How to insert if, skipif fields in vb?

[Feng]

In my document, I want to add a macro that would insert a picture (say "c:\blah.gif") if the merge field "LName" is empty. How would I do this in vb?

Also, if I want to add a merge field, but at the same time I want to skip that field if the merge record # is divisble by 4, how would I do that?

Thanks.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RmVuZw==?=,

In my document, I want to add a macro that would insert a picture (say "c:\blah.gif") if the merge field "LName" is empty. How would I do this in vb?

You're trying to generate a main merge document from scratch using VB? Or do you have the option of prooviding a mail merge document (or template) for
the user to open and use? Are you already familiar with using nested field constructs in the Word user interface?

Also, if I want to add a merge field, but at the same time I want to skip that field if the merge record # is divisble by 4, how would I do that?

Merge record number as in the value of a merge field, or literally every fourth record, no matter which it might be?

And, just of the sake of completeness, which version of Word?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Feng]

Hi Cindy
I'm kind of familiar with inserting nested fields from VB. I have done this with an includepicture field and a merge field. However in this case, I don't even know the syntax of inserting a normal if field or a skipif field using VB. I'm currently trying to automate this on Word 97

Is there somewhere that has the syntax of how to insert all the word fields and what each field does

Thank
----- Cindy M -WordMVP- wrote: ----

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RmVuZw==?=,

In my document, I want to add a macro that would insert a picture (say "c:\blah.gif") if the merge field "LName" is empty. How would I do this in vb

You're trying to generate a main merge document from scratch using VB? Or do you have the option of prooviding a mail merge document (or template) for
the user to open and use? Are you already familiar with using nested field constructs in the Word user interface

Also, if I want to add a merge field, but at the same time I want to skip that field if the merge record # is divisble by 4, how would I do that

Merge record number as in the value of a merge field, or literally every fourth record, no matter which it might be

And, just of the sake of completeness, which version of Word

Cindy Meiste
INTER-Solutions, Switzerlan
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003
http://www.mvps.org/wor

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RmVuZw==?=,

I'm kind of familiar with inserting nested fields from VB. I have done this

with an includepicture field and a merge field. However in this case, I don't
even know the syntax of inserting a normal if field or a skipif field using VB.
I'm currently trying to automate this on Word 97.Right, I just wanted to know the extent of your background with Word/fields.

Is there somewhere that has the syntax of how to insert all the word fields and what each field does?

What each field does: look it up in Word's Help files
Inserting individual fields: the .Add method of the Fields collection. You can
use the .Type argument with a wdField-constant (you can get a list of these from
the Object Browser in Word's Help window by searching on wdField) OR you can
simply include the field's name in the TEXT argument.

Nesting fields is a trickier proposition, however, as Microsoft didn't give us
any way to do this directly using VBA. Usually, I use Word's Find functionality.
I insert the outermost field code first, and put some kind of place holder text
where the inserted field should go. I then use Find to get hold of the
placeholder and insert the nested field in its place.

Here's a sample:

Sub CreateFieldInField()
Dim fld As Word.Field
Dim szQuotes As String

szQuotes = Chr(34)
Set fld = ActiveDocument.Fields.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, _
Type:=wdFieldIf, Text:="bkm <> bkm " & szQuotes & _
"Please change the bkmAUTHORbkm setting in File/Properties" _
& szQuotes, PreserveFormatting:=False)
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Author"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "UserName"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Symbol 34"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Symbol 34"
fld.Update
End Sub

Function InsertFieldInFieldCode( _
ByRef rng As Word.Range, _
ByRef szBkm As String, _
ByRef szField As String, _
Optional ByRef PF As Boolean = False) As Boolean

InsertFieldInCode = False
With rng.Find
.Text = szBkm
.Execute
If .Found Then
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add _
Range:=rng, Text:=szField, _
PreserveFormatting:=PF
InsertFieldInCode = True
End If
End With
End Function


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I think you can also do this, but I haven't tested it much so it may break
down very easily:

Sub testinsert()
' a test routine to insert the IF field that Feng needs at a specified range
Dim f As String
Dim s As String
s = "{ IF ""{ MERGEFIELD LName }"" = """" " & _
"""{ INCLUDEPICTURE ""c:\\blah.gif"" }"" " & _
""""" }"
Debug.Print s
Dim r As Range
Set r = Selection.Range
Call insertfs(s, r)
Set r = Nothing

End Sub

Sub insertfs(ByVal s As String, ByVal r As Range)
' Inserts a string + fields where
' "{" means "opening field brace"
' "}" means "closing field brace"
' "¬{" means "ordinary opening brace"
' "¬}" means "ordinary closing brace"
' "¬¬" means "¬ character"
' "¬" followed by any other character is discarded

