1

I am creating a series of ActiveX labels for two categories of information in a Microsoft Word VBA script. The categories of information are: Fiscal year (FY) and Contract Yield (CY). I am creating the labels to be placed within designated cells of a series of tables. I want to change the names of the labels to match up with their category. For example, label1 would be named to FY1. I need to change the names of these labels so they could eventually match up with data in an Excel spreadsheet.

I am getting stuck at the renaming portion (ActiveDocument.Label1.Name = "FY").

Dim num As Integer
    Dim TableNo As Integer
    Dim seq As Integer

    TableNo = ActiveDocument.Tables.Count
    num = 4
    seq = 1

'' Labels for "FY"
Do
    ActiveDocument.Tables(num).cell(6, 2).Range.InlineShapes.AddOLEControl ClassType:="Forms.Label.1"
    ActiveDocument.Label1.Name = "FY"+ seq
    seq = seq + 1
    num = num + 1
Loop Until num = TableNo + 1

'''Next Group of labels for "CY"
num = 4
seq = 1

Do
    ActiveDocument.Tables(3).cell(8, 2).Range.InlineShapes.AddOLEControl ClassType:="Forms.Label.1"
    ActiveDocument.Label1.Name = "CY"+ seq
    seq = seq + 1
    num = num + 1
Loop Until num = TableNo + 1

There is a related article but I can't see how the examples would relate.

Related article

** My labels will be inserted in the 4th table of the document, which is why I used num = 4.

Jessica Marie
  • 189
  • 1
  • 2
  • 14
  • 2
    "Getting stuck" is not a useful problem description. You should always describe *how* something is not working - in detail. – Cindy Meister Feb 13 '20 at 18:18
  • My problem is that I don't know how to rename the label. I could rename the caption with 'ActiveDocument.Label1.Caption = "FY1" ', but I need to replace the label name. – Jessica Marie Feb 13 '20 at 19:06
  • First, have you seen my answer? Second, the information in the question does not explain how the code you show isn't working. I'm assuming you get an error on the line ` ActiveDocument.Label1.Name = "FY"+ seq`? In that case, the question needs to include the error information and the line of code that causes it. Since I know Word very well, I could guess what the problem is. But others may not be able to, so you won't get answers... – Cindy Meister Feb 13 '20 at 19:17

1 Answers1

2

ActiveX controls were developed for use in VBA UserForms. Making them capable of insertion on an Office documents surface was something of an after-thought. Enabling the UserForm behavior involves some "magic" on the part of Word.

On a Word document's surface, an ActiveX control is managed through a Control field, which can be seen by pressing Alt+F9 to toggle field codes on. The AddOLEControl method generates the field and hooks up the plumbing, so to speak.

But as far as Word is concerned, it doesn't "see" the ActiveX control, it works with the field code and displays the field result, which is an image, either a member of the InlineShapes or the Shapes collection.

When communicating with an ActiveX control on the document surface it's therefore necessary to work through the graphic object in order to get to the "real control".

The following sample code illustrates - just substitute the Range you need to work with for Selection.Range (used for simplicity and to make the code sample accessible to all reading this Q&A).

The AddOLEControl method is run on the InlineShapes collection, so it returns an InlineShape object. A MSForms.Label object is set to the InlineShape's OLEFormat.Object- this is what provides the connection to the control's programming interface. Through that, it's possible to access the properties such as are found in the Properties Window for the control.

Sub InsertRenameActiveX()
    Dim ctl As MSForms.Label
    Dim ils As Word.InlineShape

    Set ils = Selection.Range.InlineShapes.AddOLEControl(ClassType:="Forms.Label.1")
    Set ctl = ils.OleFormat.Object
    ctl.Name = "FY" & "3"
    ctl.Caption = "test"
End Sub
Cindy Meister
  • 25,071
  • 21
  • 34
  • 43