Hi



I'm new to vba so please go easy on me ;-)

My goal is to show different text (or none at all) in a word document based on a variable.

I've been playing around with bookmarks and came across some interesting VBA code shown below to write content to bookmarks without destroying them, on a different site (Greg Maxey - The Anchorage). Whilst I have to admit I don't understand most of it I was intrigued by this which allows a user to manually update bookmarks:
This got me thinking if it is possible to update the contents of bookmarks depending on the out come of an If statement?


ie If [Status] = 1 then "Write this text" to Bookmark x otherwise "Write some other text"
If [Status] = 2 then "Write this text" to Bookmark x otherwise "Clear the bookmark"
That sort of thing...

Unfortunately I'm not sure how start to write this in vba and wonder if someone could assist me - if it's actually possible to do?

If anyone could give me a start that would be great!

Many thanks

RedZed



Original code by Greg Maxey - The Anchorage which inspired my questionn:


Sub DemoWriteToBookmarkRange()
Dim strInput As String
strInput = InputBox("What is your favorite color?")
WriteToBookmarkRange ActiveDocument, "bmInBookmark", strInput
strInput = InputBox("What is your favorite food?")
WriteToBookmarkRange ActiveDocument, "bmInBookmarkFood", strInput
strInput = InputBox("What is your favorite soft drink?")
WriteToBookmarkRange ActiveDocument, "bmInBookmarkDrink", strInput
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub

Sub WriteToBookmarkRange(ByRef oDoc As Document, bmName As String, strContent As String)
Dim oRng As Word.Range
If oDoc.Bookmarks.Exists(bmName) Then
Set oRng = oDoc.Bookmarks(bmName).Range
oRng.Text = strContent
oDoc.Bookmarks.Add bmName, oRng
Else
MsgBox "An error occurred while processing your document." _
& vbCr & "The bookmark " & Chr(34) + bmName + Chr(34) & " does not exist.", _
vbInformation, "Missing Bookmark"
End If
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub

Why are you doing this through vba rather than through an IF Field in the document itself?

You can test on a DocVariable field. You can also use Document Property Content Controls. Repeating Data Using Document Properties Content Controls and Other Mapped Content Controls

Thanks for the reply.

I'm doing it for my own amusement to see if it can be done - for which I created this very simple routine which kind of proves it can...

Sub BookmarkUpdate()
Dim BMRange As Range
'Identify current Bookmark range and insert text
For n = 1 To 4

Set BMRange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmark").Range
If n = 1 Then
BMRange.Text = "First"
ElseIf n = 2 Then BMRange.Text = "Second"
ElseIf n = 3 Then BMRange.Text = "Third"
ElseIf n = 4 Then BMRange.Text = ""
End If

'Re-insert the bookmark
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "MyBookmark", BMRange

Next n
End Sub

This is more about me trying to understand VBA than actually achieving an end result - but thanks for the link - I don't know what any of it means so something else to learn ;-)

Good to see you wan to learn. When you have rather convoluted If ... Else ... End If conditions, it is often easier to use Select Case. Also, if you are going to declare one variable, you might as well declare all.

__________________
Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/

Thanks Greg. This has been a great help to me. I can see what you did and it's easy to follow.

Following on, using your advice, I declared another variable BMcnt and used this as a counter to add on to the bookmark name. This means if I have four bookmarks, I can consecutively cycle through each and change the text in each one. This may not sound very productive but helps me understand For Next loops.
I see now that instead of just cycling through, by using IF statements I can write predetermined text to a document via a bookmark, based on a condition.

Can you explain the relevance of 'lbl_Exit:' towards the end of the routine?

Sub BookmarkUpdate()
Dim oBMRng As Range
Dim lngIndex As Long
Dim BMcnt As Long
For BMcnt = 1 To 4
For lngIndex = 1 To 4
Set oBMRng = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmark" & BMcnt).Range
Select Case lngIndex
Case 1: oBMRng.Text = "First"
Case 2: oBMRng.Text = "Second"
Case 3: oBMRng.Text = "Third"
Case 4: oBMRng.Text = ""
End Select
'Re-insert the bookmark
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "MyBookmark" & BMcnt, oBMRng
Next lngIndex
Next BMcnt
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub

Red,


There you go.


