How To Use Automation to Run a Word Macro with Arguments (183369)

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

1. In Microsoft Word, create a new document and press ALT+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor.
2. 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
   					

3. 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
   					

4. Save the document as C:\Test.doc. Close the document and exit Word.
5. 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

6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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
   					

9. 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.
   					

10. 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)...
    					

11. Compile your VC++ project, then run it.
12. The dialog box will appear. Enter a string, such as "George Washington" (without the quotation marks) in the edit box.
13. 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.