Print options section → Update fields before printing
Caveat if the doc has cross-references to figures/captions
This caveat applies to the word "Update fields before printing" display option and the UpdateAllFields() macro.
IF the document contains cross-references to figures/captions (with numbers), and those figures/captions have changed sequence/place in the document...
You must update the fields twice, 1) to reflect the figures/captions update, and then 2) to update the cross-references.