#1
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Search & Replace using Document.Content Doesn't Include Footers
I'm trying to automate Word MailMerge from Access VBA. It's mostly working, but having a strange quirk.
My paragraph text is stored in Access tables in Long Text fields, NOT designated as rich text. I've found that if the text (in Access) contains "smart" quotes and apostrophes, it messes up my code execution and causes errors such as making it look like there are too many fields in the merge data source. Therefore, I make sure all quotes and apostrophes are "plain" ( ' or " ). Instead of long text fields being in my merge data file, I'm doing a "hybrid" merge where I first populate long text into bookmarks, then do the merge. I only do this for document content which is the same for every document. Just before the actual merge, I run code to replace the "plain" apostrophes and quotes with "smart" versions, using this code, which relies on Regex: Code:
' first replace open-apostrophes and open-quotes With oRegex .Pattern = " '| """ .Global = True .IgnoreCase = True Set oMatches = .Execute(WordDoc.Content) End With If oMatches.Count > 0 Then For Each oMatch In oMatches matchText = oMatch.Value With WordDoc.Content.Find .Text = oMatch.Value .Replacement.Text = Switch(oMatch = " '", " " & Chr$(145), oMatch = " """, " " & Chr$(147)) .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll, Forward:=True, Wrap:=wdFindContinue End With Next End If ' open-apostrophes or open-quotes found ' now replace single apostrophes and quotes (handles close-quotes, close-apostrophes and individual apostrophes With oRegex .Pattern = "'|""" .Global = True .IgnoreCase = True Set oMatches = .Execute(WordDoc.Content) End With If oMatches.Count > 0 Then For Each oMatch In oMatches matchText = oMatch.Value With WordDoc.Content.Find .Text = oMatch.Value .Replacement.Text = Switch(oMatch = "'", Chr$(146), oMatch = """", Chr$(148)) .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll, Forward:=True, Wrap:=wdFindContinue End With Next End If ' single apostrophes or quotes found When I finish this code execution, I notice that everything works fine except for text in my document footer. This does not get replaced by smart quotes. I even tried single-stepping through the code and tried replacing WordDoc.Content with WordDoc.StoryRanges(9), which happens to be the footer in my document. This returned a Regex match, but the code would not cause the quotes to be replaced with smart quotes. So the questions are: Why doesn't WordDoc.Content include the footer text? Why doesn't the code work when I use the proper StoryRange.Text? I even tried manually activating the footer while running my code, but no luck. Thanks in advance for any insight here... |
#2
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As you are probably aware, a Word document comprises several separate story ranges, a bit like a pile of transparencies (if you are old enough to remember them) that combine to make the whole. I believe 'Content' reflects only the main story range.
To be certain of processing all the story ranges you need to do so separately and the following code, based on Word code from my web site, should do that. I don't work in Access, but it works in Excel where the principle is similar: Code:
Option Explicit 'Graham Mayor - https://www.gmayor.com - Last updated - 22 Nov 2021 Sub ReplaceInStoryRanges() Const sPath As String = "C:\Path\docname.docx" ' the path of the document Dim WordDoc As Object Dim wdApp As Object Dim oStory As Object Dim oShp As Object Dim bFormat As Boolean On Error Resume Next Set wdApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application") If Err Then Set wdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application") End If On Error GoTo 0 Set WordDoc = wdApp.Documents.Open(sPath) 'works in Word even if the document is already open bFormat = wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = False For Each oStory In WordDoc.StoryRanges Select Case oStory.StoryType Case 1 To 11 Do ReplaceQuotes wdApp, WordDoc, oStory DoEvents On Error GoTo 0 Select Case oStory.StoryType Case 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 If oStory.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then For Each oShp In oStory.ShapeRange If oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then ReplaceQuotes wdApp, WordDoc, oStory End If DoEvents Next oShp End If Case Else End Select On Error GoTo 0 Set oStory = oStory.NextStoryRange Loop Until oStory Is Nothing Case Else End Select DoEvents Next oStory wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = bFormat End Sub Sub ReplaceQuotes(wdApp As Object, oDoc As Object, oRng As Object) Dim oFind As Object Dim vFindText As Variant Dim vReplText As Variant Dim bQuotes As String Dim i As Long vFindText = Array(Chr(132), Chr(147), Chr(148), ChrW(171) & ChrW(160), ChrW(160) & ChrW(187), Chr(145), Chr(146)) vReplText = Array(Chr(34), Chr(34), Chr(34), Chr(34), Chr(34), Chr(39), Chr(39)) wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = False For i = LBound(vFindText) To UBound(vFindText) Set oFind = oRng.Duplicate With oFind.Find Do While .Execute(vFindText(i)) oFind.Text = vReplText(i) oFind.Collapse 0 Loop End With Next i lbl_Exit: Set oFind = Nothing Exit Sub End Sub
__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019) Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com |
#3
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Thanks GMayor. Great example. In the meantime, I've been working on this and came up with the following code:
Code:
