Macro

Macro Cookbook for Microsoft Word

Cookbook
for Microsoft Word

Macros—the mysterium tremendum, the sanctum sanctorum of shaping

Microsoft Word. Or, hey, just a great way to automate those cooling refining
mind-numbing, finger-breaking tasks you’ve been doing manu-
ally for so long. In the Macro Cookbook, Microsoft Word expert
Jack Lyon explains how you can do that—without having to
learn to program. In no time at all, he’ll have you recording,
running, borrowing, and modifying macros to make your work
shrink and your income grow. The Macro Cookbook covers such covering with chocolate
topics as:

•
•
Understanding macros
Looping macros
Macro
Cookbook
• Using macros that make decisions
• Using “found” macros
• Adapting “found” macros
• Using common macro commands
• Using secret macro commands
for Microsoft Word

Lyon
• Storing macros for safety and sharing

Jack Lyon writes, “R. Buckminster Fuller (inventor of the geo-

desic dome) often talked about ‘ephemeralization’—doing more M Acro s
and more with less and less until we can do almost anything by
doing almost nothing. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but
it’s a way of thinking that can yield almost unbelievable results
if you consistently apply it. I hope this book will help you do
that.”

The Editorium
ISBN 978-1-4341-0332-1
90000>
testing sweet, sweet success!

Jack Lyon
The Editorium

9 781434 103321
Macro Cookbook
for Microsoft Word

Jack Lyon

T HE E DITORIUM
Please read this: The reader (that’s you) assumes the entire risk as
to the use of this book and the information therein. I don’t anticipate
any problems, but all computers and Microsoft Word installations are
different, and I can’t be held responsible for what might happen with
yours. To avoid problems, be sure to back up your files before trying
anything in this book; then you’ll have something to go back to if
anything goes wrong. As the lawyers say, this book is provided for
informational purposes only and without a warranty of any kind, either
express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from
infringement.

ISBN 978-1-4341-0332-1

Copyright © 2012 by The Editorium, LLC

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

Cover illustrations (here slightly revised) are by William Heath Robinson,

from an ad for Mackintosh’s Toffee in the London Daily Mail, October 1,
1921.

The Editorium
3907 Marsha Drive
West Valley City, UT 84128
www.editorium.com
[email protected]

The names of any programs or companies mentioned in this book

(including mine) are acknowledged as trademarks of their owners. The
Editorium™ is a trademark of The Editorium, LLC.

The Editorium is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

 Contents

Contents v

Preface vii

Introduction ix

1 Understanding Macros 1
Recording a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Looking at the Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Running the Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Word Happens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 Looping Macros 11
Do and Repeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Other Looping Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 Decisions, Decisions 19
“Returning” Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Powers-Wilson Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4 Using “Found” Macros 26

Places to Get Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Adding a Macro to Microsoft Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Running a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5 Adapting “Found” Macros 30

Clarifying Macro Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Understanding and Adapting Macro Commands . . . . . . . . 33
A Real-World Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
In Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

v
vi

6 Basic “Ingredients” 50
Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Selecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Moving and Selecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Inserting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Deleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Using Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Displaying Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Finding and Replacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Running Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

7 Secret “Ingredients” 59
Looking Under the Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Overriding a Word Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Word Happens—Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Listing Word’s Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

8 Storing Macros 66
Creating Your Own Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adding a Template Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Making Macros Accessible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

9 Additional Examples and Practice 71

Recording a Simple Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Recording a Find-and-Replace Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Recording a Complex Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Automatically Selecting the Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Running the Macros with Another Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Power of Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Index 89
 Preface

This book includes lots of macro commands, but you

probably don’t want to type them into Microsoft Word in
order to use them. For that reason, I’ve made the macros
available in a Word document that you can download here:

www.editorium.com/cookbookcommands.zip

Some people worry that running a macro will hurt

their computer, and there definitely are some nasty macro
viruses floating around out there. You’ll find more informa-
tion here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187243
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211800

