VBA Word macro not working as expected with field results in document

Question

I have a word document (report) and in that document, I'm importing many text files with fields like this:

{INCLUDETEXT "C:\\PATH\\TOXMLFILES\\Request.xml" \*CHARFORMAT}

Also I'm updating all those fields with a macro on opening the document...

Sub AutoOpen()
With Options
    .UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
    .UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
End With
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
End Sub

Now I need to highlight the text of those imported XMLs (in the IncludeText fields) between <faultstring></faultstring> tags

Here is code I got here on stackoverflow for highlighting text (making it bold)

Sub BoldBetweenQuotes()
    ' base for a quotes finding macro
    Dim blnSearchAgain As Boolean
    Dim blnFindStart As Boolean
    Dim blnFindEnd As Boolean
    Dim rngFind As word.Range
    Dim rngFindStart As word.Range
    Dim rngFindEnd As word.Range

    Set rngFind = ActiveDocument.content
    Set rngFindStart = rngFind.Duplicate
    Do
        ' set up find of first of quote pair
        With rngFindStart.Find
            .ClearFormatting
            .Text = "<faultstring>"
            .Replacement.Text = ""
            .Forward = True
            .wrap = wdFindStop
            blnFindStart = .Execute
        End With
        If blnFindStart Then
            rngFindStart.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
            Set rngFindEnd = rngFindStart.Duplicate
            rngFindEnd.Find.Text = "</faultstring>"
            blnFindEnd = rngFindEnd.Find.Execute
            If blnFindEnd Then
                rngFindStart.End = rngFindEnd.Start
                ' make it bold
                rngFindStart.Font.Bold = True
                rngFindStart.Start = rngFindEnd.End
                rngFindStart.End = rngFind.End
                blnSearchAgain = True
            Else
                blnSearchAgain = False
            End If
        Else
            blnSearchAgain = False
        End If
    Loop While blnSearchAgain = True
End Sub

Problem is, when I run the macro in my Word document (with the IncludeText fields) it keeps cycling and bolding just the first appearance of text between faultstring tags. When I run it in a new Word document with some random text and faultrstring tags it works well...

EDIT: It turns out the problem is due to the faultstring tags being inside the IncludeText fields. I need to turn the fields into static text after opening the document and updating the fields. How can I do that?

If you don't unlink the INCLUDETEXT fields, any formatting between <faultstring></faultstring> tags will be lost immediately anything causes those fields to be refreshed. Conversely, if you do unlink the INCLUDETEXT fields, they'll no longer update to reflect changes in the underlying data. Perhaps the best approach, therefore, is to lock the fields, rather than unlink them, so they can be unlocked & refreshed on demand only. — macropod

Cindy Meister Cindy Meister · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-26T15:56:41

In order to convert dynamic field content to static text using Word's object model (such as VBA) the Fields.Unlink method is required. For the entire document:

ActiveDocument.Fields.Unlink

This is also possible for any given Range; to remove the fields in the last paragraph, for example:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Last.Range.Fields.Unlink

In order to unlink only a certain type of field, loop the Fields collection, test the Field.Type and unlink accordingly. For example, for IncludeText:

Sub DeleteIncludeTextFields()
    Dim doc As word.Document

    Set doc = ActiveDocument
    Debug.Print DeleteFieldType(wdFieldIncludeText, doc)
End Sub

Function DeleteFieldType(fldType As word.WdFieldType, doc As word.Document) _
         As Long

    Dim fld As word.Field
    Dim counter As Long

    counter = 0
    For Each fld In doc.Fields
        If fld.Type = wdFieldIncludeText Then
            fld.Unlink
            counter = counter + 1
        End If
    Next

    DeleteFieldType = counter
End Function

Assuming you want to do this for all the fields in your document, after updating it:

Sub AutoOpen()
  With Options
    .UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
    .UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
  End With
  ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
  ActiveDocument.Fields.Unlink
End Sub

VBA Word macro not working as expected with field results in document

1 Answers