Updating a custom property in the header

JonFleming · #1 02-03-2016, 06:58 AM

I'm working on a macro for a document to submit to the FDA. There's a bunch of items that appear many many times in the document and change when you start a new document. There's also a bunch of technical reasons why plain search and replace doesn't work and takes along time to fail.

So I've defined a custom property for each of these items. There's a table at the beginning of the document with the property names in the first column. The user fills in the second column with the desired value. My macro extracts the information from the table and changes the property value, turns off screen updating, then updates all instances of the property:

Code:

Sub UpdateSpecificPropertyFields(FieldName As String)
    Dim pRange As Word.Range
    Dim oFld As Word.Field
    For Each pRange In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
        Do
            For Each oFld In pRange.Fields
                Select Case oFld.Type
                    Case wdFieldDocProperty
                        If InStr(oFld.Code.Text, FieldName) Then
                            oFld.Update
                        End If
                    Case Else
                       'Do nothing
                End Select
            Next
            Set pRange = pRange.NextStoryRange
        Loop Until pRange Is Nothing
    Next
End Sub

But the instances of the property in the header do not get updated. Help?

macropod · #2 02-03-2016, 02:30 PM

How about:

Code:

Sub UpdateFields()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument
  .Fields.Update
  .PrintPreview
  .ClosePrintPreview
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

JonFleming · #3 02-04-2016, 08:16 AM

Much more clever than mine. But.

I only run that code once, the screen flashes obnoxiously once for each property (even though I'm only changing one) (yes, I did turn off screen updating).
The instance of the property in the header is not affected at all.

JonFleming · #4 02-04-2016, 09:06 AM

Whoopsie, cancel......

My code is updating the headers, with almost no flickering (just the cursor). It's a long story of several errors why I thought it wasn't.

macropod · #5 02-04-2016, 03:20 PM

So, is the problem solved? Your posts are ambiguous. You refer to your code & flickering, but there should be no flickering with the code I posted. As for the "long story of several errors", you originally mentioned results such as "Error! Unknown document property name.", but those have nothing to do with the code I posted and instead reflect erroneous field constructions in your document.

JonFleming · #6 02-05-2016, 06:03 AM

The problem is solved. I don't exactly know why it's fixed. but the fields in the headers are now updating.

Running the code you posted, the pane on the left (search results) and the pane at the top (ribbon and tabs) turned white, and the screen flickered quite obnoxiously for several seconds. About six of the properly constructed field insertions turned into errors. (I inserted all fields via the GUI, if they are improperly constructed it's Word). I'm sorry, but that's what your code did.

(Word 2016/Office 365/Windows 10 Pro x64)

macropod · #7 02-05-2016, 01:01 PM

There is nothing in the macro I posted that is capable of producing the behaviour you say you saw. It would appear that either your document is corrupt or you have a faulty Office installation; your document's erratic behaviour with your own code would seem to confirm that.

JonFleming · #8 02-08-2016, 09:03 AM

Well, now my code is not working ,and yours is. Guess I'll have to put up with the screen flashing.

(see https://mega.nz/#F!H9IhSAIR!GERFff7xr5nwxL_gIu59Kg for proof).

macropod · #9 02-08-2016, 02:12 PM

As indicated in my previous reply, it appears that either your document has acquired some for of corruption or you have a faulty Office installation.

Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.

You could try repairing the Office installation (via Start > Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features > Microsoft Office (version) > Change > Repair).

JonFleming · #10 02-09-2016, 05:22 AM

The document is not corrupt. The installation of Office 365 is not corrupt.

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