MacroButton Fields - not just for macros
anymore!
Syntax
{ MacroButton MacroName DisplayText }
MacroButton - the field command
MacroName - name of macro being called - or
"NoMacro"
DisplayText - text that acts as the "button" for
the macro and is displayed in your document. Note that there are no
quotation marks used in this field. DisplayText can be any text you
want. There are probably limits on length. Instead of (or in
addition to) the DisplayText you can insert a picture or icon to act
as a visual button for your macro.
Behavior
Clicking on a MacroButton field will select the field. Double-clicking
on one will activate a macro if there is a macro designated. You can change
this behavior to make the macro activate on a single click as well.
MacroButton Fields as Prompts
You can use the first behavior (selecting the field) to make simple
click-and-type prompts. If you look at many of the templates that come from Microsoft with Word,
you will find places that say something like "[Click here and
type]." If you click at that spot, the whole prompt is selected and
anything you type replaces it. Often, this is exactly what you want for
a simple prompt. What you are seeing is a simple implementation of the
"MacroButton" field.
To insert a MacroButton field like this in your document:
Insert => Field ...
Where it says Field: type "MacroButton NoMacro prompt."
The "MacroButton" is the name of the field. "NoMacro"
is the name of the macro - in this special case, none. The "prompt"
is whatever prompt text you want. This can be "[Click here and
type]" or the text that will usually be just fine but which the
user might want to change.
As is the case with other fields, the F11 key will take you to the next field,
selecting that field. When you use macrobutton fields as prompts,
you may want to put an instruction in your documents to use F11 to go to
the next field. I do this putting the instruction in blue
or red text and a different font in a
textbox formatted to float in front of text. The textbox is formatted to
have no lines and no fill. The text in the textbox is formatted as hidden
so it should not print. I have this textbox as an AutoText entry in my
developer's template so that I can insert it easily when I prepare a new
template.
MacroButton Fields to Run Macros
Instead of simply being a prompt for typing, this MacroButton field
will run a macro if double-clicked. (This can be altered to a single
click using VBA.) Instead of NoMacro, simply type the name of the macro.
When inserting the field, you can click on the Options button and you
will be given a list of available macros (possibly quite a long list)
from which to select.
Where it says "Macros defined in active document" a more
accurate caption would be "Macros available to active
document." This list also includes all of Word's built-in commands,
many of which are not found on the menus.
Note that the MacroButton field is selected when it is clicked or
double-clicked. You may want to have your macro collapse the selection
at some point so that your MacroButton field won't be inadvertently
deleted. The language for this is:
Selection.Collapse
'Unselects the current selection and places
'insertion point at beginning of selection.
Note also that a macro button prompt will print as ordinary
text. (It is the field result). To avoid it being printed, you may want
to put it in a no-border text box formatted as hidden text (Format => Font). Because of this, it is often easier to use a custom toolbar with
a button on that toolbar. The toolbar will not print.
MacroButton Fields can be used in Protected Forms
and will be active even in a protected portion of the document. They are
often used in such forms as a replacement for hyperlinks
(since regular hyperlinks are inactive in the protected portion of a form).
A simple example of macrobuttons can be found in the CheckBox
template. This template/tutorial combines the powers of macros, autotext, and the
macrobutton field.
MacroButton Fields where the Macro responds to the contents of the
field (uses them as an argument or variable for
the macro)
It is possible to use one macro that responds to the contents of the
field to change what the macro does. Doing this with Private or AddIn
fields incorporated in MacroButton fields is discussed in the
MacroButtons page on the MVP
FAQ site. The same technique can be used with just the display text
of the MacroButton field.
The macro is:
Sub
TestMacro2()
Dim MyString As String
'Ignore first 24 characters of the macrobutton
field -
' the
words 'MacroButton TestMacro2', and the spaces
MyString = Mid$(Selection.Fields(1).Code, 24)
MsgBox MyString
End Sub
The field is:
{ MacroButton TestMacro2 [Click Here] }
This can be used to construct a list of templates in the Workgroup
Templates folder as macrobuttons. When you double-click (or single-click
as shown below) on the macrobutton, the macro creates a new document
based on the named template. A single macro decides which template to
open based on the template listed in the macrobutton field.
