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MS Word Cross References and VBA

Posted on 2012-12-29

Microsoft Word

3 solutions

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Last Modified: 2012-12-31

Hi All

Seasons Greetings...

I have a cross reference in MS Word: { REF _Ref344571714 \r \h } which links to a numbered item.

What I would like to do is display the corresponding paragraph number & other reference informatoin in a VBA MsgBox...

would love some help on this one, it has been driving me nuts :-(

Cheers, S

Comment

Question by:DrTribos

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7 Comments

LVL 16

Accepted Solution

by:terencino

terencino earned 1000 total points

ID: 387303512012-12-29

Hi S, this code cycles through all the references in the document, and displays a number of properties that might give you what you want. It can be modified easily to display properties for a selection or a specific field:

Sub CheckXRefs()
Dim aField As Word.Field

For Each aField In ActiveDocument.Fields
    If aField.Type = wdFieldRef Then
           xref_text = "Text : " & aField.Code.Text & vbCrLf
           xref_result = "Result : " & aField.Result & vbCrLf
           xref_listlevel = "List level : " & aField.Code.Paragraphs(1).Range.ListFormat.ListLevelNumber & vbCrLf
           xref_paragraph = "Paragraph : " & ActiveDocument.Range(0, aField.Code.Paragraphs(1).Range.End).Paragraphs.Count & vbCrLf
           xref_page = "Page : " & aField.Code.Information(wdActiveEndAdjustedPageNumber) & vbCrLf
           MsgBox xref_text & xref_result & xref_listlevel & xref_paragraph & xref_page
        End If
Next aField
End Sub

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Let me know how it goes
...Terry

LVL 76

Expert Comment

by:GrahamSkan

ID: 387306172012-12-30

Hi Steve
The Cross Reference system uses hidden bookmarks, so you need some code like this:

Sub ReferencedText()
    Dim strRef As String
    Dim para As Paragraph
    Dim strMessage As String
    
    strRef = "_Ref344626289"
    Set para = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("_Ref344571714").Range.Paragraphs(1)
    strMessage = para.Range.ListFormat.ListString & vbTab & para.Range.Text
    MsgBox strMessage
End Sub

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LVL 15

Author Comment

by:DrTribos

ID: 387314482012-12-30

Hi Terry & Graham

Thank you both for your help. I think I'm close to getting what I need.

I'm trying to get the para text to display based on a clicked field... so was adapting Graham's suggestion and trying this:

Set para = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(aField.Code).Range.Paragraphs(1)

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This fails due to too much information...

? aField.Code
 REF _Ref344627521 \n \h \t

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Is there a way to return the reference without switches? Otherwise I'll have to brush upon my text trimming...

Cheers, S

LVL 15

Author Comment

by:DrTribos

ID: 387314762012-12-30

Would this be robust?

? mid(aField.Code, 6, 13)
_Ref344627521

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I'm sure 6 will be fine... but can I always expect a 13 character ref?

LVL 16

Assisted Solution

by:terencino

terencino earned 1000 total points

ID: 387316092012-12-30

Hi S, in place of
aField.Code
use
Split(aField.Code, " ")(2)
This parses the code text (delimited by a space) into an array, giving you the ref number without worrying about length.
Here's some more information on the Split function and why it works
...Terry

LVL 76

Assisted Solution

by:GrahamSkan

GrahamSkan earned 1000 total points

ID: 387316192012-12-30

I think that I would split the code text into parts and look for the bookmark:

Sub ReferencedText(fld As Field)
    Dim strRef() As String
    Dim para As Paragraph
    Dim strMessage As String
    Dim i As Integer
    
    Select Case fld.Type
        Case wdFieldRef, wdFieldPageRef
            strRef = Split(Selection.Fields(1).Code.Text, " ")
            For i = 0 To UBound(strRef)
                If Left(strRef(i), 4) = "_Ref" Then
                    Set para = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(strRef(i)).Range.Paragraphs(1)
                    strMessage = para.Range.ListFormat.ListString & vbTab & para.Range.Text
                    MsgBox strMessage
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next i
    End Select
End Sub

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LVL 15

Author Comment

by:DrTribos

ID: 387338892012-12-31

Thank you both.

Terry you have answered the question and provided lots of good info - thanks.

Graham - thank you for your additional comments. I am using nested fields so your approach will probably save me the most time.

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