In the example I provided, lbl_Exit really has no relevance and it is there only as part of my standard coding style (I never like to hit the End Sub line) as an exit point. In practice, it serves as a resume label in error handling. Consider one of the bookmarks is missing:

__________________
Greg Maxey
Please visit my web site at http://www.gregmaxey.com/

As a learning experience, creating loops is a useful skill but your examples are not saving a great deal of code. The outer/inner loops don't do anything other than ensuring the actual inside code is run 4 times to do something that only requires a single pass. An example to make use of both loops would be to include both in the bookmark name eg
Set oBMRng = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmark" & BMcnt & lngIndex).Range

Another technique worth learning that could be applied to this problem is to call a function and pass values in to the function. I haven't used the loop and Select Case because you are doing something different for each of the loop values. This code also shows how to avoid an error if a bookmark doesn't exist.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Thanks very much for your input. It is really appreciated

However when I run your sub, I get an error at Set oRng = .Bookmarks(sName) that states:
Runtime Error 13: Type mismatch

Any ideas?

Thanks

I missed adding .Range on the end of that line. Try altering it to read

Set oRng = .Bookmarks(sName).Range

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I've been playing around some more with this and rather than just inserting text sequentially into bookmarks I've trying to insert specific text into bookmarks based on particular criteria. In this case selecting pre written text in the form of bookmarks to produce a document tailored to whether the recipient status is either " Single", "Pair 1 or "Pair 2"
This seems to work OK for my learning needs but wondered if there was a more efficient way of writing the code because I'm guessing the way I have written it is probably not very elegant and would lead you to suspect I was 5 years old


Sub BookmarkUpdate2()
Dim oBMRng As Range
Dim lngIndex As Long
Dim BMcnt As Long
Dim Status As String
Dim z As Long
Dim x As Long

For BMcnt = 1 To 4 'Loop through Bookmarks

x = 1 'Change to simulate Status either 1 = Single. 2 = Pair 1 or 3 =Pair 2

If x = 1 Then Status = "Single"
If x = 2 Then Status = "Pair 1"
If x = 3 Then Status = "Pair 2"

If BMcnt = 1 And Status = "Single" Then
z = 1
ElseIf BMcnt = 1 And Status <> "Single" Then
z = 2
ElseIf BMcnt = 2 And Status <> "Pair 2" Then
z = 3
ElseIf BMcnt = 2 And Status = "Pair 2" Then
z = 4
ElseIf BMcnt = 3 And Status = "Single" Then
z = 8
ElseIf BMcnt = 3 And Status <> "Single" Then
z = 5
ElseIf BMcnt = 4 And Status <> "Pair 1" Then
z = 6
ElseIf BMcnt = 4 And Status = "Pair 1" Then
z = 7
End If


lngIndex = z
Set oBMRng = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("MyBookmark" & BMcnt).Range
Select Case lngIndex
Case 1: oBMRng.Text = "You have been assigned to Team <<TeamNo>>. Usually you would be paired with another team, however at this time no suitable pairing has been identified"
Case 2: oBMRng.Text = "You have been assigned to Team <<TeamNo >> and paired with: <<PairedWithTeam>>." & vbNewLine & "Their contact details are as follows: " & vbNewLine & "<<TheirName>>" & vbNewLine & "<<TheirPhone>>" & vbNewLine & "<<TheirEmail>>"
Case 3: oBMRng.Text = "The equipment will be delivered to <<YourTeam>> on <<DeliveryDate>>."
Case 4: oBMRng.Text = "The equipment will be delivered to <<PairedWithTeam>> on <<DeliveryDate>>."
Case 5: oBMRng.Text = "The equipment is then exchanged between yourselves and <<PairedWithTeam>> on alternate weeks over a 6-week period."
Case 6: oBMRng.Text = "The equipment will then be collected from <<YourTeam>> on <<CollectionDate>>."
Case 7: oBMRng.Text = "The equipment will then be collected from <<PairedWithTeam>> on <<CollectionDate>>."
Case 8: oBMRng.Text = ""
End Select
'Re-insert the bookmark
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "MyBookmark" & BMcnt, oBMRng
'Next lngIndex
Next BMcnt
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub

Thanks. It wasn't obvious -not to me anyway.

RedZed

As the saying goes "To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"
To put it another way, just because you know how to use a For loop doesn't make it right for every task.

Study the code I provided and step through it to understand what it is doing. Then use that structure to see if you can apply it to your problem without a need for a loop.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia