KB183369 - How To Use Automation to Run a Word Macro with Arguments

Article ID: 183369

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications 5.0
Microsoft Foundation Class Library 4.2
Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q183369

SUMMARY

This article discusses how to use version 4.2 of the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library installed with Microsoft Visual C++ to automate Word and run a macro that requires argument(s).

MORE INFORMATION

You can copy the code in this article to the message handler function of an event defined in an MFC .cpp file. However, the purpose of the code is to illustrate the process of using the IDispatch interfaces and member functions defined in the Msword type library. The primary benefit comes from reading and understanding the code so that you can modify the example, or write code from scratch to automate sending an argument to a Microsoft Word VBA macro.

This example presents two methods for passing arguments to Word VBA macros:

The first method calls a macro that is defined in the class module for the "ThisDocument" object. The macro definition specifies a parameter.
The second method uses Word variable objects. The macro definition does not specify any parameters; however, the macro code accesses the value of a variable stored within the document. The macro is called using the Run method.

NOTE: This method will not work for a document that is protected.

Step-by-Step Example

In Microsoft Word, create a new document and press ALT+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor.

In the Word Visual Basic Macro Editor "Project" box (usually located at the upper-left of the Visual Basic Window), double-click the tree node for "ThisDocument" to display its module window. Add the following code:

      Public Sub testmacro(x As String)
       MsgBox "First Method" & vbcr & x

      End Sub

On the Insert menu, click Module to insert a new module and add the code below to the module:

      Sub GetSetVarVals()
       For Each myVar In ActiveDocument.Variables
        If myVar.Name = "VarVal" Then
         ActiveDocument.Variables("VarVal").Delete
        End If
       Next myVar

       ActiveDocument.Variables.Add Name:="VarVal", _
           Value:=ActiveDocument.Variables("FullName").Value

       ' Retrieve the contents of the document variable.
       MsgBox "Second method" & _
          vbcr & ActiveDocument.Variables("VarVal").Value
      End Sub

      Sub DelVariables()  'Delete the variable "FullName".
       For Each myVar In ActiveDocument.Variables
        If myVar.Name = "FullName" Then
         ActiveDocument.Variables("FullName").Delete
        End If
       Next myVar
      End Sub

Save the document as C:\Test.doc. Close the document and exit Word.

Follow steps 1 through 12 in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to create a sample project that uses the IDispatch interfaces and member functions defined in the MSWord type library:
178749 How To Create an Automation Project Using MFC and a Type Library
To the dialog box created in steps 4 and 5 of the parent article 178749, add an "Edit Box" control from the Controls toolbar (if that is not visible, right-click the gray area of the Visual Studio command bar. From the context pop-up menu, select "Controls.")

This control will display the ID of IDC_EDIT1 in the General tab page of the Edit Properties dialog box.
On the View menu, click ClassWizard (or press CTRL+W). On the Member Variables tab of the MFC ClassWizard dialog, select IDC_EDIT1 and click Add Variable. Type "m_Argument" (without the quotation marks) for the Member Variable Name, and click Ok. Click OK to close the ClassWizard Dialog box.

At the top of the AutoProjectDlg.cpp file, add the following line:

      #include "msword8.h" //For Word 2000, include msword9.h. For Word 2002, include msword.h

Add the following code to CAutoProjectDlg::OnRun() in the AutoProjectDlg.cpp file:

      UpdateData(TRUE);  // Transfers data from edit box

                         // on opening dialog box
                         // to the member variable m_Argument.

      // Convenient constants.
      COleVariant covTrue((short)TRUE),
                          covFalse((short)FALSE),
                          covOptional((long)DISP_E_PARAMNOTFOUND,
                                                         VT_ERROR);
      // Objects.
      _Application objWord;
      Range objRange;

      objWord.CreateDispatch("Word.Application");
      objWord.SetVisible(TRUE);