'--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' Procedure : replace_quotes_with_smart_quotes ' Author : RMittelman@gmail.com ' ' Purpose : Replaces plain apostrophes & quotes with Word smart quotes ' ' History : 11/14/2021 Initial version ' 11/20/2021 Replaced Regex code with Word Find code ' ' Returns : Boolean indicating success or failure. ' ' Notes : ' '--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' Private Function replace_quotes_with_smart_quotes() As Boolean Dim myStoryRange As Object Dim arFind As Variant Dim arReplace As Variant Dim i As Integer replace_quotes_with_smart_quotes = False On Error GoTo error_handler arFind = Array(" '", "'", " """, """") arReplace = Array(Chr$(145), Chr$(146), Chr$(147), Chr$(148)) For Each myStoryRange In WordDoc.StoryRanges With myStoryRange.Find .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Format = False .ClearFormatting For i = 0 To UBound(arFind) .Text = arFind(i) .Replacement.Text = arReplace(i) .Replacement.ClearFormatting .Replacement.Highlight = False .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Next End With Next myStoryRange replace_quotes_with_smart_quotes = True exit_handler: On Error Resume Next Set myStoryRange = Nothing Exit Function error_handler: m_LastError = Err.Description If MsgBoxEx(Err.Description, vbRetryCancel + vbExclamation + vbDefaultButton2, "Error " & Err.Number, , , vbRed, , "&Debug", "&Exit") = vbRetry Then Stop Resume End If replace_quotes_with_smart_quotes = False Resume exit_handler End Function Looping through the story ranges in a for each loop seems to work, but now I'm concerned that it may fail under certain circumstances. I'd appreciate knowing what's going on in your code, because I'm using my technique to replace other things in the document also. Access rich text is totally confusing to Word, so I can't simply place my rich text paragraphs from access storage into a Word document. So I'm using plain text with codes like "<e>", "<se>" & "<ce>" in my paragraph text and then popping them into the Word document and replacing them with {Enter}, {Shift-Enter} & {Ctrl-Enter} Word codes. This seems to work, but now I'm concerned that I'm not using story types and text frames and such. Thanks again... |
#4
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I have repeated my code with annotation and restricted the called sub to convert only English smart quotes. I am not processing ranges twice. I am processing ranges within ranges, such as text boxes in the header/footer which require a touch of brute force.
Code:
Option Explicit 'Graham Mayor - https://www.gmayor.com - Last updated - 23 Nov 2021 Sub ReplaceInStoryRanges() Const sPath As String = "C:\Path\docname.docx" ' the path of the document Dim WordDoc As Object Dim wdApp As Object Dim oStory As Object Dim oShp As Object Dim bFormat As Boolean On Error Resume Next Set wdApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application") If Err Then Set wdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application") End If On Error GoTo 0 Set WordDoc = wdApp.Documents.Open(sPath) 'works in Word even if the document is already open 'record autoformat option bFormat = wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes 'set autoformat option to off wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = False 'process each storyrange by enumeration For Each oStory In WordDoc.StoryRanges Select Case oStory.StoryType Case 1 To 11 'the principle storyranges 'see https://apireference.aspose.com/words/net/aspose.words/storytype) Do ReplaceQuotes wdApp, WordDoc, oStory 'run the external sub DoEvents On Error GoTo 0 Select Case oStory.StoryType Case 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 'header/footer ranges 'process text boxes etc in the header/footer ranges separately If oStory.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then For Each oShp In oStory.ShapeRange If oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then ReplaceQuotes wdApp, WordDoc, oStory 'run the external sub End If DoEvents Next oShp End If Case Else End Select On Error GoTo 0 Set oStory = oStory.NextStoryRange Loop Until oStory Is Nothing Case Else End Select DoEvents Next oStory 'restore original autoformat option wdApp.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes = bFormat End Sub Sub ReplaceQuotes(wdApp As Object, oDoc As Object, oRng As Object) Dim oFind As Object Dim vFindText As Variant Dim vReplText As Variant Dim bQuotes As String Dim i As Long vFindText = Array(Chr(147), Chr(148), Chr(145), Chr(146)) vReplText = Array(Chr(34), Chr(34), Chr(39), Chr(39)) For i = LBound(vFindText) To UBound(vFindText) Set oFind = oRng.Duplicate With oFind.Find Do While .Execute(vFindText(i)) oFind.Text = vReplText(i) oFind.Collapse 0 Loop End With Next i lbl_Exit: Set oFind = Nothing Exit Sub End Sub
__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019) Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com |
#5
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Hi GMayor,
I'm playing with your code, and I'm confused by something. The code loops through the story ranges, only processing types 1 - 11. That I understand. If the story type is 6 - 11 (headers & footers), it process them again if they have a shape range count >0. Also, they only process if they have a TextFrame with .HasText true. I presume these are text boxes in the headers/footers, and you want to replace text in those text boxes. So this brings up 2 questions: 1: What if there are text boxes NOT in a header or footer? This seems to ignore that possibility. 2: The code sends the oStory object to the subroutine, but that was already done before, right? If you want to replace text in the text box(es), shouldn't you be sending the text box range to the subroutine instead of the oStory range, which has already been processed? If this is so, what object should you send the second time? I can't seem to find a text range object in the Word object model under StoryRanges or ShapeRange.TextFrame. Do you have any ideas on this? Please forgive if my understanding of your code is faulty. Thanks... P.S. I've been using a simplified version which loops through each StoryRange and does the find and replace without worrying about shapes. Seems to work fine, but I'm curious about your code. |
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regex, vba, word 16 |
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