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Ms Word Macros
Macros are commands that can do multiple actions at one
simple button click. They therefore can be extremely powerful.
They do take some practice, however, in setting up. The examples
below are based on some very simple concepts, but end up helping to
create some very powerful macros.
Creating Editing and
Storing Macros
There are several ways to create macros - including
recording. However this section will only deal with the simplest
means of all - directly writing them. If that seems a lot of work,
it is not. We will just use the "Edit" function of the macro under
"tools" in the pull down menu, and then use the computer clipboard to
transfer text directly into the program area. For modifying the
macro commands? One can use the computer clipboard transfer method
to create new lines. Do the simple changes on each line by hand.
We will explain this in the following examples.
Let us take an example in Ms Word that we used in the
previous page for Find and Replace. Let us say that we wish to
eliminate the ">" character from a text file. A macro code to do
this is as follows:
Sub bracket()
WordBasic.EditSelectAll
WordBasic.Style "Normal"
WordBasic.Font "Arial"
WordBasic.FontSize 11
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=">", Replace:="", Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0,
WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0,
Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
End Sub
Explanation of the macro:
-
note that this macro subroutine begins with line one
saying "Sub" and ends with a line that says "End Sub".
These items are
required
-
the name of this subroutine was chosen to be "bracket"
which is shown in line 1. We could have picked almost any name.
Keep the name to one word though (no spaces)
-
Select All on the second line means that all of the text
will be selected for change
-
The next 3 lines are optional, but are used to change
all of the text to Normal Arial style, with font size of 11.
Change those items to suit your own tastes.
-
"StartOfDocument" tells the software to begin the search
at the start of the documeent
-
The next line is the text for Find and Replace - the
real work horse in this macro and others we will show. This
particular macro has only one Find and Replace preceded by only one
StartOfDocument - but as we will see later, there can be many of these
lines to further manipulate text
-
The second to the last line places the cursor again at
the start of the document
-
Note that the Find and Replace routine here searches for
"Find" = ">" and will "Replace" it with "" - which is the symbols for
replacing it with nothing (zero length).
Saving and Using this Macro
note: these instructions are specifically
for Ms Word 2000; you might have to look around your version of Ms Word
if it is a different version to achieve similar results.
We will use the computer clipboard to transfer this text
to a macro. We learned how to do this on the last page. If
you do not remember how to do this, please look at "Clipboard
Memory" on the previous page. But basically, what we will do
is to highlight the text for the macro as you see it in your browser for
just the subroutine. Use your mouse instead of "Ctrl" and "A"
since you want only the subroutine text and not the whole browser page.
Then open Ms Word. Open "Tools" on the pull down menu, and under
"Macros" move your mouse to the right and select "Macros" again. A
macro window should pop up, showing you macros that you currently have
loaded in Ms Word. You may already have a macro there, or not have
any. Select "Edit" and a screen will show a large open macro area
to the right hand side. Set your mouse cursor at a point in an
open area on the right hand side where you can load this macro text and
yet not interfere with another macro loaded there. How to do that?
Not that macros begin with the word "Sub" and then the macro title and
end with "End Sub". Ensure that if you have other macros there that
you place it before another "Sub" or after "End Sub" but not within
another macro.
After you have done this, your macro is loaded.
Ensure that you select "Save Normal" under the pull down file under
"File" before leaving. This will save your macro work to the disk.
Then you can exit the macro screen by pressing the "X" in the upper
right hand corner of the macro window.
Using the Macro
You can use the macro by first loading the text file
into Ms Word that you wish to modify in order to remove the ">" symbol.
Then you can go to "Tools" in the pull down menu, and again select"Macros" bringing up the macro window. Then select the macro
you wish to exercise, which would be name "bracket" in this case, and
select "Run". Then the macro should modify your text and remove
the ">" symbols.
Macros on Tool Bars for Simple Usage
A more elegant way of dealing with macros that you use
often is to put them on the Ms Word toolbar. Under "tools" and
then "customize" you can create a new toolbar just for your macros by
selecting the "toolbar" tab and selecting the "New" option. The
name is not important of this new toolbar, and calling it "custom 1" as
they suggest is just fine. Then you can add your new "bracket"
macro to this toolbar. You can do that with this "customize"
window by selecting the "commands" tab, and then looking down
"categories" for "macro" and then selecting the "macro" category.
The macros available will show on the right. Drag the name of the
bracket macro from this window to the top new custom toolbar that you
just created. Since the name of it will likely be too long, before
closing the custom window, right click on the bracket name in the new
tool bar with your mouse (must be a right click) and modify the "name"
that is shown. Then delete characters or give it a shorter name
such as "bracket" or even "brk" or similar such that it will take up
less space on the toolbar.
Now in the future, when you wish this macro to execute
and modify a document, you need only press "bracket" on the toolbar with
your mouse to execute the macro.
Modifying your Macro
You might notice that you really need "> " with a blank
after the ">" to be replaced rather than just the ">" itself.
Well, to do that go under "Tools" and "Macros" again to open the macro
window. Select the "bracket" macro and then the "Edit" function.
Change the Find and Replace routine such that "Find" is now "> ".
Then select "Save Normal" again under "File" in the menu to save your
work, and then exit the macro screen. When the macro is executed,
it will now have this change.
More Powerful Macros
The below is a much more powerful macro that I use to
straighten out margins on emails that appear messed up when they arrive. Of
course one must also copy it to Ms Word to use this macro. Note
that this macro is an approximation and may work on simple emails, but
not complex ones such as those with bullet items on each line.
This simple macro
is expecting normal paragraphs and then a double line break between
paragraphs. It also uses a special temporary character "$$**" that
it uses to tell where these double line breaks should go.
Note that even with its higher complexity, that it
simply uses the Find and Replace routine several times as its work horse
to get the job done. A lot of complexity can be done with just the
power of Find and Replace. Note also that as indicated on the last
page, that the symbol "^p" means a line break.
How does one create added Find and Replace lines, each
with "StartOfDocument" before it? Use the computer clipboard to
copy a set of those two lines, and then paste them as many times as you
need. You will only need then to modify the "Find" and "Replace"
data for the copied lines to the new desired targets.
Sub paragraph()
WordBasic.EditSelectAll
WordBasic.Style "Normal"
WordBasic.Font "Arial"
WordBasic.FontSize 11
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p^p^p^p^p^p", Replace:="$$**",
Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0,
ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p^p^p^p^p", Replace:="$$**", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p^p^p^p", Replace:="$$**", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p^p^p", Replace:="$$**", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p^p", Replace:="$$**", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="^p", Replace:=" ", Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0,
WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0,
Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:="$$**", Replace:="^p^p", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=" ", Replace:=" ",
Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0,
ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=" ", Replace:=" ",
Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0,
ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=" ", Replace:=" ", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=" ", Replace:=" ", Direction:=0,
MatchCase:=0, WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1,
Format:=0, Wrap:=2
WordBasic.StartOfDocument
WordBasic.EditReplace Find:=" ", Replace:=" ", Direction:=0, MatchCase:=0,
WholeWord:=0, PatternMatch:=0, SoundsLike:=0, ReplaceAll:=1, Format:=0,
Wrap:=2
End Sub
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PAGE - Excel and More
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