Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Populate Merge Fields via VB.NET
I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to
populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
"Fields" include Merge fields and Form fields. Form fields and Merge fields
are typically used for different purposes. Generaly speaking, it is probably a good idea to populate Merge fields by setting up and executing a mail merge (and letting Word fill in the values of each field). If the documents that have been given to you were designed to be used in a particular way, it may not be a straightforward process to adapt them so that they can be used with mailmerge, or any other form of document automation. It may help if you can provide some more details about what you are trying to do, Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
I have a word document with a header, body, and footer sections. Merge
fields are located in all sections. I am receiving the data needed to populate these documents via a web service. The web servcie will populate the document, then send the document to the printer. Using a datasource is the last option I have. The preferred option is to have the webservice populate the document via vb.net code and send to a printer. i am also struggling on how to get a reference to the header and footer objects. "Peter Jamieson" wrote: "Fields" include Merge fields and Form fields. Form fields and Merge fields are typically used for different purposes. Generaly speaking, it is probably a good idea to populate Merge fields by setting up and executing a mail merge (and letting Word fill in the values of each field). If the documents that have been given to you were designed to be used in a particular way, it may not be a straightforward process to adapt them so that they can be used with mailmerge, or any other form of document automation. It may help if you can provide some more details about what you are trying to do, Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
OK, unless you are actually using an OpenDataSource to open a data source,
you can't actually use Mailmerge to populate those merge fields for you. Since you're getting your data from a web service, you probably are not able to use OpenDataSource because that requires the data to come from a file, or a type of data source recognised by Word such as OLEDB or ODBC. If you are able to create a file with a local or Microsoft network address (i.e. one that you can only open using an Internet URL won't work because OpenDataSource will not open it) then that is probably the simplest way to populate your merge fields. If you cannot do that (e.g. because you are not allowed to create local files) then the only approach is to replace whatever placeholders exist in the document with your own data, i.e. simulate a merge. That's what I'm assuming you are trying to do, and if so: a. be aware that Mailmerge actually does quite a lot of stuff that it is non-trivial to write yourself. For example, if for some reason there are nested fields in your document, you may have to ensure that your code replaces the placeholders in a specific sequence. Inserting data in headers and footers can also be tricky if you need to create multi-section documents as output. b. you may find it useful to use field types other than MERGEFIELD fields as placeholders. In particular, you can consider using { DOCVARIABLE } or { DOCPROPERTY } fields in the main document - the advantage is that you can populate the Document variables and/or Document properties in code, then select the document and re-execute all the fields, and Word will do the rest. You don't need to find the fields in the document etc. etc. The main drawback is that if you try to put an empty string in a Document variable, Word will delete the variable and the { DOCPROPERTY } field will display an error message when evaluated. c. if you use that approach, you may need to loop through all the "Stories" in the document to update the fields, e.g. using the VB.NET equivalent of the following VBA code: '--------------- Sub RefreshAllStories() Dim r As Range For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges r.Fields.Update Next '--------------- Otherwise, to go back to original question, to loop round all the fields in a document, you need something more like the following, which should find most of them but may have trouble detecting some fields in the graphics layer: '--------------- Sub IterateMergeFields() Dim r As Range Dim f As Field Dim s As Shape For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges If r.StoryType wdTextFrameStory Then For Each f In r.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next For Each s In ActiveDocument.Shapes If s.Type = msoTextBox Then For Each f In s.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next End Sub '--------------- To get references to Headers and Footers, use the StoryRanges collection to access specific types of header and footer, e.g. ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryHeaderStory) You may need to trap errors in the case where the specified Story does not exist. Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have a word document with a header, body, and footer sections. Merge fields are located in all sections. I am receiving the data needed to populate these documents via a web service. The web servcie will populate the document, then send the document to the printer. Using a datasource is the last option I have. The preferred option is to have the webservice populate the document via vb.net code and send to a printer. i am also struggling on how to get a reference to the header and footer objects. "Peter Jamieson" wrote: "Fields" include Merge fields and Form fields. Form fields and Merge fields are typically used for different purposes. Generaly speaking, it is probably a good idea to populate Merge fields by setting up and executing a mail merge (and letting Word fill in the values of each field). If the documents that have been given to you were designed to be used in a particular way, it may not be a straightforward process to adapt them so that they can be used with mailmerge, or any other form of document automation. It may help if you can provide some more details about what you are trying to do, Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Peter - Thanks for the help. That was very usefull info you provided. I am
