Replies

Thanks, Kevin

FYI:
From “VB & VBA in a Nutshell”
[indent]

---

In stripping the “file extension” and returning the base name of Path, GetBaseName has no intelligence. That is, it doesn’t know whether the last component of Path is a path or a filename. If the last component includes one or more dots, it simply removes the last one, along with any following text. Hence, GetBaseName returns a null string for a Path of “.” and it returns “.” for a Path of “..”. It is, in other words, really a string manipulation function, rather than a file function.

---

[/indent]

Thanks, Kevin

FYI:
From “VB & VBA in a Nutshell”
[indent]

---

In stripping the “file extension” and returning the base name of Path, GetBaseName has no intelligence. That is, it doesn’t know whether the last component of Path is a path or a filename. If the last component includes one or more dots, it simply removes the last one, along with any following text. Hence, GetBaseName returns a null string for a Path of “.” and it returns “.” for a Path of “..”. It is, in other words, really a string manipulation function, rather than a file function.

---

[/indent]

I don’t have access to Word 97 right now to check for sure (it’s at home), but I’m almost certain it supported style aliases.

Here’s a link to info on the binary file format for Word 97, and it specifically mentions style aliases.

http://www-aix.gsi.de/~bio/DOCS/wword8.html%5B/url%5D

But I could certainly be mistaken.

I don’t have access to Word 97 right now to check for sure (it’s at home), but I’m almost certain it supported style aliases.

Here’s a link to info on the binary file format for Word 97, and it specifically mentions style aliases.

http://www-aix.gsi.de/~bio/DOCS/wword8.html%5B/url%5D

But I could certainly be mistaken.

Hi Andrew,

Yeah, I’d tried using the Index property, but it doesn’t account for letters or roman numerals used as references, or for restarting over sections.

Hi Andrew,

Yeah, I’d tried using the Index property, but it doesn’t account for letters or roman numerals used as references, or for restarting over sections.

Hi Mark,

Yeah, that’s correct. The Application object is not part of VB, it comes from the hosted application. That particluar function came from some code I used in a Word template that was to be run on Windows and Mac. My bad.

Maybe a better choice would be to provide the path separator as an argument to the function:

Function GetFileName(sPath As String, sSeparator As String) As String
GetFileName = Right$(sPath, (Len(sPath) - (InStrRev(sPath, sSeparator))))
End Function

That would provide a more generally usable function that might come in handy when parsing a URL, etc.

Hi Mark,

Yeah, that’s correct. The Application object is not part of VB, it comes from the hosted application. That particluar function came from some code I used in a Word template that was to be run on Windows and Mac. My bad.

Maybe a better choice would be to provide the path separator as an argument to the function:

Function GetFileName(sPath As String, sSeparator As String) As String
GetFileName = Right$(sPath, (Len(sPath) - (InStrRev(sPath, sSeparator))))
End Function

That would provide a more generally usable function that might come in handy when parsing a URL, etc.

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerst…2133841,00.html%5B/url%5D

HTH

http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerst…2133841,00.html%5B/url%5D

HTH

Hi Dave,

Here’s an alternate, platform-independent way to get the filename without the separator:

Function GetFileName(sPath As String) As String
GetFileName = Right$(sPath, (Len(sPath) - (InStrRev(sPath, Application.PathSeparator))))
End Function

Six of one, half dozen of the other …

Hi Dave,

Here’s an alternate, platform-independent way to get the filename without the separator:

Function GetFileName(sPath As String) As String
GetFileName = Right$(sPath, (Len(sPath) - (InStrRev(sPath, Application.PathSeparator))))
End Function

Six of one, half dozen of the other …

I agree with Andrew that it would probably be easier to just merge the client’s stuff with your own template, using the built in styles based on the client’s, using aliases.

Obviously you don’t want to return the files to them that way, but here’s a way around that. Say you’ve put the client’s document into your own template, which has, as Andrew suggested, styles like “Heading 1, DW$_Heading 1”. Now, if you try to rename that style to strip out the “Heading 1”, Word (or VBA) won’t complain, but they won’t let you do it, either.

But … if you save the file as RTF, and open it up in a text editor, you can pretty easily locate the style table and the definition for “Heading 1, DW$_Heading 1”. Delete the “Heading 1,” part. When you re-open the file in Word, Word will re-generate an actual Heading 1 style, but leave yours intact, with all the formatting.

I don’t know the complexity of your documents, and I certainly can’t promise this will work without any problems, but if the strategy works for you, it’s the kind of thing that could be implemented pretty easily in Perl (from start to finish — opening the Word files, saving them as RTF, making the substitution, and opening them back up in Word). Then again, this client may not be worth the trouble.

I agree with Andrew that it would probably be easier to just merge the client’s stuff with your own template, using the built in styles based on the client’s, using aliases.

Obviously you don’t want to return the files to them that way, but here’s a way around that. Say you’ve put the client’s document into your own template, which has, as Andrew suggested, styles like “Heading 1, DW$_Heading 1”. Now, if you try to rename that style to strip out the “Heading 1”, Word (or VBA) won’t complain, but they won’t let you do it, either.

But … if you save the file as RTF, and open it up in a text editor, you can pretty easily locate the style table and the definition for “Heading 1, DW$_Heading 1”. Delete the “Heading 1,” part. When you re-open the file in Word, Word will re-generate an actual Heading 1 style, but leave yours intact, with all the formatting.

I don’t know the complexity of your documents, and I certainly can’t promise this will work without any problems, but if the strategy works for you, it’s the kind of thing that could be implemented pretty easily in Perl (from start to finish — opening the Word files, saving them as RTF, making the substitution, and opening them back up in Word). Then again, this client may not be worth the trouble.

I don’t think Word is the right tool for this. What happens if the recipient downloads the survey you’ve attached, and then reads it from her laptop on the train home? Do you expect her to remember to send back the survey the next time she’s online?

How about putting your survey online and sending a link?

If you could be certain that the recipients used Outlook, you could conceivably code a macro button that placed the document as an attachment in their Outbox.

But I still think Word’s the wrong tool for the job.

Just my two cents.