That is, the following fields both call the same macro:
{ Macrobutton TeemplateListLoad Releases\Release - blank}
{ Macrobutton TeemplateListLoad Log}
The macro uses the display information to decide which template to
use. The macro is:
Sub
TemplateListLoad()
' Based on ideas from http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/UsingMacroButton.htm
' Macro written by Charles Kyle Kenyon
' 24 October 2002
'
Dim sTemplateName As String
Dim sTemplatesPath As String
'
' Get workgroup templates path
'
sTemplatesPath =
Options.DefaultFilePath(wdWorkgroupTemplatesPath) & "\"
'
' Parse template name from Macrobutton
field.
' (The selection is the entire field.)
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
sTemplateName = Mid$(Selection.Fields(1).Code, 31)
& ".dot"
' Use to create a new document based on
the template
Documents.Add Template:=sTemplatesPath &
sTemplateName
Selection.Collapse
Exit Sub
'
End Sub
Making MacroButtons respond to a single click
To me, double-clicking on a button is counter-intuitive. To make a
macrobutton respond to a single click the following VBA code has to be
active:
Options.ButtonFieldClicks = 1
This has to be run before the user tries to click on the button. It
can be in an AutoOpen or AutoNew macro in the template which contains
the macrobutton or in an AutoExec macro in a global template.
(Explaining these gets beyond the scope of this article; see Template Basics
for more.)
Using MacroButtons to function as hyperlinks in protected forms.
In a document that has been "protected" as a form in Word,
hyperlink fields don't work, but macrobutton fields do work. You can use a
macrobutton for a hyperlink to an external document or web page (and even format it to look like a hyperlink) in a
protected document. It is more work than merely inserting a hyperlink, though.
(You can also use a macrobutton to link to an internal bookmark with
reservations, see end of
this section.)
- With your document not protected for forms, record a macro that opens the
document to which you want to link. Save the macro in your document (not in
Normal.dot) when you record it.
- Use the Macro Editor (Alt-F11) to edit your macro. At the end of the macro
(just before "End Sub") add the following line.
Selection.Collapse
- Where you want your hyperlink Press Ctrl-F9 to insert your field codes and
type "MacroButton MyMacro displaytext." where "MyMacro"
is the name of your macro and "displaytext" is what you want the
hyperlink to show in your document. (See Syntax above)
- Press F9 to update your field. It should show your displaytext.
- Select your field and press Ctrl-Shift-S to get into the styles drop-down.
- Type "hyperlink" for the style name and press enter.
When you protect your document your pseudo-hyperlink should work fine.
Remember to set the ButtonFieldClicks to 1. Also, the mouse pointer will not
change to a little hand when passing over your pseudo-hyperlink - but we can't
have everything, can we?
If you would like some pre-written code for your hyperlink macrobutton, you
can download HyperJmp.zip
from the Visual Basic MVP site.
For alternative coding, take a look at Using
Hyperlinks in Protected Forms on the MVP site. They show how to use a single
macro for all your hyperlinks in the document.
When the target of the link is within the
protected form it doesn't work quite so well. It will jump to the field
addressed by your bookmark if your bookmark is for a formfield, otherwise to the
field following your bookmark. If there is no field following your non-field
bookmark, it jumps to the first field in the document. Note that fields inserted
with the Forms toolbar automatically have a bookmark assigned. (You can change
that bookmark in the field's properties.) Thanks to Marcy T. for bringing this
problem to my attention.
For more on protected forms, follow the links in my
web resources page,
especially those to Dian Chapman's excellent series of articles.
Additional references on MacroButton fields
(this
guide table of contents) ----- (MS
Word New Users FAQ)