I am obsessed with writing a macro. I've dealt with macros for years. I am not a programmer, though sometimes I wish I was just so I would know how to do what I want.
What I want is to write a macro to run in a doc that has all of our user guides inserted into it. For each heading, I want the macro to create a Word doc that only has the text that is under that section up to the point of the next heading. I’ve added a code to each paragraph to identify the client so I don’t get issues with files being named the same. Ultimately, using a Heading called “Registering Apples” as an example, I want a directory of docs like this:
Registering Apples – Client A.docx
Registering Apples – Client B.docx
Registering Apples – Client C.docx
After I get to that point, the next step is to analyze the content in each of those docs to end up with a single version of “Registering Apples” that can then be shared or referenced or “something” so that there’s not multiple versions floating around. That’s to be determined – may use Confluence or some other tool – don’t know. The analysis of the content I describe below has to be done regardless of the tool.
What we have now is in “Registering Apples – Client A.docx” the text may be this:
- Go here > there.
- Click that.
- Enter those things.
- Click Save.
In “Registering Apples – Client B.docx” the text may be this:
- Go here > there
- Click that
- Enter those things and click Save.
In “Registering Apples – Client C.docx” the text may be this:
- Go here
- Go there <=splits up the navigation that is only step 1 in Client A and Client B into two steps)
- Click that
- Enter those and click Save.
So, ultimately, I consolidate those and have:
Registering Apples
- Go here > there.
- Click that.
- Enter those things.
- Click Save.
And I write it once. And I use it in Client A, B, and C. And if there’s a change, I update it once and the update then goes to Client A, B, and C.
We have a section in one of our UGs that is included in 10 user guides. If there is an update to it, the update to the section is written once, then it gets copied / pasted into the 10 user guides. If there’s another change, that process is repeated. To paraphrase someone we both know “There must be a better way.” Doing what I want to do is impossible today, but if it could be done, it would radically change the way my job is performed. I had a 1:1 meeting with my manager and got the green light to make this happen, which is way cool!
Here’s the macro I’m running:
|
Sub Howard()
Dim i As Integer, nSplits As Integer, nParas As Integer
Dim BlockStarts() As Long ' stores character positions where doc is to be split
Dim CurOutputDoc As Document
Dim CurBlock As Range
Dim DocNames() As String ' <---
Dim Para As Paragraph
Dim FilePath As String
Dim FileName() As String
With ActiveDocument
nParas = .Paragraphs.Count
ReDim BlockStarts(nParas)
ReDim DocNames(nParas) ' <---
' <--- Omit line here
BlockStarts(0) = 0 ' Set lower boundary of first text block
' Set another split point at the start of each para with
' a Heading style (H1, H2, ..., H5)
nSplits = 0
For Each Para In .Paragraphs
For i = 1 To 5
If Para.Range.Start > 0 Then ' Prevents re-processing first para
If Para.Style = "Heading " & i Then
nSplits = nSplits + 1
BlockStarts(nSplits) = Para.Range.Start
DocNames(nSplits) = Left(Para.Range.Text, Len(Para.Range.Text) - 1) '<---
Exit For
End If
End If
Next i
Next
If nSplits = 0 Then
MsgBox "Document contains no headings of the specified type"
Else
For i = 1 To nSplits
' Copy the text block between successive split points
Set CurBlock = .Range(BlockStarts(i - 1), BlockStarts(i))
CurBlock.Copy
' Paste into new doc, save & close
Set CurOutputDoc = Documents.Add
With CurOutputDoc
.Range.Paste
.SaveAs DocNames(i) & ".docx" ' <---
.Close
End With
Next
End If
End With
End Sub
BUT it's not doing what I want!! I'm obsessed with figuring it out.
