How to cut and paste from general field into a Word document

MORE INFORMATION

The following example consists of two sections. The first section is to create a mail merge Word document with bookmarks.

Note This example only works in Microsoft Word 97.

Create a Word 97 merge document

1. Create a new Word document in Word 97, and format the document as follows:

      Dear NAME,
   
          CONTENT
   
      Sincerely,
   
      John Smith

2. Create a bookmark for CONTENT and NAME (the names of the bookmarks are CONTENT and ANAME, respectively). To create these bookmarks, follow these steps:
   1. Highlight the items in the document (for example, CONTENT).
   2. On the Insert menu, click Bookmark.
   3. In the Bookmark dialog box, type in the bookmark's name and then click Add.
   4. Repeat steps a through c for the NAME bookmark.
3. Save the Word document as mytest.doc.

Visual FoxPro-specific items

1. Create a table named "mydoc" with the following structure:

         Field name    Type       Size
         -----------------------------
         Content       General     4
         Name          Character   10

2. There should be only one record in this table. In the general field, paste in any existing Word document. In the Name field, place a ten-character expression.
3. Close the table.
4. Create a form that is named mail.scx in Visual FoxPro that only has a Command button.
5. Place the following code in the Click method of the Command button:

         LOCAL oWordObj
         *   Open table
         IF !USED("mydoc")
           USE mydoc
         ELSE
           SELECT mydoc
         ENDIF
   
         *   Open a Word Object
         oWordObj = CREATEOBJECT("Word.Application")
   
         *   Next open the original document in a second window
         oWordObj.Documents.Open("C:\VFP50\mytest.doc")
   
         *   Retrieve the number of bookmarks defined in DOC
         pnCountMarks = oWordObj.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count
   
         *   Store bookmarks in an array
         DIMENSION aMark[pnCountMarks]
   
         FOR pnCount = 1 TO pnCountMarks
           aMark[pnCount] = oWordObj.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(pnCount).Name
         ENDFOR
   
         *   Loop through all the bookmarks in the document
         FOR pnCount = 1 TO pnCountMarks
           pcMarkName = UPPER(aMark[pnCount])
   
        *     Move to the next bookmark
           WITH oWordObj.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(pcMarkName).Range
   
             DO CASE
                CASE pcMarkName = "ANAME"
                  .text = ALLTRIM(Name)
                CASE pcMarkName = "CONTENT"  && goes to bookmark
                  oWordObj.WordBasic.ww7_editgoto("CONTENT")
           *         Starts Word
                  oWord=GETOBJECT(,"WORD.basic")
           *         Creates Form in VFP
                  frmWord=CREATEOBJECT("FORM")
           *         Adds OLE object to form
                  frmWord.ADDOBJECT("OBJWORDDOC","OLEBOUNDCONTROL")
           *         Sets the control source
                  frmWord.OBJWORDDOC.CONTROLSOURCE="mydoc.content"
           *         frmWord.show
                  frmWord.OBJWORDDOC.DoVerb(0) && Default Word doc is 'Edit'
                  oWord.EditSelectAll
                  oWord.EditCopy
                  oWordObj.WordBasic.editpaste
             ENDCASE
           ENDWITH
         ENDFOR
         * Release the Word.Basic object that edits the General field
         * contents, and close the Form that was opened to access the VFP
         * table with that General field.
   
         Release oWord
         Release frmWord
   
         *    Save and Print the document
         oWordObj.WordBasic.FilePrint(0) && Turn background printing off
         WAIT WINDOW "Printing in Progress" TIMEOUT 3
   
         oWordObj.WordBasic.FileSaveAs("c:\VFP50\DEMO1.DOC")
   
         *    Close Word
         oWordObj.WordBasic.DocClose
   
         *    Quit Word, release the object and clear the desktop
         oWOrdObj.Quit
         Release oWordObj
         Thisform.release

6. Save, and run the form. Click on the command button, and Word prints out the document with the Name and the Content of the mail merge.

Note With the GetObject() command, Word 97 looks for a document with the desired name. If you want to refer to an already launched instance containing your word document, you should leave the first parameter empty instead of using an empty string, otherwise you can launch a new (invisible) instance of Word containing a NEW document.

Note On random occasions this solution can cause an unexplained OLE error at the following line of code:

      WITH oWordObj.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(pcMarkName).Range

The error message follows: