How to quickly search selected text on Google in the Microsoft Word Document?

Question

I found an article with a Macro that can selected text in the Microsoft Word Document and search it on Google: https://www.datanumen.com/blogs/quickly-search-selected-text-google-yahoo-bing-word-document/

However, the first row's code "Dim objIE As Object" makes it cannot be ran on my computer since my company has uninstalled the Internet Explorer (IE) many years ago. And the current Microsoft Edge API does not allow such method.

Sub OpenBrowser(strAddress As String, Menubar As Boolean, nHeight As Long, nWidth As Long, varResizable As Boolean)
  Dim objIE As Object
 
  '  Create and set the object settings.
  Set objIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
 
  With objIE
    .Visible = False
    .width = nWidth
    .height = nHeight
    .Menubar = Menubar
    .Visible = True
    .resizable = varResizable
    .Navigate strAddress
  End With

End Sub

Sub SearchOnGoogle()
  Dim strText As String
  Dim strButtonValue As String
 
  strButtonValue = MsgBox("Do you want to search the selected text on Google?", vbYesNo, "Search on Google")
    If strButtonValue = vbNo Then
      Exit Sub
    Else
      '  Make sure there is text selected.
      If Selection.Type <> wdSelectionIP Then
        strText = Selection.text
        strText = Trim(strText)
      Else
        MsgBox ("Please select text first!")
        Exit Sub
      End If
 
      '  Search selected text on Google with browser window opened in set size.
      OpenBrowser "https://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&q=" & strText, True, 550, 650, True
    End If
End Sub

Then, I have written the following Macro to select the word in MS Word and then search on Google. But it can only search one word only. If multiple words (such as "Social Capital") is selected and ran this Macro, the Chrome will pop-out two times and search "Social" and "Capital" separately.

Sub Google_Search_Single_Word()

Dim theTerm As String
Dim strURL As String
Dim arrSites(1)
Dim appPath As String
Dim strText As String
Dim strButtonValue As String
  
appPath = """C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"""

If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP Then
theTerm = Selection.Words(1).Text
Else
theTerm = Selection.Text

End If

arrSites(1) = "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=" + theTerm

For i = 0 To 1 Step 1
strURL = arrSites(i)

Shell (appPath & " -url " & strURL)

Next i
End Sub

Thus I found a version of Excel VBA Macro from the website:https://excelchamps.com/blog/vba-code-search-google-chrome/, which is also applicable to MS Word. However, this is a method that pop-out a box to search. If you don't type anything on that, it still automatically open the Google Chrome, which is not user-friendly.

Sub GoogleSearch()

Dim chromePath As String
Dim search_string As String
Dim query As String

query = InputBox("Please enter the keywords", "Google Search")
search_string = query
search_string = Replace(search_string, " ", "+")

chromePath = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

Shell (chromePath & " -url http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=" & search_string)

End Sub

I'm thankful that I can enjoy the above contributions from different experts. Does anyone know how can I edit one of the above versions to make a Macro that can quickly search selected text on Google in the Microsoft Word Document?

Answer 1

Here's a version of the Google_Search_Single_Word Sub that can handle multiple words. It uses the helper function URLEncode, and you will need to include the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects library in your project (Tools > References. If there are multiple versions available, go with the highest version number).

URLEncode is from this answer.

Sub Google_Search_Selected_Text()

Dim theTerm As String
Dim strURL As String
Dim arrSites(1)
Dim appPath As String
Dim strText As String
Dim strButtonValue As String
  
appPath = """C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"""

theTerm = URLEncode(Selection.Text)
MsgBox theTerm

arrSites(1) = "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=" + theTerm

For i = 0 To 1 Step 1
strURL = arrSites(i)

Shell (appPath & " -url " & strURL)

Next i
End Sub


Public Function URLEncode( _
   ByVal StringVal As String, _
   Optional SpaceAsPlus As Boolean = False _
) As String
  Dim bytes() As Byte, b As Byte, i As Integer, space As String

  If SpaceAsPlus Then space = "+" Else space = "%20"

  If Len(StringVal) > 0 Then
    With New ADODB.Stream
      .Mode = adModeReadWrite
      .Type = adTypeText
      .Charset = "UTF-8"
      .Open
      .WriteText StringVal
      .Position = 0
      .Type = adTypeBinary
      .Position = 3 ' skip BOM
      bytes = .Read
    End With

    ReDim Result(UBound(bytes)) As String

    For i = UBound(bytes) To 0 Step -1
      b = bytes(i)
      Select Case b
        Case 97 To 122, 65 To 90, 48 To 57, 45, 46, 95, 126
          Result(i) = Chr(b)
        Case 32
          Result(i) = space
        Case 0 To 15
          Result(i) = "%0" & Hex(b)
        Case Else
          Result(i) = "%" & Hex(b)
      End Select
    Next i

    URLEncode = Join(Result, "")
  End If
End Function

Go to Google, type in two words (e.g. dog food), and look at the resulting URL. Notice that the space between dog and food has been replaced with a + symbol (https://www.google.com/search?q=dog%20food). This is called URL escaping and is necessary for the URL to be properly interpreted. The original version of the Sub does not escape the URL, so Google only picks up the first word.

The version I posted escapes the URL to ensures that spaces are converted into +, as well as handling other characters that need to be escaped such as ! -> %21, ? -> %3F, etc.