A couple of questions about Word macros

Question

I need to grab a list of names from Excel and insert them into a Word document, printing one document per name. The document has some text and a bookmark called "name". The code is below.

First, I want to know if it's possible to detect how long is the list of names in the Excel spreadsheet and grab that, instead of hardcoding the number.

Second, I can't figure out how to delete the text I already put inside the document. When I insert text in a bookmark, it gets appended after the bookmark, so if I keep adding names they all stack together.

Maybe with the code this will be clearer:

Sub insertar_nombre()
    Dim Excel As Excel.Application
    Dim Planilla As Excel.Workbook
    Dim Hoja As Excel.Worksheet

    Set Excel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
    Dim Filename As String
    Dim fname As Variant
    With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen)
        .AllowMultiSelect = False
        .Title = "Seleccionar Documento de Excel"
        .Show
        For Each fname In .SelectedItems
            Filename = fname
        Next
    End With
    Set Planilla = Excel.Workbooks.Open(Filename)
    Set Hoja = Planilla.Worksheets(1)
    Dim Nombre As String
    For Count = 2 To 10
        Nombre = Hoja.Cells(Count, 1).Value
        ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("name").Range.Text = Nombre
        ActiveDocument.PrintOut
    Next
End Sub

Forgive me if this code is obviously wrong or something, I'm just beginning with this.

Answer 1

I need to grab a list of names from Excel and insert them into a Word document, printing one document per name.

Why don't you simply use the mail merge feature?

Answer 2

Hi Javier, the following Sub should solve this for you, but you might need to change the way your bookmark is defined.

There is more than one way to insert a Bookmark. This method requires the Bookmark to be inserted by highlighting the text, not simply positioning the cursor at a location in the text.

Sub insertar_nombre()

Dim xlWorkbook As Excel.Workbook
Dim xlWorksheet As Excel.Worksheet

Dim strFilename As String

Dim bkmName As Word.Range
Dim strBookmarkOriginalText As String

Dim lngRowLast As Long
Dim rngRowStart As Excel.Range
Dim rngRowEnd As Excel.Range

Dim rngNames As Excel.Range
Dim rngName As Excel.Range


'Open file dialog and only allow Excel files'
With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen)
    .AllowMultiSelect = False
    .Title = "Seleccionar Documento de Excel"

    'Only let them select Excel files'
    .Filters.Clear
    .Filters.Add "Excel Documents (*.xls)", "*.xls"

    'Check if a file is selected'
    If .Show = True Then

        'Since AllowMultiSelect is set to False, _
            only one file can be selected'
        strFilename = .SelectedItems(1)
    Else

        'No file selected, so exit the Sub'
        Exit Sub
    End If
End With


'Set the bookmark to a Word range (not a Bookmark object)'
Set bkmName = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("name").Range

'Save the original text of the bookmark'
strBookmarkOriginalText = bkmName.Text


'Open the Excel file'
Set xlWorkbook = Excel.Workbooks.Open(strFilename)
Set xlWorksheet = xlWorkbook.Worksheets(1)

'Range of the first cell that contains a name'
Set rngRowStart = xlWorksheet.Cells(2, 1)

'Range of the last cell in the column'
lngRowLast = xlWorksheet.Range("A65536").End(xlUp).Row
Set rngRowEnd = xlWorksheet.Cells(lngRowLast, 1)

'Range of all cells from first name cell to last name cell'
Set rngNames = xlWorksheet.Range(rngRowStart, rngRowEnd)


'Loop through the range of names'
For Each rngName In rngNames

    'Ignore any blank cells'
    If rngName <> vbNullString Then

        'Set the text of the bookmark range to the name from Excel'
        bkmName.Text = rngName

        'The above statement deleted the Bookmark, so create _
            a new Bookmark using the range specified in bkmName'
        ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add Name:="name", Range:=bkmName

        'Print the document'
        ActiveDocument.PrintOut
    End If
Next


'Restore the orignal value of the bookmark'
bkmName.Text = strBookmarkOriginalText
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add Name:="name", Range:=bkmName

'Close the Workbook without saving'
xlWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False

End Sub

Hope this helps.