However, macros you record or create usually aren’t dan-

gerous unless you use them to try something stupid. (“Gee,
I wonder if I can modify this macro to wipe out my hard
drive.”) Nevertheless, you should experiment with macros
only on junk documents; don’t use any documents you’re
not willing to have destroyed. And if you do mess some-
thing up, have the presence of mind to close your docu-
ment without saving it. Most important of all, be sure to
back up your files before using them with anything in this
book; then you’ll have something to go back to if some-
thing goes wrong.

vii
viii Preface

This book was written primarily with Word 2010 and

2011 in mind. However, if you’re using an earlier version
of Word, such as 2003 or 2004, you can still use this book;
you’ll just need to be aware of a few things:

• In Word 2007, instead of clicking the “File” menu, you’ll

click the round Office button at the top left of your Word
window.
• In earlier versions of Word (except Word 2007), you’ll need
to click the “Tools” menu to manage templates, get to macro
commands, and change Word’s options1 (such as file loca-
tions).

• In earlier versions of Word (except Word 2007), template

names end with a “.dot” extension rather than the new
“.dotm” in Word 2010 and 2011.

1. To change options on a Macintosh, click the “Word” menu and then “Prefer-
ences.”
 Introduction

Understanding macros in Microsoft Word isn’t particu-

larly difficult. What’s difficult is learning to program in Vis-
ual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is not the same
thing. Programming in VBA means understanding and us-
ing Word’s “Object Model,” including its objects, proper-
ties, and methods (huh?), and that’s a big undertaking. If
you’re interested in that, the Microsoft Word MVP website
provides an excellent tutorial to get you started:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/VBABasicsIn15Mins.htm

There are some excellent books as well:

Guy Hart-Davis, Mastering VBA, ISBN 978-0782144369

Lee Hudspeth, Timothy-James Lee, and Woody Leonhard, Word

97 Annoyances, ISBN 978-1565923089

Allen L. Wyatt, Word VBA Guidebook, ISBN 978-1613590300

The point of this book, however, is to help you un-

derstand, create, and use Microsoft Word macros without
learning to program in VBA.2 In fact, if you can do what

2. This book includes some material from my newsletter Editorium Update.

However, I’ve adapted and modified that material for use here in a more structured
context. For that reason, I hope you’ll read and work through the material even if
you’ve seen some of it before.

ix
x Introduction

you need without learning to program, so much the better.

There are actually several levels in the hierarchy of macro
use, from simple to complex:

1. Record and run the procedures you usually do manually.

2. Find and run macros other people have created.
3. Adapt those macros for your own use.

4. Write your own macros from scratch.

But I’ll let you in on a secret: Usually only programmers

write macros from scratch. The vast majority of Word
users simply (1) record and run the procedures they do
most often, or (2) use macros other people have created.
Many of those macros are free; people give them away
just to be helpful. Others aren’t free but may be well
worth buying; I consider the macros I sell at the Edito-
rium (www.editorium.com) to be in that category. If you
charge $50 an hour for your services, and you can buy a
$30 macro that saves you an hour, you’ve just made $20
without doing any work. I’ll take as many of those hours as
I can get! But that’s not all: Every time you use that already-
paid-for macro to save an hour in the future, you’ll make
your usual $50 without doing any work!3 So what is that
macro really worth? A lot more than you might realize.
Of course, you may not be able to find an existing macro
that does what you need. If that’s the case, the next level
in the hierarchy is to adapt existing macros—something
that’s not as difficult as you might think. If you want to go

3. This assumes, of course, that you’re charging by the job, the page, or the
word (which you should be) rather than by the hour. If you charge by the hour,
you’re limiting the amount of money you can make, because no matter how
efficient you are, you have only so many hours to sell. If, on the other hand, you
charge by the job, the page, or the word, your hourly income grows every time
you figure out a way to work more efficiently. That’s what macros are all about.
Introduction xi

further than that, you can learn to write your own macros
from scratch—in other words, learn to program. In this
book, however, I just want to show you how to use macros
without learning to program. Is that really possible? Let’s
find out.
 Chapter 1

Understanding Macros

A macro is like a cake—it includes certain ingredi-

ents added in a certain order to get a certain result. For
example:

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour

• 2 cups white sugar

• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1
2 Understanding Macros

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans or one 9-by-13
inch pan.

3. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda,

baking powder, and salt.
4. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.
5. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. (Batter may be thin.)

6. Pour into prepared pans.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes,
or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out
clean.

8. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and finish

cooling on a wire rack.
9. Fill and frost as desired.

Now let’s look at some macro ingredients. What do you

suppose this one does?

Selection.Font.Bold = True

Yep. It makes the currently selected text turn bold. How

about this one?

Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1

That’s a little tougher, but really not so bad. Evidently it

moves the selection (cursor position) down one paragraph.
Want to move down two paragraphs? Try this:

Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2

Understanding Macros 3

How about moving down two lines?

Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=2

How about selecting the two lines as you move down?

Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1, _

Extend:=wdExtend1

Now, you probably wouldn’t be able to write down those

“ingredients” without looking them up—and neither would
I. But (for the most part) we can understand them when
we see them. That’s an important point, because if we can
understand them, we can use them and combine them in
various ways to get the results we seek. For example, let’s
say we want to select the next paragraph and make it bold.
Here’s the recipe, with just two ingredients:

Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1, _

Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Font.Bold = True

Here’s a recipe that’s a little more complex. See if you can

figure out what it does:

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "supercede"
.Replacement.Text = "supersede"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False

1. The lowline _ character at the end of the first line (and elsewhere in this
book) just breaks up the macro command if it gets too long for easy reading. You
can delete it and merge the two lines if you want to.
4 Understanding Macros

.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

You may not understand the specific purpose of each line,

but you can probably tell that the macro finds every in-
stance of supercede in a selection and replaces it with the
correctly spelled supersede. Now consider this line from the
macro:
.MatchCase = False

What would happen if we changed it to this?

.MatchCase = True

Yes, the macro would find every instance of supercede but

would ignore a capitalized Supercede. Hmmm. That must
mean “.MatchCase” corresponds to the “Match Case” op-
tion in Word’s Find and Replace dialog:

And so it does!
Understanding Macros 5

R ECORDING A M ACRO
So there’s a correspondence between Word’s features
and Word macros—not too surprising. The question is,
how can you find out what the macro is for any particular
feature? The answer is, you record a macro while using the
feature. Try this in Microsoft Word—no, seriously, try it:

1. Click the “View” menu at the top of Word’s ribbon interface.

2. Click the little arrow under the “Macros” button (on the
right).

3. Click “Record Macro.”

6 Understanding Macros

4. Give your macro a name (“Test” will do) and click the “OK”
button.

You’ve started the recorder, and Word will now record

your actions. Now do this:

1. Press CTRL + H to bring up Word’s Find and Replace dialog.

2. In the “Find What” box, type supercede.

3. In the “Replace With” box, type supersede.

4. Click the “Replace All” button.
5. To finish up, click the “OK” button and then the “Close”
button.
Understanding Macros 7

Word has replaced every instance of supercede with su-

persede. But you’ve been recording that, remember? So
now turn off the recorder:

1. Click the View menu at the top of Word’s ribbon interface.

2. Click the little arrow under the “Macros” button.

3. Click “Stop Recording.”

L OOKING AT THE M ACRO

Finally, take a look at the macro you just recorded. To do
so, press ALT + F11. The VBA editor will open, and you’ll
see your macro at the bottom of the window. It will look
like this:

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "supercede"
.Replacement.Text = "supersede"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
8 Understanding Macros

.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

In other words, it will look exactly like the macro we

were examining earlier! So, in a way, the macro is the fea-
ture, and the feature is the macro—two sides of the same
coin.

