HOW TO: Programmatically Obtain Paragraph Numbers Generated by a Style in Word 2000 (315728)

SUMMARY

This step-by-step article explains how to extract numbering information from paragraphs of a Word document in which the numbering was created automatically by using paragraph formatting or a style sheet.

Microsoft Word offers a programming model that exposes the text and structure of a document. The Paragraph object represents a paragraph in your document, and the Range object represents a contiguous portion of text. Range has a property named Text, which gives you the text in the Range object.

Range also has a ListFormat object that provides list and number formatting. ListFormat has properties named ListString and ListLevelNumber, which tell you the automatically generated paragraph numbers and the indent level, respectively.

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Requirements

The following items describe the recommended hardware, software, network infrastructure, skills and knowledge, and service packs that are required.

Prior knowledge required:

• Programming Microsoft Word 2000 by using Microsoft Visual Basic, Applications Edition
• Familiarity with the automatic numbering features of Microsoft Word

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Create a Word Document with Numbered Paragraphs

1. Start Word 2000, and then create a new document.
2. Type the following words, separated by paragraph returns, as follows:

   Animal
   Cat
   Dog
   Vegetable
   Mineral

3. Select the text. On the Format menu, click Bullets and Numbering. On the Numbered tab, select the first numbered format, and then click OK.
4. Select the second and third lines of text in your document. On the Formatting toolbar, click the Increase Indent button. The document now appears as follows:
   
   
   1. Animal
      a. Cat
      b. Dog
      
      VegetableMineral
   2. VegetableMineral
   3. Mineral
5. Save the document as WordNum.doc.

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Write a Word Macro to Display Numbered Paragraphs

1. On the Tools menu, click Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor. The Visual Basic Editor appears.
2. In the Project window, double-click ThisDocument to start the code editor.
3. Type the following code in the code editor. This code iterates through all the paragraphs in the active document and displays the text, list number, and indent level for each paragraph:

   Option Explicit
   Sub showNumbers()
   
       Dim objPara As Paragraph
       Dim sText As String
       Dim sList As String
       Dim nLevel As Integer
       For Each objPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
           With objPara.Range
               sText = .Text
               sList = .ListFormat.ListString
               nLevel = .ListFormat.ListLevelNumber     
               MsgBox "Text = " & sText & _
                   "List = " & sList & " Level = " & nLevel
           End With
       Next
   End Sub
   					

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Verification

1. Press F5 to run the macro.
2. A message box appears that displays the text, list number, and indent level for the first paragraph in your document:

   Text = Animal
   List = 1. Level = 1

3. Click OK to dismiss the message box.
4. Four more message boxes appear in sequence to display the following information about the other paragraphs in your document:

   Text = Cat
   List = a. Level = 2
   
   Text = Dog
   List = b. Level = 2
   
   Text = Vegetable
   List = 2. Level = 1
   
   Text = Mineral
   List = 3. Level = 1

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