Working with the Microsoft Office Object Models

Working with the Microsoft Office
Object Models

Copyright © by Application Developers Training Company

Objectives
• Learn how unmanaged objects work in a
managed code environment
• Find out about the hierarchical object models
that Office products use
• Learn how to respond to events in your Office-
based solutions
• Discover how to control some of the most
commonly used Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
objects through code
• Find out how to add and change command bars
in Microsoft Office 2003 products


Agenda
• COM Objects in a Managed Code
Environment
• Working with Properties, Methods, and Member
Objects
• Responding to Events
• Using Word Objects
• Working with Excel Objects
• Microsoft PowerPoint Objects
• Building Command Bars in Office 2003


COM Objects in a Managed Code
Environment
• The Office object models are huge
• The more proficient you are as an Office user,
the better you'll be at creating Office solutions
• All the Office object models
 Are hierarchical
 Start with the Application object
• Remember that they're also all COM, not .NET
 You get to the object models through the PIAs
 The transition from COM to .NET isn't always
seamless


Starting at the Top: The Application
Object
• The products we'll use here all start with an
Application object
• Use it to get to everything else
• VSTO 2005 SE solutions
 Template does the plumbing
 Application object is already there because the
application launches before your code runs
 The templates all define an Application variable for
you


Requirements for Automation Solutions
• Set a reference to the PIA you need
• Declare a variable to hold the Application
instance
• (Optionally import the namespace to make
coding easier to type/read)
• Write code to launch the Office product
Private app As Word.Application
.
.
.
app = New Word.Application


Agenda
• COM Objects in a Managed Code Environment
• Working with Properties, Methods, and
Member Objects


Working with Properties, Methods, and
Member Objects
• Properties affect the way the object looks or
acts
• Methods allow you to do something with the
object
• Member objects
 Are really properties
 Return other objects
 Used to organize objects into a hierarchy


Properties
• Programmatic way for you to change what the
user would change through the UI

app.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Bold = True

app.Range("A1:B12").Borders.LineStyle = _
XlLineStyle.xlDouble


Methods
• Programmatic way for you to do something end
users would do through the UI

appExcel.Quit

appExcel.Range("A1:B12").PrintOut

appWord.Quit SaveChanges:=wdSaveChanges, _
OriginalFormat:=wdPromptUser,
RouteDocument:=True


Member Objects
Application

Documents

Document
Range

Paragraphs

Paragraph
Range


Agenda
• COM Objects in a Managed Code Environment
• Working with Properties, Methods, and Member
Objects


Responding to Events
• In Office, events usually happen in response to
user action
• Use an event handler to code a response to an
event
• Event handlers for some objects are available in
the templates automatically
 Document/Workbook Open events
 ItemSend event
• In VB, use the WithEvents keyword to expose
other events


The Word Object Model
Application

Documents

Document
Range

Paragraphs

Paragraph
Range


Using Word Objects
• Largest object model in Office
• Documents
 You can get a reference to any open document using
its name or index with the Documents collection
Dim doc As Word.Document = _
Application.Documents("Customer.doc")

 Two special Document objects
o ActiveDocument (member of Application)
o ThisDocument (member of Globals class)


Finding Out What’s Active
• ActiveDocument tells you which document is
active
• ThisDocument (in document-level solutions)
tells you which document contains the code
that's running
• Selection tells you where the cursor is in the
document


Working with Ranges
• Most of the time, you can (and should) use a
Range object instead of the Selection object
 Doesn't change location of the cursor
 Easier to work with text relative to the cursor position
(paragraph before/after)
• Lots of objects have a Range property
 Document
 Selection
 Bookmark
 Footnote
 Paragraph, Sentence, Word, etc.


Working with Ranges

Entire Document
ActiveDocument.Range

ActiveDocument.Range(0,50) Start to character 50

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(3).Range

Third paragraph


Inserting Text
• Use the Text property of the Range to change
text

Dim rng As Word.Range = _
Application.ActiveDocument.Range
rng.Text = "Text has been inserted!"


Inserting Text
• Collapse method
 Changes a Range object so it refers to an
insertion point at the beginning or end of the
starting range
 Arguments: wdCollapseStart or wdCollapseEnd

Hello Hello
rng rng.Collapse
Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd


Inserting Text
• The Insert methods
 Insert text before or after a range
 Insert paragraph markers
 Insert cross references
 Insert dates
• Some replace range, others append to and
extend range
• Best practice: Collapse range first and then use
InsertBefore or InsertAfter


Working with Excel Objects

Workbooks
Application

Workbook

Sheets

Worksheet
WorkSheets
Charts

ChartObjects
Chart

Ch

ActiveWorkbook and ThisWorkbook
• ActiveWorkbook
 The one the cursor is in
 Member of the Application object
• ThisWorkbook
 The one the code is in
 Member of the Globals class in a document-level
solution
 Like ThisDocument, doesn't apply to application-level
solutions


ActiveSheet
• Whatever sheet the cursor is in
• Like the items in the Sheets collect, could be
worksheet or chart (or dialog/macro sheet)
• Need to cast to a Worksheet or Chart type
 Required for C# or VB with Option Strict On
 Handy even with Option Strict Off for IntelliSense
Dim wks As Excel.Worksheet = _
DirectCast(Application.ActiveSheet,
Excel.Worksheet)