able to access all the merge fields, but would like to verify that I am correctly setting the merge field text correctly. Is the below code correct, or is there a better more efficient way? --------------------------- Dim r As Range Dim f As Field Dim s As Shape For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges If r.StoryType wdTextFrameStory Then For Each f In r.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then f.Select() Dim oSel as Selection oSel = ActiveDocument.Selection oSel.TypeText("text to enter for merge field") End If Next End If Next --------------------------- Also, I have one more issue. That is in the header, there is a text box field that I can not seem to figure out how to get access. When I use your example for accessing the header / footer, the text box never is accessable. Could you please shed some light on that for me also? Thanks. Your input is very helpful "Peter Jamieson" wrote: OK, unless you are actually using an OpenDataSource to open a data source, you can't actually use Mailmerge to populate those merge fields for you. Since you're getting your data from a web service, you probably are not able to use OpenDataSource because that requires the data to come from a file, or a type of data source recognised by Word such as OLEDB or ODBC. If you are able to create a file with a local or Microsoft network address (i.e. one that you can only open using an Internet URL won't work because OpenDataSource will not open it) then that is probably the simplest way to populate your merge fields. If you cannot do that (e.g. because you are not allowed to create local files) then the only approach is to replace whatever placeholders exist in the document with your own data, i.e. simulate a merge. That's what I'm assuming you are trying to do, and if so: a. be aware that Mailmerge actually does quite a lot of stuff that it is non-trivial to write yourself. For example, if for some reason there are nested fields in your document, you may have to ensure that your code replaces the placeholders in a specific sequence. Inserting data in headers and footers can also be tricky if you need to create multi-section documents as output. b. you may find it useful to use field types other than MERGEFIELD fields as placeholders. In particular, you can consider using { DOCVARIABLE } or { DOCPROPERTY } fields in the main document - the advantage is that you can populate the Document variables and/or Document properties in code, then select the document and re-execute all the fields, and Word will do the rest. You don't need to find the fields in the document etc. etc. The main drawback is that if you try to put an empty string in a Document variable, Word will delete the variable and the { DOCPROPERTY } field will display an error message when evaluated. c. if you use that approach, you may need to loop through all the "Stories" in the document to update the fields, e.g. using the VB.NET equivalent of the following VBA code: '--------------- Sub RefreshAllStories() Dim r As Range For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges r.Fields.Update Next '--------------- Otherwise, to go back to original question, to loop round all the fields in a document, you need something more like the following, which should find most of them but may have trouble detecting some fields in the graphics layer: '--------------- Sub IterateMergeFields() Dim r As Range Dim f As Field Dim s As Shape For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges If r.StoryType wdTextFrameStory Then For Each f In r.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next For Each s In ActiveDocument.Shapes If s.Type = msoTextBox Then For Each f In s.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next End Sub '--------------- To get references to Headers and Footers, use the StoryRanges collection to access specific types of header and footer, e.g. ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryHeaderStory) You may need to trap errors in the case where the specified Story does not exist. Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have a word document with a header, body, and footer sections. Merge fields are located in all sections. I am receiving the data needed to populate these documents via a web service. The web servcie will populate the document, then send the document to the printer. Using a datasource is the last option I have. The preferred option is to have the webservice populate the document via vb.net code and send to a printer. i am also struggling on how to get a reference to the header and footer objects. "Peter Jamieson" wrote: "Fields" include Merge fields and Form fields. Form fields and Merge fields are typically used for different purposes. Generaly speaking, it is probably a good idea to populate Merge fields by setting up and executing a mail merge (and letting Word fill in the values of each field). If the documents that have been given to you were designed to be used in a particular way, it may not be a straightforward process to adapt them so that they can be used with mailmerge, or any other form of document automation. It may help if you can provide some more details about what you are trying to do, Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Is the below code correct,
or is there a better more efficient way? tend to take the "if it works, it works" view of software these days - in other words, I can't tell you if your code is "correct". In this case I would be inclined to test a few special cases, e.g. what if the field is right at the beginning or end of a range, what if the text is an empty string, perhaps check that leading/trailing spaces are retained, and if you are dealing with "international" data, see what happens to unusual accented characters. Also, I have one more issue. That is in the header, there is a text box field that I can not seem to figure out how to get access. When I use your example for accessing the header / footer, the text box never is accessable. Could you please shed some light on that for me also? I think you have encountered the "may have trouble detecting some fields in the graphics layer" problem I mentioned. I haven't checked this in detail but I think if you access the appropriate header object (and I didn't realy give you the complete story about that before) you will be able to get these too, e.g. to inspect one such object For Each s In ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterF irstPage).Shapes If s.Type = msoTextBox Then For Each f In s.