How to find and use Office object model documentation (222101)

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Where can I find the object model documentation?

The object models for the Office applications are documented in a Language Reference for both versions of Office: Microsoft Office 97 Visual Basic for Applications Language Reference
ISBN 1-57231-339-0

Microsoft Office 2000 Visual Basic for Applications Language Reference
ISBN 1-57231-955-0.
The Language References are available on the MSDN and in the online Help that ships with Microsoft Office. They can also be purchased in printed form. For ordering information, please visit: The following table lists the Help files for each Office application.

Application	Version 97 (or 8.0)	Version 2000 (or 9.0)	Version 2002 (or 10)	Version 2003 (or 11)
Office	Vbaoff8.hlp	Vbaoff9.chm	Vbaof10.chm	Vbaof11.chm
Access	Acvba80.hlp	Acmain9.chm	Acmain10.chm, Vbaac10.chm	ACMAIN11.chm,VBAAC10.chm
Excel	VbaXl8.hlp	Vbaxl9.chm	Vbaxl10.chm	VBAXL10.chm
MapPoint	N/A	Mappoint.chm (ver.2001)	Mappoint.chm	MAPPOINT.chmn (Ver. 2004)
Outlook	Vbaoutl.hlp	Vbaoutl9.chm	Vbaol10.chm	VBAOL11.chm
PowerPoint	Vbappt.hlp	Vbappt9.chm	Vbapp10.chm	VBAPP10.chm
Word	Vbawrd8.hlp	Vbawrd9.chm	Vbawd10.chm	VBAWD10.chm
Graph	Vbagrp8.hlp	Vbagrp9.chm	Vbagr10.chm	VBAGR10.chm
FrontPage	N/A	Vbafp4.chm, Vbafpom4.chm	Vbafpd10.chm, vbafpw10.chm	VBAFPD10.chm, VBAFPW10.chm
Binder	Vbabdr8.hlp	Vbabdr8.hlp	Discontinued

The Help files that ship with Microsoft Office 97 are installed by default at: If you cannot find the Office 97 VBA Help file you need, it probably was not installed when you initially ran Office 97 setup. To install the Help file, run the Office setup to add the VBA Help file. Note that the Outlook 97 VBA Help file is not installed by Office setup. For information on installing the Outlook 97 VBA Help file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The Help files that ship with Microsoft Office 2000 are installed by default at: The Help files that ship with Microsoft Office XP are installed by default at: NOTE: The Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office XP, and Microsoft Office 2003 Setup programs install the VBA Help files "on first use." Therefore, you might not see the Help file in this directory if you have not previously attempted to access VBA Help in the Office application.

How can I use the object model documentation?

There are several methods you could use to find documentation for a specific class, method, or property:

• Search the VBA Help File:
  
  In the Visual Basic Editor for the Office application, click Contents and Index on the Help menu. On the Contents tab, select the language reference you want and click Display. The VBA Help for the Language Reference you selected appears. At this point, you can use either the Index or the Find tab to locate information on a specific class, method, or property.
• Use Context Sensitive Help in a Module or in the Immediate Pane:
  
  In the Visual Basic Editor for the Office application, type the class, method, or property in the code window of a module or in the Immediate Window, highlight the text and press the F1 key. The Help topic for the item appears.
• Use the Object Browser:
  
  Press the F2 key in the Visual Basic Editor for the Office application to display the Object Browser. The Object Browser lists all the classes the application exposes and the methods or properties associated with each class. To view Help on a specific class or class member, select it in the Object Browser and press the F1 key.

How do I know which classes, methods, and properties to use?

If you are not already familiar with the object model of the application you intend to automate, you can use the application's Macro Recorder to get an idea. To illustrate, suppose you want to automate Microsoft Word to add some text to a new document and then save the document but you don't know which methods and properties to use; you can start with the Macro Recorder:

1. Start Microsoft Word.
2. Click Macro on the Tools menu and then select Record New Macro. Make note of the new macro's name and click OK to start recording.
3. Start a new document.
4. Type one and press the ENTER key.
5. Type two and press the ENTER key.
6. Type three.
7. Click Save on the File menu and save the document as "C:\doc1.doc."
8. Click the Stop Recording button (or click Macro on the Tools menu and select Stop Recording).
9. To view the VBA code that the Macro Recorder generated from your actions, click Macro on the Tools menu and select Macros. Select the name of the new macro in the list and click Edit. The Visual Basic Editor appears with the recorded macro:

    Documents.Add
    Selection.TypeText Text:="one"
    Selection.TypeParagraph
    Selection.TypeText Text:="two"
    Selection.TypeParagraph
    Selection.TypeText Text:="three"
    ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:="Doc1.doc", FileFormat:=wdFormatDocument,_
      LockComments:=False, Password:="", AddToRecentFiles:=True, _ 
      WritePassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False, _
      EmbedTrueTypeFonts:=False, SaveNativePictureFormat:=False, _
      SaveFormsData:=False, SaveAsAOCELetter:= False
   					

You can benefit greatly from understanding how each class fits within the object model and learning the description and type of all parameters for the methods and properties you use.

Start with examining the first line of the recorded macro: Documents.Add. Highlight Documents on the code module for the Recorded macro and press the F1 key. The Help topic provides you with the following important information:

• The "Documents Property" returns a Documents collection that represents all the open documents.
• The "Documents Property" applies to the Application object.

Return to the recorded macro, highlight Add on the code module and press the F1 key. A Help topic appears explaining that many different objects have an Add method. Click Documents to see the Help for the Add method of the Documents collection. The Help topic provides you with the following important information:

• The "Add Method" adds a new, empty document to the collection of open documents.
• The "Add Method" can take two arguments, both of which are optional.

Now examine the next line in the recorded macro: Selection.TypeText Text:="one". Highlight Selection on the code module and press the F1 key:

• The "Selection Property" returns the Selection object that represents a selected range or the insertion point.
• The "Selection Property" applies to the Application object.

Return to the recorded macro, highlight TypeText on the code module and press the F1 key:

• The "TypeText Method" inserts the specified text.
• The "TypeText Method" has one required argument of type String.
• The "TypeText Method" applies to the Selection Object.

Next, see the Help topic for TypeParagraph:

• The "TypeParagraph Method" inserts a new blank paragraph.
• The "TypeParagraph Method" applies to the Selection Object and has no arguments.

Examine the Help topics for the ActiveDocument property and the SaveAs method:

• The "ActiveDocument property" returns a Document object representing the document with the focus. "ActiveDocument" applies to the Application object.
• The "SaveAs method" saves a document. Depending on the version of Word, this method has from 11 to 16 arguments, only one of which is required. "SaveAs" applies to a Document object.

You may have noticed that the Documents property, Selection property, and ActiveDocument property are all properties that apply to the Application object but yet are not qualified with "Application" in the recorded macro. The Application object is the default object for all properties and can therefore be omitted when writing code in a VBA macro. This is not the case when writing automation code; all properties and methods should be fully qualified in your automation code.

Upon examination of the recorded macro, you see that the SaveAs method has an argument for which it passes the built-in constant wdFormatDocument. Depending on the programming language you choose for your automation controller, you might need to pass the numeric value for the built-in constants. The Help topic for the SaveAs method does not give this information but you can find it in the Object Browser. Press the F2 key to display the Object Browser. Type:

wdFormatDocument

in the search window and press the ENTER key. In the bottom pane of the Object Browser, you see the numeric equivalent of wdFormatDocument(=0) as well as other information about the constant.