PasteFace on CommandBars not quite right (2000-XP)

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I used .CopyFace and Paste on all the custom controls in a toolbar (yes, recursing through popups) to create a table in Word that I could later use to rebuild the toolbar.

However, when I .copy from the table, and .PasteFace back again, the images seem to be changed: there’s a white bar at the top, and sometimes additional shading I never put there. I think it’s shrinking the image a bit.
I’m not sure what’s going on — it should all be reversible, eh?

Has anyone else seen this?

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I had this problem, too, when I was trying to create some kind of “backup” for my custom icons. I didn’t find a solution; I think Word just doesn’t really support icon-type bitmaps in the document body correctly.

I think we recently had a thread on some API or maybe VBA methods for applying pictures from files on disk. Perhaps it goes both ways? Not very convenient compared with a single container with lots of room for free, rich text, but perhaps worth exploring.

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Thanks. Good to know I’m not just seeing a gremlin. On two machines. With different versions of Word.

There’s a KB article on using Word XP+ to set the pic without using PasteFace, but you need a foreground and a mask pic, and load the pix from separate files. Pain in the…

I’m going to try putting my pix in an Excel spreadsheet instead, and trying to fetch/stow them that way. I seem to remember an old tool that did this from a VB conference years ago.

I’d post code, but my boss is starting to consider this proprietary. It’s not rocket science, just kind of tedious programming.

(later…)

Nope, round-tripping to Excel, just using the GUI interface results in these ugly icons that have had been anti-aliased to heck and back.
Hmmm… I wonder if ClearType could be getting in my way?

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just a quick idea to explore:how about copying the entire commandbar and keep track of custom controls. you could set various properties of the copied commandbar to provide some basic form of preventing to user to tamper with them.

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That’s certainly worth considering: a virgin copy of the toolbar under a different name in a different template is another nice place to store things.

Part of my goal, though, was to create a table or spreadsheet with all of the parameters so that I could, in one swell foop [sic] update things not accessible to the GUI: tooltip text, help context ID and file.

I decided the easiest way to build things was from scratch, so I didn’t have to try to figure what things get removed, what added, etc. (which still leaves me with a dilemma for customizing things like shortcut menus, the standard toolbar, etc.), so I set everything from a table of data, including the pictures.

Still hacking. Maybe I’ll come up with a nice tool yet.

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You could always store the binary data as a series of ascii values in your document (not sure where you’ll hide it, maybe very tiny font?). If you create a new document, a New toolbar in that document, and drag a button to it, you can try this “proof of concept” code. Note that it presumes the existence of a “c:testing” directory.

Sub PictureBinaryProofOfConcept()
' Insert picture data into document
Dim cBtn As CommandBarButton, intFile As Integer, bytArray() As Byte
Set cBtn = CommandBars("Custom 1").Controls(1)
stdole.SavePicture cBtn.Picture, "c:testingscratch.bmp"
stdole.SavePicture cBtn.Mask, "c:testingmask.bmp"
intFile = FreeFile
Open "c:testingscratch.bmp" For Binary Access Read As #intFile
Debug.Print "Input bytes:  " & LOF(intFile)
bytArray = InputB(LOF(intFile), #intFile)
Close #intFile
Dim intCounter As Integer, strPict As String
strPict = bytArray(0)
For intCounter = 1 To UBound(bytArray)
    strPict = strPict & "-" & bytArray(intCounter)
Next
Selection.Font.Size = 4
Selection.TypeText strPict & vbCrLf
Selection.Font.Size = Selection.Style.Font.Size
Set cBtn = Nothing
' Make a file and a new button
Selection.MoveLeft unit:=wdCharacter
Selection.MoveUp unit:=wdParagraph, Extend:=True
Dim strArray() As String
strArray = Split(Selection.Text, "-")
strPict = vbNullString
For intCounter = 0 To UBound(strArray)
    strPict = strPict & Chr(CLng(strArray(intCounter)))
Next
Debug.Print "Output bytes: " & Len(strPict)
intFile = FreeFile
Open "c:testingscratch2.bmp" For Binary Access Write As #intFile
Put #intFile, , strPict     'tacks on extra 2 bytes...CRLF?
Close #intFile
Set cBtn = CommandBars("Custom 1").Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton)
cBtn.Picture = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture("c:testingscratch2.bmp")
cBtn.Mask = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture("c:testingmask.bmp")
Set cBtn = Nothing
End Sub

Maybe this will help.

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Dude, that’s sick. In a good way.
Thanks. Now I know I have a fallback.
At least they’re small images, eh?

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Dude, that’s sick. In a good way.
Thanks. Now I know I have a fallback.
At least they’re small images, eh?