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next End Sub If you need to deal with multiple sections or multiple types of header/footer, you'll need to wrap that in another suitable loop. My memory of this is a bit dim, but I think Word actually finds some fields in more than one of the collections being processed in these code snippets - in your case that's probably not going to do any harm except maybe to performance. If you do mange to work out a more precise algorithm that always works, please do post it back here. Peter Jamieson and I don't know how to solve it. Is it possible in this case to convert the text box to a frame that will do the same job (select the box and use Fomat Text Box|Text Box|Convert to Frame). Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... Peter - Thanks for the help. That was very usefull info you provided. I am able to access all the merge fields, but would like to verify that I am correctly setting the merge field text correctly. Is the below code correct, or is there a better more efficient way? --------------------------- Dim r As Range Dim f As Field Dim s As Shape For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges If r.StoryType wdTextFrameStory Then For Each f In r.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then f.Select() Dim oSel as Selection oSel = ActiveDocument.Selection oSel.TypeText("text to enter for merge field") End If Next End If Next --------------------------- Also, I have one more issue. That is in the header, there is a text box field that I can not seem to figure out how to get access. When I use your example for accessing the header / footer, the text box never is accessable. Could you please shed some light on that for me also? Thanks. Your input is very helpful "Peter Jamieson" wrote: OK, unless you are actually using an OpenDataSource to open a data source, you can't actually use Mailmerge to populate those merge fields for you. Since you're getting your data from a web service, you probably are not able to use OpenDataSource because that requires the data to come from a file, or a type of data source recognised by Word such as OLEDB or ODBC. If you are able to create a file with a local or Microsoft network address (i.e. one that you can only open using an Internet URL won't work because OpenDataSource will not open it) then that is probably the simplest way to populate your merge fields. If you cannot do that (e.g. because you are not allowed to create local files) then the only approach is to replace whatever placeholders exist in the document with your own data, i.e. simulate a merge. That's what I'm assuming you are trying to do, and if so: a. be aware that Mailmerge actually does quite a lot of stuff that it is non-trivial to write yourself. For example, if for some reason there are nested fields in your document, you may have to ensure that your code replaces the placeholders in a specific sequence. Inserting data in headers and footers can also be tricky if you need to create multi-section documents as output. b. you may find it useful to use field types other than MERGEFIELD fields as placeholders. In particular, you can consider using { DOCVARIABLE } or { DOCPROPERTY } fields in the main document - the advantage is that you can populate the Document variables and/or Document properties in code, then select the document and re-execute all the fields, and Word will do the rest. You don't need to find the fields in the document etc. etc. The main drawback is that if you try to put an empty string in a Document variable, Word will delete the variable and the { DOCPROPERTY } field will display an error message when evaluated. c. if you use that approach, you may need to loop through all the "Stories" in the document to update the fields, e.g. using the VB.NET equivalent of the following VBA code: '--------------- Sub RefreshAllStories() Dim r As Range For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges r.Fields.Update Next '--------------- Otherwise, to go back to original question, to loop round all the fields in a document, you need something more like the following, which should find most of them but may have trouble detecting some fields in the graphics layer: '--------------- Sub IterateMergeFields() Dim r As Range Dim f As Field Dim s As Shape For Each r In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges If r.StoryType wdTextFrameStory Then For Each f In r.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next For Each s In ActiveDocument.Shapes If s.Type = msoTextBox Then For Each f In s.TextFrame.TextRange.Fields If f.Type = wdFieldMergeField Then ' do whatever you need End If Next End If Next End Sub '--------------- To get references to Headers and Footers, use the StoryRanges collection to access specific types of header and footer, e.g. ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryHeaderStory) You may need to trap errors in the case where the specified Story does not exist. Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have a word document with a header, body, and footer sections. Merge fields are located in all sections. I am receiving the data needed to populate these documents via a web service. The web servcie will populate the document, then send the document to the printer. Using a datasource is the last option I have. The preferred option is to have the webservice populate the document via vb.net code and send to a printer. i am also struggling on how to get a reference to the header and footer objects. "Peter Jamieson" wrote: "Fields" include Merge fields and Form fields. Form fields and Merge fields are typically used for different purposes. Generaly speaking, it is probably a good idea to populate Merge fields by setting up and executing a merge (and letting Word fill in the values of each field). If the documents that have been given to you were designed to be used in a particular way, it may not be a straightforward process to adapt them so that they can be used with mailmerge, or any other form of document automation. It may help if you can provide some more details about what you are trying to do, Peter Jamieson "ben" wrote in message ... I have several documents that have merge fields identified. I am not able to populate the forms using mail merge, I need to populate programatically via VB.NET. I noticed the Word.Document.Fields.count matches the number of merge fields in the document while Word.Document.FormFields.count = 0. Can someone point me in the correct direction on populating a merge field programatically |
Reply |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
ASK and FILLIN fields in INCLUDETEXT documents do not merge correc | Mailmerge | |||
How do I use unique fields to populate mail merge data like Word 2 | Mailmerge | |||
Can you create a multi-layered merge where certain merge fields a. | Mailmerge | |||
Merge fields in word tables populate by a VBA query | Tables | |||
Using MAILMERGE fields within HYPERLINK fields for Merge to Email | Mailmerge |