Writing Word Macros

By Steven Roman

Book Overview

Many Microsoft Word users and VBA programmers don't realize the extensive opportunities that exist when Word's Object Model is accessed using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which replaced WordBasic in conjunction with the release of Word 97. By creating what is commonly called a "Word Macro" you can automate many features available in Word. Writing Word Macros (previously titled Learning Word Programming is the introduction to Word VBA that allows you to do these things and more, including: Create custom pop-up menus Automatically create tables from lists Append one document to the end (or beginning) of another Create a toggle switch to change a document from draft to final copy by adding or removing a watermark in the header Generate reports using data from other applications Not intended to be an encyclopedia of Word programming, Writing Word Macros provides Word users, as well as programmers who are not familiar with the Word object model with a solid introduction to writing VBA macros and programs. In particular, the book focuses on: The Visual Basic Editor and the Word VBA programming environment. Word features a complete and very powerful integrated development environment for writing, running, testing, and debugging VBA macros. The VBA programming language (which is the same programming language used by Microsoft Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, as well as the retail editions of Visual Basic). The Word object model. Word exposes nearly all of its functionality through its object model, which allows Word to be controlled programmatically using VBA. While the Word object model, with almost 200 objects, is the largest among the Office applications, readers need be familiar with only a handful of objects. Writing Word Macros focuses on these essential objects, but includes a discussion of a great many more objects as well. Writing Word Macros is written in a terse, no-nonsense manner that is characteristic of Steven Roman's straightforward, practical approach. Instead of a slow-paced tutorial with a lot of hand-holding, Roman offers the essential information about Word VBA that you must master to program effectively. This tutorial is reinforced by interesting and useful examples that solve practical programming problems, like generating tables of a particular format, managing shortcut keys, creating fax cover sheets, and reformatting documents. Writing Word Macros is the book you need to dive into the basics of Word VBA programming, enabling you to increase your power and productivity when using Microsoft Word.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565927257
• ISBN13: 9781565927254
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 410 Pages
• Weight: 1.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Rating based type of VBA programmer

I don't speak for IT professionals nor for complete beginners in VBA programming. I speak as a regular engineer who is just beginning to go underneath the surface of MS Word, but has written some very complex applications using VBA in both Access and Excel - useful enough to have attracted favorable attention from specialists in divisions across the country of the large corporation I work for. However, when I learned what I know of VBA, I skipped the important step of learning the vocabulary of the VBA Integrated Development Environment (IDE)- a term I began to understand on page xv of the preface. As a result of my early carelessness, I often struggle with the internet discussions of a problem I'm researching - I even struggle with the explanations provided by Microsoft itself which assume you've learned the terminology. That's why I, personally, found the first few chapters of the book particularly useful Several people have complained about those first chapters where Mr. Roman is not talking about how to actually program Word using VBA, but rather introducing the tools that will make your job easier when he does begin discussing the VBA programming language (for example: what windows are available when you enter the Word VBA environment, and what useful information do they contain?). For these chapters alone, I would have bought the book; and for these chapters, I will keep the book nearby no matter what Microsoft application I'm writing VBA code for. Another complaint offered by some is the many lists Mr. Roman offers of built-in function statements (134 of them - pp 85 and 86); VBA statements (92 of them - p.86); msgbox button argument values (16 of them - p.87); collection objects (25 of them - pp 112-113); global objects...; Word-specific objects...; enums...; properties...; and methods... I am delighted that he has taken the trouble to put these lists into a single reference book. I wish they had all been gathered together into one or several contiguous Appendices, but here's why I'm glad that, at least, they're included. I often want to do something, but don't know the right keywords to construct the code. If I scan down the appropriate list it often jogs my memory of forgotten statements, objects, methods, etc., or provides new ones (to me) whose names indicate they may be useful. But there is much more to this book than simple lists; the structure of the VBA language is explained; the text is peppered with helpful suggestions and details about how to implement them (use keyboard shortcuts; use modular programming, comment liberally in your code, etc.). The major techniques for achieving results with VBA programming ARE covered - this book is NOT just a compendium of lists. Personally speaking, I didn't find any particular need to compare VBA with FORTRAN, COBOL, C++, etc. I especially don't care to see even the simple coding examples he provides in each of those languages to illustrate the differences (at least such compa

only book on Word programming you should consider

Many of the reviews here are very unfair to this book. Overall, this is an excellent book. Steven Roman covers exactly what you need to know about Word programming. As the author states in his intro, this book does not do any handholding and it's not padded with extraneous junk. It gives you just the facts and enough information to get you started. This book is not for beginners - it's directed at someone who has a reasonable competency in programming. Not an advanced progarmmer; just a basic knowledge of VB and an idea of how to work with Objects. Note he often does not give big sections of code which you can just slightly modify to get it to do what you want. He gives short illustrations that any programmer would know how to integrate into existing code. The first 9 chapters are virtually the same as the first 9 chapters of another one of his books, Writing Excel Macros with VBA. This is provided to get non-programmers up to speed before the real meat of the book, which starts on page 128.

Very useful, and a great reference

As someone who has been making a living writing Office macros for the past three years, I'd say this is the book I refer to most often. I taught myself Word VBA with this one book, after having briefly studied Excel VBA with SAMS Excel Programming (Podlin/Webb).Even now that I'm working in XP, the book is as useful as ever as a quick reference for solutions to common tasks, for descriptions of Word objects, and answers when "Help" is no help at all. It's certainly possible to learn Word VBA from zero with this book, but if you prefer a structured 'teach yourself' course with excercises, then you'd better get another book to go with this one. A good start might be Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Word 2000 Automation in 24 Hours.

What are other reviewers reading?

I just finished reading this book from cover to cover. I think it is excellent and I am wondering what the reviewers from Bothel and Sugar Hill read? I guess the reviewer from Sugar Hill must have read a different book, because he mentions that he bought the book to learn about the "Word object" and he says that Roman says he won't cover that object in detail. THERE IS NO WORD OBJECT IN THE WORD OBJECT MODEL and Roman does not say that there is (as far as I could tell). It's too bad that reviewers don't take a little more responsibility for accuracy before posting a review of someone else's work. How can we trust reviews otherwise?