Dim cht As Excel.Chart = _
DirectCast(Application.ActiveSheet,
Excel.Chart)

Casting in Visual Basic
• CType
 Takes care of any valid conversions for you

SalesChart = _
CType(Application.ActiveSheet,_
Excel.Chart)

• DirectCast
 A little faster than CType if you're sure the object can be cast to the specified type

SalesChart = _
DirectCast(Application.ActiveSheet,_
Excel.Chart)

Casting in Visual Basic
• TryCast
 Sets variable to Nothing if cast can't be done

Dim cht As Excel.Chart = _
TryCast(Application.ActiveSheet, _
Excel.Chart)
If cht IsNot Nothing Then…


ActiveCell and Selection
• ActiveCell is a single-cell range
• Selection might be
 A multi-cell range
 An item in a chart


Using Excel Ranges
• Refers to a cell or group of cells
 Can refer to a single cell
Worksheets(1).Range("A1")
 Can refer to multiple cells
Worksheets(1).Range("A1:B5")
 Can refer to the corners of a range
Worksheets(1).Range("A1","B5")
 Can refer to a named range
Worksheets(1).Range("SalesData")


CurrentRegion
• Property of a range
• Returns a Range object bounded by empty row
and empty column
• Tells you how much of the area around the cell
is filled in


The Item Property
• Default property of a Range object
• Refers to specific cell within a Range by row
and column coordinates
• Coordinates are relative to Range, not
worksheet
• Use Cells property of worksheet to specify item
relative to the worksheet


Working with a Sub-Range
• Use Columns or Rows property to find out
how wide or long a range is
• Build the sub-range from ranges of starting
and ending points

Dim rng As Excel.Range =
Application.Range(rngStart, rngEnd)


Excel’s Chart Object

Worksheet
Workbook

ChartObjects
Chart

ChartObject
Chart


Creating Excel Charts
• Could create a chart in one line of code with the
ChartWizard method
• Unless you're very familiar with charts, just
record it
 In Excel, turn on the macro recorder
 Create the chart you want
 Edit the resulting VBA code to be more
efficient/generic/robust
 Copy into your Visual Studio project and fix any code
that doesn't translate


Microsoft PowerPoint Objects
Presentations
Application

Presentation
Slides
Slide
Shapes

TextFrame
Shape

HasText
TextRange


Creating Slides
• The Slides.Add method has two required
arguments
 Index: Location of the new slide within the
presentation
 Layout: A member of the PpSlideLayout enumeration

Dim sld As PowerPoint.Slide = _
pres.Slides.Add(pres.Slides.Count + 1, _
PowerPoint.PpSlideLayout.ppLayoutText)


Using the Shape Object
• Everything you put on a slide is a Shape
 Text box
 AutoShape
 OLE object
 Etc.
• Exact properties supported depend on type of
shape
• Unless you use the layout ppLayoutBlank, every
slide you add has one or more shapes on it by
default


Finding the Text Property
• Many shapes support text, but not all
• You need to check for a Text Frame before
trying to add text
• Use the HasTextFrame property

Dim shp As PowerPoint.Shape
shp = sld.Shapes(1)
If shp.HasTextFrame = _
Office.MsoTriState.msoTrue Then…


• Once you know shape has a text frame, use it to
get at the shape's TextRange property
• TextRange object is similar to Word's Range
object

Dim trng As PowerPoint.TextRange
trng = shp.TextFrame.TextRange
trng.Text = "This is an example"


• Change text directly with Text property
• Add text before or after existing text with
InsertBefore or InsertAfter methods
• Other Insert methods include
 InsertDateTime
 InsertSlideNumber
 InsertSymbol


Building Command Bars in Office 2003
• Both document-level and application-level
solutions for Office 2003 often include custom
menu items and toolbars
• To add/change menus and toolbars, you use
Office's CommandBars object model
 In VSTO 2005 SE, part of Microsoft.Office.Core
namespace
 CommandBars object model is still supported in
Office 2007


Creating Command Bars
• Can reference and customize existing command
bars
Dim cbr As Office.CommandBar = _
Application.CommandBars("Standard")

• Can create your own command bar
 If you mark it as Temporary, the command bar will be
deleted when host app closes

Dim cbr As Office.CommandBar = _
Application.CommandBars.Add( _
"New Example", Temporary:=True)

Creating Command Bar Controls
• Controls can be one of several types
 Button
 Edit
 Dropdown
 ComboBox
 Popup
• Each control type supports properties
• Common properties include
 Caption
 TooltipText
 OnAction


• In VBA, you use the OnAction property to
specify which VBA procedure to run when an
event (like a button click) occurs
• In VSTO 2005 SE, you need to use a procedure
that complies with the event's delegate

Delegate Sub _
_CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler _
(Ctrl As Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarButton, _
ByRef CancelDefault As Boolean)


• To link the command bar control's event to its
handler, use the AddHandler statement
AddHandler ctl.Click, _
AddressOf NewControl_Click

• Alternatively, use the WithEvents keyword when you declare the
control variable and let Visual Studio hook the control and event
handler together


Command Bars in Office 2007
• Command bars are supported by Office 2007
• Microsoft recommends you use them only for
backward compatibility
• All custom command bars, as well as controls
added to built-in command bars, are grouped
together in an Add-Ins tab on the ribbon


Working with the Microsoft Office Object Models

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