Const EscapeChar = "¬"
Dim i As Long
Dim esc As Boolean
Dim buf As String
esc = False
buf = ""
For i = 1 To Len(s)
c = Mid(s, i, 1)
Select Case c
Case EscapeChar:
If esc Then
buf = buf + c
esc = False
Else
esc = True
End If
Case "{"
If esc Then
buf = buf + c
esc = False
Else
r.Text = buf
buf = ""
r.Collapse direction:=wdCollapseEnd
r.Fields.Add Range:=r, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:="",
preserveformatting:=False
Set r = ActiveDocument.Range(r.Start + 1, r.Start + 1)
r.Delete unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2
End If
Case "}"
If esc Then
buf = buf + c
esc = False
Else
r.InsertAfter Text:=buf
buf = ""
r.Collapse direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Set r = ActiveDocument.Range(r.End + 1, r.End + 1)
End If
Case Else
buf = buf + c
End Select
Next
r.InsertAfter Text:=buf
End Sub

If you were including strings with arbitrary content including "{", "}" or
"¬" characters, you would need to "escape" them using e.g.

Function escapefs(s As String) As String
Const EscapeChar = "¬"
escapefs = Replace(Replace(Replace(s, EscapeChar, EscapeChar + EscapeChar),
"{", EscapeChar + "{"), "}", EscapeChar + "}")
End Function

I've avoided using the usual escape characters
/, \, ^ on the grounds that they are more likely to be used in the strings
you want to code. Well, \ is, I suppose

 

[Feng]

Thanks a lot, this really cleared up a lot of my questions.

----- Cindy M -WordMVP- wrote: -----

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RmVuZw==?=,

I'm kind of familiar with inserting nested fields from VB. I have done this

with an includepicture field and a merge field. However in this case, I don't
even know the syntax of inserting a normal if field or a skipif field using VB.
I'm currently trying to automate this on Word 97.Right, I just wanted to know the extent of your background with Word/fields.

Is there somewhere that has the syntax of how to insert all the word fields and what each field does?

What each field does: look it up in Word's Help files
Inserting individual fields: the .Add method of the Fields collection. You can
use the .Type argument with a wdField-constant (you can get a list of these from
the Object Browser in Word's Help window by searching on wdField) OR you can
simply include the field's name in the TEXT argument.

Nesting fields is a trickier proposition, however, as Microsoft didn't give us
any way to do this directly using VBA. Usually, I use Word's Find functionality.
I insert the outermost field code first, and put some kind of place holder text
where the inserted field should go. I then use Find to get hold of the
placeholder and insert the nested field in its place.

Here's a sample:

Sub CreateFieldInField()
Dim fld As Word.Field
Dim szQuotes As String

szQuotes = Chr(34)
Set fld = ActiveDocument.Fields.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, _
Type:=wdFieldIf, Text:="bkm <> bkm " & szQuotes & _
"Please change the bkmAUTHORbkm setting in File/Properties" _
& szQuotes, PreserveFormatting:=False)
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Author"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "UserName"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Symbol 34"
InsertFieldInFieldCode fld.Code, "bkm", "Symbol 34"
fld.Update
End Sub

Function InsertFieldInFieldCode( _
ByRef rng As Word.Range, _
ByRef szBkm As String, _
ByRef szField As String, _
Optional ByRef PF As Boolean = False) As Boolean

InsertFieldInCode = False
With rng.Find
.Text = szBkm
.Execute
If .Found Then
ActiveDocument.Fields.Add _
Range:=rng, Text:=szField, _
PreserveFormatting:=PF
InsertFieldInCode = True
End If
End With
End Function


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Peter,

I think you can also do this, but I haven't tested it much so it may break
down very easily:

OK, I can see what you're doing. Interesting approach... And definitely more
"intuitive" to pass along the fully built nested field combination.

I'm a bit leary of the the r.Start+1 stuff, as I've generally not had very
consistent results with that. Especially when fields are involved. It can
get very messy when one inadvertently inserts fields into field brackets
(which is quite possible with VBA, I've discovered) <g>

It would be interesting to find out whether it's faster to loop through the
characters, or to use the Find/Replace method. Looping through the
characters, probably, unless there's a LOT of plain text involved.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hi Cindy,

I'm a bit leary of the the r.Start+1 stuff,

Me too. I'd generally look out for problems related to
a. the current view Word happens to be in - in fact, this definitely needs
more attention in the current routine, as the behaviour of the range method
does depend (sad to say) on what is actually visible in the document.
b. use of the Selection object and the location of the insertion point
after fields have been inserted. Certainly a while back, its location
post-insertion depended partly on whether the field you had inserted was
valid or not.

In fact I was a bit surprised that this example worked at all