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Jefferson –
you STILL da man!

I’m wrestling with the problem of using an application First.dot to generate an application Second.dot, and the first application has to store images in the second.
I got as far as First.dot building a form in Second.dot, with images on the controls, and then got stuck at the LoadPicture/SavePicture level.

Your code will allow First.dot to pass a picture as an ascii string, as a parameter to a function in Second.dot, which function can then build the image on-the-fly, and paste it into a document.

“Woo-“, as we say in the trade, “-Wee!”

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You could always store the binary data as a series of ascii values in your document (not sure where you’ll hide it, maybe very tiny font?). If you create a new document, a New toolbar in that document, and drag a button to it, you can try this “proof of concept” code. Note that it presumes the existence of a “c:testing” directory.

Sub PictureBinaryProofOfConcept()
' Insert picture data into document
Dim cBtn As CommandBarButton, intFile As Integer, bytArray() As Byte
Set cBtn = CommandBars("Custom 1").Controls(1)
stdole.SavePicture cBtn.Picture, "c:testingscratch.bmp"
stdole.SavePicture cBtn.Mask, "c:testingmask.bmp"
intFile = FreeFile
Open "c:testingscratch.bmp" For Binary Access Read As #intFile
Debug.Print "Input bytes:  " & LOF(intFile)
bytArray = InputB(LOF(intFile), #intFile)
Close #intFile
Dim intCounter As Integer, strPict As String
strPict = bytArray(0)
For intCounter = 1 To UBound(bytArray)
    strPict = strPict & "-" & bytArray(intCounter)
Next
Selection.Font.Size = 4
Selection.TypeText strPict & vbCrLf
Selection.Font.Size = Selection.Style.Font.Size
Set cBtn = Nothing
' Make a file and a new button
Selection.MoveLeft unit:=wdCharacter
Selection.MoveUp unit:=wdParagraph, Extend:=True
Dim strArray() As String
strArray = Split(Selection.Text, "-")
strPict = vbNullString
For intCounter = 0 To UBound(strArray)
    strPict = strPict & Chr(CLng(strArray(intCounter)))
Next
Debug.Print "Output bytes: " & Len(strPict)
intFile = FreeFile
Open "c:testingscratch2.bmp" For Binary Access Write As #intFile
Put #intFile, , strPict     'tacks on extra 2 bytes...CRLF?
Close #intFile
Set cBtn = CommandBars("Custom 1").Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton)
cBtn.Picture = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture("c:testingscratch2.bmp")
cBtn.Mask = stdole.StdFunctions.LoadPicture("c:testingmask.bmp")
Set cBtn = Nothing
End Sub

Maybe this will help.

Reply | Quote

That’s certainly worth considering: a virgin copy of the toolbar under a different name in a different template is another nice place to store things.

Part of my goal, though, was to create a table or spreadsheet with all of the parameters so that I could, in one swell foop [sic] update things not accessible to the GUI: tooltip text, help context ID and file.

I decided the easiest way to build things was from scratch, so I didn’t have to try to figure what things get removed, what added, etc. (which still leaves me with a dilemma for customizing things like shortcut menus, the standard toolbar, etc.), so I set everything from a table of data, including the pictures.

Still hacking. Maybe I’ll come up with a nice tool yet.

Reply | Quote

just a quick idea to explore:how about copying the entire commandbar and keep track of custom controls. you could set various properties of the copied commandbar to provide some basic form of preventing to user to tamper with them.

Reply | Quote

Thanks. Good to know I’m not just seeing a gremlin. On two machines. With different versions of Word.

There’s a KB article on using Word XP+ to set the pic without using PasteFace, but you need a foreground and a mask pic, and load the pix from separate files. Pain in the…

I’m going to try putting my pix in an Excel spreadsheet instead, and trying to fetch/stow them that way. I seem to remember an old tool that did this from a VB conference years ago.

I’d post code, but my boss is starting to consider this proprietary. It’s not rocket science, just kind of tedious programming.

(later…)

Nope, round-tripping to Excel, just using the GUI interface results in these ugly icons that have had been anti-aliased to heck and back.
Hmmm… I wonder if ClearType could be getting in my way?

Reply | Quote

I had this problem, too, when I was trying to create some kind of “backup” for my custom icons. I didn’t find a solution; I think Word just doesn’t really support icon-type bitmaps in the document body correctly.

I think we recently had a thread on some API or maybe VBA methods for applying pictures from files on disk. Perhaps it goes both ways? Not very convenient compared with a single container with lots of room for free, rich text, but perhaps worth exploring.

Reply | Quote