WD98: Returning Object Counts for Parts of a Document

ID: Q183448

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

In Visual Basic for Applications, an object represents an element of an application, such as a document, a paragraph, a sentence, a word, or a field.

A collection is an object that contains several other objects, usually, but not always, of the same type. In Microsoft Word, for example, the Documents collection object contains all the open document objects.

When you write Visual Basic for Applications macros, it may be necessary to return the number of objects within a particular collection of objects.

This article discusses methods that can be used to return the count of a collection of objects for part or all of a document including but not limited to objects located in headers, footers, and different sections of a document.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

Method 1: To Return a Count of Objects for an Entire Document

To return a count of objects for an entire document including those contained in headers, footers, comments, endnotes, footnotes and text frames use the StoryRanges collection object.

A Story object is contained within the Story collection. The Story collection includes the following members:

For example, to count the number of fields in all stories of a document, use the following sample code.

   Sub CountAllFields()
      Dim iCount As Integer
      Dim aStory As Range
      For Each aStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
         iCount = iCount + aStory.Fields.Count
      Next
      MsgBox iCount
   End Sub

To count the number of Shapes (drawing objects) in all stories of a document, use the following example:

   Sub CountAllShapes()
      Dim iCount As Integer
      Dim aStory As Range
      For Each aStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
         iCount = iCount + aStory.Application.ActiveDocument.Shapes.Count
      Next
      MsgBox iCount
   End Sub

To count the number of Hyperlinks in all stories of a document, use the following example:

   Sub CountAllHyperLinks()
      Dim iCount As Integer
      Dim aStory As Range
      For Each aStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
         iCount = iCount + _
         aStory.Application.ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks.Count
      Next
      MsgBox iCount
   End Sub

Method 2: To Return a Count of Objects for Part of a Document

To return a count of items for a single member of the StoryRange, specify a member of the story range with a wdStoryType constant.

In this example, the wdMainTextStory constant is used in conjunction with the Paragraphs collection to return the count of paragraphs in the main text or body of a document:

   Sub CountParagraphs()
      With ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdMainTextStory)
         MsgBox .Paragraphs.Count
      End With
   End Sub

In this example, the wdMainTextStory constant is used in conjunction with the Sentences collection to return the count of sentences in the main body of a document:

   Sub CountSentencesInMainDocBody()
      With ActiveDocument.StoryRanges(wdMainTextStory)
         MsgBox .Sentences.Count
      End With
   End Sub

For more information about StoryRanges, from the Visual Basic Editor, click the Office Assistant, type "StoryRanges," click Search, and then click to view "StoryRanges."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176476
   TITLE     : OFF: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q181058
   TITLE     : OFF98: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
               Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vb vba vbe
Keywords          : kbdtacode OffVBA kbmacroexample macword98 
Version           : MACINTOSH:98
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: April 6, 1999