Can I disable or skip "fillin" fields.

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Mike Kaplan - 17 Mar 2005 21:17 GMT

I have a need to write a VB program, which will use OLE-Automation to
automatically open and print a series of MS Word documents (Word 97 right
now, but soon Word 2003 as well). It seems for some of these documents, the
original authors included fill-in fields, in the document header. Each time
my program opens, and then attempts to print the document, the fill-in prompt
appears.

This program is supposed to require no user-intervention! Right now, I need
to manually click "cancel" twice for these documents. Is there any way to
programatically disable or "skip" these fields?

Thanks

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Jay Freedman - 18 Mar 2005 03:23 GMT

>I have a need to write a VB program, which will use OLE-Automation to
>automatically open and print a series of MS Word documents (Word 97 right
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
>Thanks

Hi Mike,

Assuming oWord is the Word application object in your VB program, if
you execute the line

oWord.ActiveDocument.Fields.Locked = True

then none of the fields in the document will update until you reset
the value to False.

If you need some fields to update (such as Date and Time fields) but
not others, you can loop through the document's fields and only lock
the ones that are fillins:

Const wdFieldFillIn = 39
Dim oFld As Word.Field
For Each oFld In oWord.ActiveDocument.Fields
If oFld.Type = wdFieldFillIn Then
oFld.Locked = True
End If
Next oFld

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

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Greg Maxey - 18 Mar 2005 03:36 GMT

Jay,

Thanks. I was this close to posting a solution this afternoon and got
called away to as staff meeting :-(

Sub Test()
Dim oFld As Word.Field
For Each oFld In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryHeaderStory)
If oFld.Type = wdFieldFillIn Then
oFld ?
End If
Next oFld
End Sub

I don't know how I missed "locked'

Signature

Greg Maxey/Word MVP
A Peer in Peer to Peer Support
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm

>> I have a need to write a VB program, which will use OLE-Automation to
>> automatically open and print a series of MS Word documents (Word 97
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
> End If
> Next oFld

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Jay Freedman - 18 Mar 2005 16:19 GMT

Hi Greg,

I missed the statement in the original post that the field is in the header.
My macro wouldn't have locked any fields there. What's needed is the
combination of our macros:

Const wdFieldFillIn = 39
Dim oFld As Word.Field
For Each oFld In _
oWord.ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdPrimaryHeaderStory).Fields
If oFld.Type = wdFieldFillIn Then
oFld.Locked = True
End If
Next oFld

Signature

Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

> Jay,
>
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>> End If
>> Next oFld

Reply to this Message

Greg - 18 Mar 2005 16:28 GMT

Jay,

What is the significance of:
Const wdFieldFillIn = 39 ?

Reply to this Message

Jay Freedman - 19 Mar 2005 04:33 GMT

>Jay,
>
>What is the significance of:
>Const wdFieldFillIn = 39 ?

The OP said he was working in VB. Unless he's doing early binding, VB
doesn't have access to the VBA library that defines the values of
Word's constants, so you have to declare them in the VB code. Since
most non-Word folks don't know how to find the values (in the Object
Browser), I thought it would be helpful to include that one in my
answer.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

Reply to this Message

Greg Maxey - 19 Mar 2005 04:39 GMT

Jay,

Goes to show how little I know. I didn't know that there was a difference
between VB and VBA. I have a lot to learn.

Signature

Greg Maxey/Word MVP
See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tips.htm
For some helpful tips using Word.

>> Jay,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> Browser), I thought it would be helpful to include that one in my
> answer.

Reply to this Message

Mike Kaplan - 22 Mar 2005 19:21 GMT

Greg and Jay,

Thank you both for your suggestions! I would have got to them sooner, but I
was out sick and had trouble accessing the forum yesterday. I will try these
out ASAP. Hopefully, I have no more questions.

Thanks!
Mike

> Jay,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> > Browser), I thought it would be helpful to include that one in my
> > answer.

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