Setting up a nested field in Word using VBA

Question

I am building a large document in pieces from templates. Each template has a keyword #OVERALLPAGENUMBER# in the footer which I am programmatically replacing (using Excel VBA) with a field.

If all I needed were that document's page number, the following would suffice:

Dim storyRange As Object 'Word.Range
For Each storyRange In oDoc.StoryRanges
    Do
        With storyRange.Find
            .Text = "#OVERALLPAGENUMBER#"
            .Wrap = 1 'wdFindContinue
            .Execute
            While .found
                storyRange.Fields.Add Range:=storyRange, Type:=-1, Text:="PAGE", PreserveFormatting:=True
                .Execute
            Wend
        End With
        On Error Resume Next
        Set storyRange = storyRange.NextStoryRange
        On Error GoTo 0
    Loop While Not storyRange Is Nothing
Next

I've tested this code, and it successfully puts the page number in the footer. What I want, however, is a nested (formula) field which adds a fixed number to the page number so that I can display a page count across multiple documents. My solution, if I do it manually (using Ctrl+F9), gives field codes that look like this:

{ = 5 + { PAGE } }

And correctly produces "6" on page 1, "7" on page 2, etc...

No matter what I try though, I cannot replicate this sort of field nesting using VBA. (Macro recorder is useless here). Can anyone find a way to create these fields programmatically?

---

Solution

My problem was that having PreserveFormatting:=True was getting in the way of my attempts to nest one field within the other. Now the following simple solution works:

With storyRange.Find
    .Text = "#POLICYPAGENO#"
    .Wrap = 1 'wdFindContinue
    .Execute
    While .found
        storyRange.Select
        With oDoc.ActiveWindow
            .Selection.Fields.Add Range:=.Selection.Range, Type:=-1, Text:="PAGE", PreserveFormatting:=False
            .Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=1, Count:=1, Extend:=1
            .Selection.Fields.Add Range:=.Selection.Range, Type:=-1, PreserveFormatting:=False
            .Selection.TypeText Text:="= " & OverallPageNumber & " +"
        End With
        .Execute
    Wend
End With

Answer 1

I know this is old, but trying to do this yesterday, I found a simpler solution to creating nested fields than to use the Selection object. The only solutions I found on the web incorrectly say that there's no way to insert nested fields without using the Selection object. However, I found that you can insert a nested field into the Field.Code range, which makes the code easier to manipulate, faster and more intuitive. As in:

Dim storyRange As Object 'Word.Range
For Each storyRange In oDoc.StoryRanges
    Do
        With storyRange.Find
            .Text = "#OVERALLPAGENUMBER#"
            .Wrap = 1 'wdFindContinue
            .Execute
            While .Found
                Set fld1 = storyRange.Fields.Add(Range:=storyRange, Type:=-1, Text:="=p+" & OverallPageNumber, PreserveFormatting:=False)
                Set fld2 = storyRange.Fields.Add(Range:=fld1.Code.Characters(3), Type:=-1, Text:="PAGE", PreserveFormatting:=False)
                fld1.Update
                .Execute
            Wend
        End With
        On Error Resume Next
        Set storyRange = storyRange.NextStoryRange
        On Error GoTo 0
    Loop While Not storyRange Is Nothing
Next

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure that your method of Find and Replacing will Select the text #OVERALLPAGENUMBER# each time it loops through. If that is the case you can replace storyRange.Fields.Add Range:=storyRange, Type:=-1, Text:="PAGE", PreserveFormatting:=True with the following, which will simply place your required field code at the current selection:

Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, PreserveFormatting:=False
Selection.TypeText Text:="= 5 +"
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, PreserveFormatting:=False
Selection.TypeText Text:="PAGE"
Selection.Fields.Update

Edit: The previous code only works if PreserveFormatting is set to False . It appears that Word updates an empty field code if PreserveFormatting is set to True . You can navigate the selection to keep the formatting with the following. You should only need to PreserveFormatting for the outer field.

Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, PreserveFormatting:=True
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, Extend:=wdExtend
Selection.Fields.ToggleShowCodes
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Selection.TypeText Text:="= 5 +"
Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, PreserveFormatting:=False
Selection.TypeText Text:="PAGE"
Selection.Fields.Update