R UNNING THE M ACRO

Note that you don’t have to understand or even look at
a macro to use it. In fact, if there are certain repetitive pro-
cedures you use over and over again, you can record those
procedures (just as you did above) and then play them
back as needed, saving yourself a lot of time and trouble.
Here’s how to run a macro you’ve already recorded:

1. Click the “View” menu at the top of Word’s ribbon interface.

2. Click the “Macros” button.
3. Click “View Macros.”
4. Select the macro by name (“Test” in this case).

5. Click the “Run” button.

The macro will play, reproducing the steps you took manu-
ally while you were recording it. And for many tasks, that
may be all you need.
Any time you have repetitious tasks to perform, record
those tasks and then play them back. Let the computer do
the work—that’s what it’s for.
 Index

accessibility of macros, 70
adding macros to Microsoft Word, 28–29
add-in templates
activating, 69
adding, automatically, 69–70
creating, 67–69
all caps, fixing, in body text, 47–49

Beverley, Paul, 27
bookmark commands, 53

checking commands, 54
commands
accessing list of, 65
bookmark commands, 53
checking commands, 54
deleting commands, 52–53
find commands, 55–56
in hidden Word features, 60–61
inserting commands, 52
message box commands, 54–55
moving and selecting commands, 51–52
moving commands, 50–51
overriding, 61–64
replace commands, 57–58
revision commands, 53–54
run macro commands, 58
selection commands, 51–52
complex macros, recording, 77–88
cursor, commands for, 50–51

89
90 Index

decision-making macros
overview of, 19–21
and Powers-Wilson Doctrine, 25
and returned information, 21–25
deleting commands, 52–53
Do-While loop, 15, 21

Electric Editors, 27
“ephemeralization,” 88

features. See hidden features; Word features, and recording macros

find-and-replace macros, recording, 74–77
find commands, 55–56
For Each/Next loop, 16
For/Next loop, 16
“found” macros
adapting, 30–31
adding, to Microsoft Word, 28–29
cautions regarding, 26
and clarifying macro structure, 31–32
running, 29
sources for, 26–28
and understanding and adapting macro commands, 33–49
Fuller, R. Buckminster, 88

GoTo loop, 17–18

hidden features
and listing Word commands, 65
and overriding Word commands, 61–64
viewing, 59–60
viewing underlying commands for, 60–61

inserting commands, 52

looping macros
additional looping commands, 15–18
and decision-making macros, 21
steps for, 11–14
versatility in, 14–15
Index 91

Macros for Writers and Editors (Beverley), 27

message box commands, 54–55
moving and selecting commands, 52
moving commands, 50–51

Normal template, 66

Powers, Hilary, 27
Powers-Wilson Doctrine, 25

recorded macros
problems with, 9–10
running, 8, 74
viewing, 7–8
recording macros
looping macros and, 11
and overriding Word commands, 63–64
and Powers-Wilson Doctrine, 25
problems in, 9–10
recording complex macros, 77–88
recording find-and-replace macros, 74–77
steps for, 5–7, 71–74
repeat commands. See looping macros
replace commands, 57–58
returned information, for decision-making macros, 21–25
revision commands, 53–54
running macros, 8, 29, 58

selection commands, 51–52, 83–87

storing macros
and automatically adding templates, 69–70
cautions regarding, 66
creating templates and, 67–69
and macro accessibility, 70
structure, clarifying macro, 31–32

templates
activating, 69
adding, automatically, 69–70
creating, 67–69
Title Case macros, 40–47
92 Index

understanding macros
and adapting macro commands, 33–49
clarifying macro structure and, 31–32
looking at recorded macros, 7–8
overview of, 1–4
recording macros, 5–7
running macros, 8

variables, 24n2

While/Wend loop, 16
With/End With loop, 17
Word features, and recording macros, 5–7, 8. See also hidden features
“Word-VBA Code Samples for Newbies & Others” (Zawawi), 50
Wyatt, Allen, 27, 30

Zawawi, JoJo, 50