Invoking compare and merge from the command line

[Wilhansen Li]

I'm using Microsoft Word documents with a revision control system
(Mercurial). And I want MS Word to handle the merge and comparison when there
are conflicts. The only way for the tool to handle external programs is to
invoke them via command line (that means, no dde). Is there a way to invoke
Compare and Merge in word via command line switches? I can't see it in the
documentation.

If that doesn't really exist, I 'm thinking of two possible solutions:
1) Make a macro which does the invoking.
2) Make a program which invokes the compare and merge via COM.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Your best bet might be to put the instructions into a macro, then invoke the
macro from the command line. For example:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /mDoTheMerge

starts Word and runs a macro named "DoTheMerge". The command specified after
/m can be a macro or a built-in Word command.

 

[Wilhansen Li]

But there's no way to pass (macro) parameters into the macros invoked that
way right?

 

[Wilhansen Li]

I don't think there's really anyway so what I did was I opened both files and
invoked the compare operation like this:

Sub CompareAndMerge()
file1 = ActiveDocument.FullName
ActiveDocument.Close
file2 = ActiveDocument.FullName
ActiveDocument.Close
Documents.Open(file1).Merge (file2)
End Sub

So I just invoke it via command like like this:
WINWORD.exe mine.doc theirs.doc /mCompareAndMerge

Is this good enough? or are there better ways to do it?

 

[Jay Freedman]

You could have your application write a text file to a known location, with
that file containing the full paths to the two files. Then the macro can
read the text file to get the file paths to use in the merge.

You are correct that there is no way to pass parameters directly on the
command line to a macro that's invoked with the /m switch.

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

 

[Wilhansen Li]

Additionally, I also found a merge/diff script using the Windows Scripting
Host here:

http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/source/browse/tortoisesvn/trunk/contrib/other/diff-scripts/diff-doc.js

http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/sourc...trunk/contrib/other/diff-scripts/merge-doc.js

Which calls Word via COM as I suspected.

Below is a copy-paste of diff-doc.js just as a reference:
var objArgs,num,sBaseDoc,sNewDoc,objScript,word,destination;
// Microsoft Office versions for Microsoft Windows OS
var vOffice2000 = 9;
var vOffice2002 = 10;
var vOffice2003 = 11;
var vOffice2007 = 12;
// WdCompareTarget
var wdCompareTargetSelected = 0;
var wdCompareTargetCurrent = 1;
var wdCompareTargetNew = 2;
// WdViewType
var wdMasterView = 5;
var wdNormalView = 1;
var wdOutlineView = 2;
// WdSaveOptions
var wdDoNotSaveChanges = 0;
var wdPromptToSaveChanges = -2;
var wdSaveChanges = -1;

objArgs = WScript.Arguments;
num = objArgs.length;
if (num < 2)
{
WScript.Echo("Usage: [CScript | WScript] diff-doc.js base.doc new.doc");
WScript.Quit(1);
}

sBaseDoc = objArgs(0);
sNewDoc = objArgs(1);

objScript = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
if ( ! objScript.FileExists(sBaseDoc))
{
WScript.Echo("File " + sBaseDoc + " does not exist. Cannot compare the
documents.");
WScript.Quit(1);
}
if ( ! objScript.FileExists(sNewDoc))
{
WScript.Echo("File " + sNewDoc + " does not exist. Cannot compare the
documents.");
WScript.Quit(1);
}

try
{
word = WScript.CreateObject("Word.Application");
}
catch(e)
{
// before giving up, try with OpenOffice
try
{
var OO;
OO = WScript.CreateObject("com.sun.star.ServiceManager");
}
catch(e)
{
WScript.Echo("You must have Microsoft Word or OpenOffice installed to
perform this operation.");
WScript.Quit(1);
}
// yes, OO is installed - do the diff with that one instead
var objFile = objScript.GetFile(sNewDoc);
if ((objFile.Attributes & 1)==1)
{
// reset the readonly attribute
objFile.Attributes = objFile.Attributes & (~1);
}
//Create the DesktopSet
var objDesktop = OO.createInstance("com.sun.star.frame.Desktop");
var objUriTranslator =
OO.createInstance("com.sun.star.uri.ExternalUriReferenceTranslator");
//Adjust the paths for OO
sBaseDoc = sBaseDoc.replace(/\\/g, "/");
sBaseDoc = sBaseDoc.replace(/:/g, "|");
sBaseDoc = sBaseDoc.replace(/ /g, "%20");
sBaseDoc="file:///" + sBaseDoc;
sBaseDoc=objUriTranslator.translateToInternal(sBaseDoc);
sNewDoc = sNewDoc.replace(/\\/g, "/");
sNewDoc = sNewDoc.replace(/:/g, "|");
sNewDoc = sNewDoc.replace(/ /g, "%20");
sNewDoc="file:///" + sNewDoc;
sNewDoc=objUriTranslator.translateToInternal(sNewDoc);

//Open the %base document
var oPropertyValue = new Array();
oPropertyValue[0] = OO.Bridge_GetStruct("com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue");
oPropertyValue[0].Name = "ShowTrackedChanges";
oPropertyValue[0].Value = true;
var objDocument=objDesktop.loadComponentFromURL(sNewDoc,"_blank", 0,
oPropertyValue);

//Set the frame
var Frame = objDesktop.getCurrentFrame();

var dispatcher=OO.CreateInstance("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper");

//Execute the comparison
dispatcher.executeDispatch(Frame, ".uno:ShowTrackedChanges", "", 0,
oPropertyValue);
oPropertyValue[0].Name = "URL";
oPropertyValue[0].Value = sBaseDoc;
dispatcher.executeDispatch(Frame, ".uno:CompareDocuments", "", 0,
oPropertyValue);
WScript.Quit(0);
}

objScript = null;

word.visible = true;

// Open the new document
destination = word.Documents.Open(sNewDoc);

// If the Type property returns either wdOutlineView or wdMasterView and the
Count property returns zero, the current document is an outline.
if (((destination.ActiveWindow.View.Type == wdOutlineView) ||
(destination.ActiveWindow.View.Type == wdMasterView)) &&
(destination.Subdocuments.Count == 0))
{
// Change the Type property of the current document to normal
destination.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdNormalView;
}

// Compare to the base document
if (Number(word.Version) <= vOffice2000)
{
// Compare for Office 2000 and earlier
destination.Compare(sBaseDoc);
}
else
{
// Compare for Office XP (2002) and later
destination.Compare(sBaseDoc, "Comparison", wdCompareTargetNew, true,
true);
}

// Show the comparison result
if (Number(word.Version) < vOffice2007)
{
word.ActiveDocument.Windows(1).Visible = 1;
}

// Mark the comparison document as saved to prevent the annoying
// "Save as" dialog from appearing.
word.ActiveDocument.Saved = 1;

// Close the first document
if (Number(word.Version) >= vOffice2002)
{
destination.Close(wdDoNotSaveChanges);
}