Open Word Document and Bring to Front

Question

Below is a working code snippet that opens a Microsoft Word document, and goes to a specific index from the Table of Contents. filePath is a filepath, and strTopic is a value that links to the Table of Contents in the Word document.

Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
objWord.Visible = True

Set docWord = objWord.Documents.Open(fileName:=strPath, ReadOnly:=True)

docWord.Bookmarks(strTopic).Range.Select

I need to bring the Word document to the foreground.

Is there a toFront() type "function" in VBA?

Answer 1

You can achieve what you want using APIS. I am using two APIs SetForegroundWindow and FindWindow

Private Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) _
As Long

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias _
"FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) _
As Long

Sub Sample()
    Dim objWord As Object, docWord As Object
    Dim strPath As String, FileName As String
    Dim hwnd As Long

    Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    objWord.Visible = True

    '~~> Change this to the relevant Filename and path
    strPath = "C:\Users\Siddharth Rout\Desktop\Sample.docx"
    '~~> Put the acutal file name here without the extension
    FileName = "Sample"

    Set docWord = objWord.Documents.Open(FileName:=strPath, ReadOnly:=True)

    hwnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, FileName & " [Read-Only] - Microsoft Word")

    If hwnd > 0 Then
      SetForegroundWindow (hwnd)
    End If
End Sub

NOTE: If you are sure that there is no other Word Application open other than what you opened then you can use this as well :)

Private Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias _
"FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Sub Sample()
    Dim objWord As Object, docWord As Object
    Dim strPath As String
    Dim hwnd As Long

    Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    objWord.Visible = True

    '~~> Change this to the relevant Filename and path
    strPath = "C:\Users\Siddharth Rout\Desktop\Sample.docx"

    Set docWord = objWord.Documents.Open(FileName:=strPath, ReadOnly:=True)

    hwnd = FindWindow("OpusApp", vbNullString)
    If hwnd > 0 Then
      SetForegroundWindow (hwnd)
    End If
End Sub

Answer 2

How about,

docWord.Activate

This should bring the file that has been "Set" for the docWord object to foreground.

EDIT: Tested this on Access, quiet unreliable on Excel. Using an API is the best way to go if there are multiple instances of the Word application running.

Answer 3

Once you've opened a document (or added one) you can get a Hwnd to pass to the SetForegroundWindow API function from the ActiveWindow object (e.g. obWord.ActivieWindow.Hwnd). That way you don't need to search for the correct Word instance to bring to front.

Answer 4

This seems to work every time. Word running or not, multiple docs open or not.

OpenAlready:

On Error GoTo 0
With wrdApp
    .Selection.Goto What:=1, Which:=2, Name:=PageNumber
    .Visible = True
    .Activate '<---seems to work well. regardless of number of Word docs open OR not open.
End With
Set wrdDoc = Nothing
Set wrdApp = Nothing

Answer 5

i'm quite new here, and in doing a ~30 min research on this specific case, I think I could bring something to the table here...

I found in this link: http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/showthread.php?27589-bringing-Word-in-fornt-of-Excel this line of code: Application.ActivateMicrosoftApp xlMicrosoftWord It will force Word in front of everything, BUT if there is something opened it will create a new document, so what I found is that, if you want to open something and then bring it to front you use this sintax:

[...]

Application.ActivateMicrosoftApp xlMicrosoftWord
Word.Documents.Open(MyDocument)

[...]

Once in vba debugging the code will always be in front, but when using the code with the excel vba userform it works great! I can see the word changing the words on the fly!!!!

Answer 6

Can also use AppActivate "Microsoft Word"

visit Microsoft help :here

Using AppActivate needs the exact title of the window you want focused. E.g. for a word 2013 template opened as an "add", you would have to use AppActivate "Document1 - Word"

Answer 7

I just use;

FileAndPath = "C:\temp\Mydocument.docx"
ThisWorkbook.FollowHyperlink (FileAndPath)

It even works if the file is already open.

Answer 8

Since ".Activate" is comented various times but at least for me calling it from excel to bring to fornt a word doc. I have to do a work around minimizing and maximazing the window. This works well for me until now:

Set wdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
wdApp.Visible = True
wdApp.ScreenUpdating = True
Set wdDoc = wdApp.Documents.Open(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & stWordDocument) 'update your path
wdDoc.Activate
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow _
.WindowState = wdWindowStateMinimize
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow _
.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize

Answer 9

found!

ActiveDocument.Activate 'might not be necessary
ActiveDocument.Windows.Application.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize

works flawlessly. I already had an "activedocument" I was working on.

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=173871