Validate Merge Fields

[dennistiu]

Basically I am using VBA to merge fields. I want to know if there is a
way to validate the merge fields specified in the document and the
available merge fields specified in the datasource:

Dim wrdApp As New
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application
wrdApp.ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource( *** My
data source information *** )
wrdApp.ActiveDocument.MailMerge.Destination =
wdSendToNewDocument
wrdApp.ActiveDocument.MailMerge.Execute()

I want to validate all the merge fields first before callign execute.
Is this possible?
The problem is if I have a specified merge field in the document that
is not in the datasource. Word displays a popup to warn me about the
invalid field. Since I am doing everything in the background, I have
no way of knowing the popup.

I see a check method but what does this do? It checks and then what?
It doesnt return anything or any boolean value to me

wrdApp.ActiveDocument.MailMerge.Check() - cant seem to know what this
will do?

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Looks more like VB.NET to me, but anyway...

I think you will probably have to iterate through all the merge fields in
the ocument and ensure that each MERGEFIELD name is in the
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields collection.

Iterating through all the fields is in itself non-trivial but the following
VBA code should get most of them:

Dim objStory As Range
Dim objField As Field

For Each objStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
For Each objField In objStory.Fields
' do what you want to the field here. You can test objField.Type
' to process specific field types
Next
' The header/footer ranges can be linked in a way
' that is not revealed by the outer For Each
' so we have to do the following
While Not (objStory.NextStoryRange Is Nothing)
Set objStory = objStory.NextStoryRange
For Each objField In objStory.Fields
' do what you want to the field here
Next
Wend
Next objStory


Set objStory = Nothing
Set objField = Nothing


To test the field against the Datafields collection you would probably need
something like:

Dim strFieldName As String
Dim bFieldFound As Boolean
For Each objField In objStory.Fields
If objField.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then
strFieldName = Trim(Mid(Trim(objField.Code), 12))
If Left(strFieldName, 1) = Chr(34) Then
strFieldName = Mid(strFieldName, 2, InStr(2, strFieldName & Chr(34),
Chr(34)) - 2)
Else
strFieldName = Left(strFieldName, InStr(1, strFieldName & " ", "
") - 1)
End If
With ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource
bFieldFound = False
For i = 1 To .DataFields.Count
If strFieldName = .DataFields(i).Name Then
bFieldFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next
End With
' deal with a mismatch. Up to you whether you try
' to deal with all the mismatches etc.
If Not bFieldFound Then
MsgBox "field not found"
Exit Sub
End If
End If

Peter Jamieson

 

[dennis]

Peter

Thank you for the response. Yes it is in vb.net. Sorry about the
confusion.
I will try what you have suggested and let you know if it works.

Dennis