Capitalize the first letter in a content control

[PSSMargaret]

I'm using Word 2010. I would like the first letter of my rich text content controls to be capitalized. Is anyone aware of a macro that will do that or any other way?

Margaret

[Charles Kenyon]

You could likely write a macro to do that. If you have AutoCorrect set to capitalize the first letter in a sentence and there are multiple words it should capitalize the first word assuming it is not already in a sentence.

[macropod]

You could use a ContentControlOnExit macro like:

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal CCtrl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
With CCtrl
  Select Case .Type
    Case wdContentControlText, wdContentControlRichText, wdContentControlComboBox
      .Range.Characters.First = UCase(.Range.Characters.First)
    Case Else
  End Select
End With
End Sub

[PSSMargaret]

Paul,

Thanks for the code. I understand how to execute an "on exit" macro for legacy fields but how do you implement one for content controls? I don't see it under properties.

Margaret

[macropod]

Simply open the VBE and add the code to your document's 'ThisDocument' code module.

[PSSMargaret]

Thanks so much. Works great!

[PSSMargaret]

Actually, had error pop up if I exited the field without entering information. Are you aware of any code to ignore it if no text is entered.

[gmaxey]

    Case wdContentControlText, wdContentControlRichText, wdContentControlComboBox
      On Error Resume Next
      .Range.Characters.First = UCase(.Range.Characters.First)

[PSSMargaret]

Perfect!!!

[gmaxey]

Some people may feel an error statement like that is indiscriminate use of brute force.

Another way to handle that issue is check to ensure the CC is not showing placeholder text.

While it probably doesn't matter in your case, if you had a shape or something anchored in the a rich text control that code my delete the shape.

You could also try:

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal CCtrl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
With CCtrl
  Select Case .Type
    Case wdContentControlText, wdContentControlRichText, wdContentControlComboBox
      If Not CCtrl.ShowingPlaceholderText Then
        .Range.Case = wdTitleSentence
      End If
    Case Else
  End Select
End With
End Sub

[PSSMargaret]

Thanks Greg. The first code with the error handling worked perfectly. I'm not really understanding the purpose of the last code. Does it affect other content controls besides the rich text control?

[gmaxey]

The reason you got the error was because you didn't enter anything into the CC (it was showing placeholder text) so there was no range.characters.first to format.

Error handling can be used to get around that, but another method is to evaluate if the condition exists that caused the error exists and if it does, don't perform the action that causes the error.

[PSSMargaret]

Thanks for the explanation.

Margaret

[PSSMargaret]

gmaxey,

The below code you provided has worked perfectly with all of my testinig. The form I'm developing contains rich text content controls. You have to enter a shift+enter for a carriage return for a new paragraph. Is there any code that we can add to this, or separate code, that will assure the first letter of a new paragraph after two shift+enters will automatically be capitalized?

Margaret

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal CCtrl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
With CCtrl
  Select Case .Type
    Case wdContentControlText, wdContentControlRichText, wdContentControlComboBox
      On Error Resume Next
      .Range.Characters.First = UCase(.Range.Characters.First)
      Case Else
  End Select
End With
End Sub

[Guessed]

It is poor practice to use a pair of soft returns instead of a single return. The coding for each (real) paragraph would be much easier too.

Private Sub Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal CCtrl As ContentControl, Cancel As Boolean)
  Dim aPara As Paragraph
  With CCtrl
    Select Case .Type
      Case wdContentControlText, wdContentControlRichText, wdContentControlComboBox
        On Error Resume Next
        For Each aPara In .Range.Paragraphs
          aPara.Range.Characters.First = UCase(aPara.Range.Characters.First)
        Next aPara
        Case Else
    End Select
  End With
End Sub