Activedocument.variables

[Karen]

Hi All,

I have a template. One of the features of the template was that certain
fields in the header would be common to documents created from that template
and yet different for individual users. For instance, the header has fields
for camera, lens, ISO. A particular user may routinely use a Nikon, 8.9 to
89 mm lens and 400 ISO so the idea was that I would save those values as
activedocument.variables and every time the user used the template, those
values would be loaded into the template.

I distributed the template to a user with the values pre-filled in as
camera, lens, ISO, etc. When the user tries to create a document from the
template, he gets a runtime error saying that the variables are not
available. I commented out the code and the template works fine. I only
have one user who is trying this template so I don't know if the problem is
isolated to him or not; I suspect it is a problem.

Am I mistaken that the distributed template should have the variables
pre-loaded with the ordinary text? Any ideas on how I could troubleshoot
this problem? It works fine on my systems............

Karen

 

[Jay Freedman]

First, let me ask why you're using code at all. Why not just place
DocVariable fields in the header of the template? They'll update as
soon as a new document is created from the template (and yes, they
will pick up the values of the variables in the template -- I tried
it).

If you must use code, that works ok for me, too, with something simple
like this:

Sub AutoNew()
Dim rg As Range

Set rg = ActiveDocument.Sections(1) _
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range

rg.Fields.Add Range:=rg, _
Type:=wdFieldDocVariable, Text:="test1"

Set rg = Nothing
End Sub

If you can't spot the problem, please post your code.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Karen Hagerman]

Thanks Jay, let me check your suggestion; this is my code

Private Sub Document_New()



'open the header

If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
End If
If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveWindow. _
ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
End If
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader

'get current values for Camera, ISO, Flash, Lens and Photographer

ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("DateTaken").Range.Text = _
Date
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("IsoSpeed").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateISOSpeed").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Flash").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateFlash").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Camera").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateCamera").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Lens").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateLens").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Photographer").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templatePhotog").Value

'close the header pane

ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView

'save the template

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Saved = TrueEnd Sub

End Sub

On the user's computer, this code stops the document with a message that the variables are not present.

Karen

 

[Karen Hagerman]

Oh,

And the variables have already been added, the point is to distribute this with the variables already defined and added. If a user changes the values then they will be saved and, from that point forward, the template will open with the user values.


Karen




First, let me ask why you're using code at all. Why not just place
DocVariable fields in the header of the template? They'll update as
soon as a new document is created from the template (and yes, they
will pick up the values of the variables in the template -- I tried
it).

If you must use code, that works ok for me, too, with something simple
like this:

Sub AutoNew()
Dim rg As Range

Set rg = ActiveDocument.Sections(1) _
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range

rg.Fields.Add Range:=rg, _
Type:=wdFieldDocVariable, Text:="test1"

Set rg = Nothing
End Sub

If you can't spot the problem, please post your code.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

As far as the use of the document variables goes, I don't see anything that
should cause a problem if the variables are indeed defined in the template.

On the user's computer, make a document based on the template. When the
AutoNew macro stops on the error, open the Immediate window in the VBA
editor (Ctrl+G), type in this line and hit Enter:

?ActiveDocument.Variables.Count

(the question mark at the beginning is shorthand for Debug.Print). Does it
say zero or some other number?

Is that user on the same version of Word as you? What version(s) are we
dealing with?

Completely unrelated to this problem, I'll point out that you should get rid
of the code that moves the cursor into the header pane. If the bookmarks are
defined in the header of the template, then all you need in the Document_New
macro is this:

Sub Document_New()
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("DateTaken").Range.Text = _
Date
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("IsoSpeed").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateISOSpeed").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("Flash").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateFlash").Value
' the rest of the bookmark/variable assignments
End Sub

The header/main document folderol is unnecessary.

You also don't need the .AttachedTemplate.Saved statement unless something
else is happening that could "dirty" the template itself (e.g., changing a
variable value in the template -- which doesn't appear to be part of this
code). And that statement doesn't actually save the template anyway; it just
lies to Word and tells it not to check whether there are any changes that
need to be saved.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Karen]

Hi Jay,

Thank you very much for the assist.

I have cleaned up the code now, so it looks like this:

Private Sub Document_New()

'set Photo toolbar and tooltips
CommandBars("Photo").Visible = True
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Insert Photo Group").TooltipText =
"Insert All Photos from Folder"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Add Top Label").TooltipText = "Add Top
Label"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Add Caption").TooltipText = "Add
Captions"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Remove Top Label").TooltipText = "Remove
Top Label"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Edit Header").TooltipText = "Edit Header"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Insert Single Photo").TooltipText =
"Insert Individual Photos"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("Refresh TOC").TooltipText = "Update Table
of Contents"
CommandBars("Photo").Controls("DeletePhoto").TooltipText = "Delete
Selected Photo"


ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("DateTaken").Range.Text = _
Date
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("IsoSpeed").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateISOSpeed").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Flash").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateFlash").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Camera").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateCamera").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Lens").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateLens").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Photographer").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templatePhotog").Value

End Sub

The user has Word 2003 which is what I have so.............

I will DOUBLECHECK that the distributed template really has those variables
and will work with the user to check if the count matches when it errors
out.

Again, I really appreciate the help and will post here whether it is fixed
It will probably take a day or two to arrange a time

Karen

As far as the use of the document variables goes, I don't see anything that
should cause a problem if the variables are indeed defined in the template.

On the user's computer, make a document based on the template. When the
AutoNew macro stops on the error, open the Immediate window in the VBA
editor (Ctrl+G), type in this line and hit Enter:

?ActiveDocument.Variables.Count

(the question mark at the beginning is shorthand for Debug.Print). Does it
say zero or some other number?

Is that user on the same version of Word as you? What version(s) are we
dealing with?

Completely unrelated to this problem, I'll point out that you should get rid
of the code that moves the cursor into the header pane. If the bookmarks are
defined in the header of the template, then all you need in the Document_New
macro is this:

Sub Document_New()
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("DateTaken").Range.Text = _
Date
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("IsoSpeed").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateISOSpeed").Value
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("Flash").Range.Text = _
ActiveDocument.Variables("templateFlash").Value
' the rest of the bookmark/variable assignments
End Sub

The header/main document folderol is unnecessary.

You also don't need the .AttachedTemplate.Saved statement unless something
else is happening that could "dirty" the template itself (e.g., changing a
variable value in the template -- which doesn't appear to be part of this
code). And that statement doesn't actually save the template anyway; it just
lies to Word and tells it not to check whether there are any changes that
need to be saved.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.