      Documents oDocs(objWord.GetDocuments());  // Use the Constructor
                                                // for Documents.
      _Document oDoc;

      oDoc.AttachDispatch(oDocs.Open(COleVariant("C:\\Test.doc",VT_BSTR),
                        covFalse, //Confirm Conversions.
                        covFalse, // Not read only.
                        covTrue,  // Add to recent documents.
                        covOptional,  // PassWordDocument.
                        covOptional,  // PassWordTemplate.
                        covFalse, // Revert.
                        covOptional,  // WritePasswordDocument.
                        covOptional,  // WritePasswordTemplate.
                        covOptional,  // Format, e.g., WordOpenFormat.
                        covOptional,  // New with Word 9 - Encoding
                        covOptional,  // Visible - Ditto
                        covOptional,  // New with Word 10 - OpenConflictDocument
                        covOptional,  // Ditto - OpenAndRepair
                        (long) 0,     // Ditto - DocumentDirection - Left to Right
                        covOptional   // Ditto - NoEncodingDialog
                        )
                        );

      // Here is code for the method that passes an argument to a Word
      // VBA macro defined in the ThisDocument class. The macro specifies
      // a string parameter. Such a macro won't appear in the document's
      // macro list.
      // The macro is not declared in the Word typelib, so the code
      // retrieves the dispid at run time from the IDispatch interface
      // for the Document object. It uses that dispid in the call to
      // InvokeHelper.

      OLECHAR FAR* szMember = OLESTR("testmacro");
      DISPID dispid;
      if(FAILED(oDoc.m_lpDispatch->GetIDsOfNames ( IID_NULL,
                               &szMember,  //Function name.
                               1,          //Number of functions.
                               LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT,
                               &dispid)))
      {
       AfxMessageBox("Unable to get dispID for testmacro");
      }

      COleVariant result;
      UCHAR *parmStr = (BYTE *)( VTS_VARIANT );
      COleVariant x;
      x = COleVariant(m_Argument);
      oDoc.InvokeHelper( dispid,
                        DISPATCH_METHOD | DISPATCH_PROPERTYGET,
                        VT_VARIANT,
                        (void *)&result,
                        parmStr,
                        &x);

      // Here is code that passes an argument using Word variables.
      // This method won't work on a protected document, because that
      // won't let the user--in this case your MFC client--set
      // variable values.

      AfxMessageBox("Next, pass an argument using a Variable");


      Variables oVariables = oDoc.GetVariables();  // Create Variables
                                             // collection for current doc.

      objWord.Run("DelVariables"); //  Word Macro to purge the variable
                                   // "FullName".
                 covOptional, covOptional,  // Word 9 & Word 10 take
                 covOptional, covOptional,  // up to 30 arguments
                 covOptional, covOptional,  // in addition to Macro's name
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                 covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional); 

      VARIANT *v = new VARIANT; // Creating pointer to a VARIANT.

      v->vt = VT_BSTR;  // Variant type = VT_BSTR

      v->bstrVal = m_Argument.AllocSysString(); //The string from Edit Box.

      oVariables.Add("FullName", v); // "FullName" is the Word Variables
                                     // item.

      objWord.Run("GetSetVarVals");  // Word Macro to show the contents of
                                     // "FullName".

                  covOptional, covOptional,  // Word 9 & Word 10 take
                  covOptional, covOptional,  // up to 30 arguments
                  covOptional, covOptional,  // in addition to Macro's name
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional,
                  covOptional, covOptional,covOptional, covOptional);

      delete v;  // Release the memory block for the Variant.

      objWord.Quit(covFalse, covOptional, covFalse);
      // The parameters mean Save Changes, Original Format, RouteDocument.

You may need to modify the code in CAutoProjectDlg::OnRun() to indicate the correct path for your document Test.doc. The document is referenced in the following line:
```
      oDoc.AttachDispatch(oDocs.Open(
                          COleVariant("C:\\Test.doc",VT_BSTR)...
					
```
Compile your VC++ project, then run it.
The dialog box will appear. Enter a string, such as "George Washington" (without the quotation marks) in the edit box.
Click Run in the dialog box. Word will appear, then the Message Box of the macro "GetSetVarVals()" will appear. The argument you entered in the MFC edit box has been passed to the Word VBA macro.

REFERENCES

For more information about automating Microsoft Word using MFC, please refer to the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

178784 How To Use Automation to Open and Print a Word Document

180312 How To Use Automation to Set the Printer from an MFC Project

For additional information about the Automation of Office applications, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

222101 How To Find and Use Office Object Model Documentation

Additional query words: IDispatch Word 8.0 Word8 Word97

Keywords: kbautomation kbhowto kbinterop KB183369