Using Excel to

Interact with Other Office

Programs
Chapter 14:

Overview
All Microsoft Office applications use VBA as their underlying macro language, and they all
have their own object model in the same way that Excel has.
Because of this, there is the enormous advantage over other non-Microsoft programming
languages that Excel VBA can be used to drive other Office programs. For example, you can
create a Word document from within Excel without Word ever appearing onscreen. This may
sound farfetched, but it is very easy to do. For example, you may design some code to
manipulate data on a spreadsheet. Your user may require the output to end up in a Word
document or as part of that document. Excel gives you the facility to open an external Word
document, enter your data into it, and then save it, without even having any knowledge of
how the file structure works in Word.
This can be done by using the CreateObject method in VBA. In order to use CreateObject.
you must first add a reference in your application to the appropriate Microsoft Office Object
Library file in this case, the Word Object Library. If you have Office installed, this file will
already be available and will automatically appear in the References list without your having
to browse for its location. If you do not have all of Microsoft Office installed, then you may
not have this library file available unless it has been installed previously as part of another
application.
When you add a reference to an Object Library, it then allows you to create objects for that
application and to use the object model of that application, just as if you were programming
in VBA inside that application.
You can add a reference by selecting Tools References from the menus . All available
reference files will appear in a dialog. You need to select the Microsoft Word Object Library
and check the check box next to it, as shown in Figure 14-1.
Figure 14-1: Selecting the Microsoft Word Object Library

Note that the location shown at the bottom of the References window points to an OLB file that
is basically the Object Library for Word. The location points to the OLB file in the directory
where Microsoft Office was originally installed. Click OK and you will be ready to use Word in
VBA.
Here is a sample of code to create a new Word document and to save it to the local hard drive.
This code will produce the same results whether Word is loaded or not, but it always looks more
spectacular if Word is not running onscreen it will look as if you have done something very
clever!
Sub Test_Word()
Dim oWd As Word.Application, oWdoc As Word.Document
Set oWd = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set oWdoc = oWd.Documents.Add
oWdoc.Sections(1).Range.Text = "My new Word Document"
oWdoc.SaveAs ("c:\MyTest.doc")
oWdoc.Close
oWd.Quit
Set oWdoc = Nothing

Set oWd = Nothing

End Sub

The first line declares the variables for the application and the document objects. Because you
have a reference to the Object Library included, you will see the Word objects, methods , and
properties appearing in the drop-down lists as you type the code in. If you did not have the
reference to the Object Library, VBA would not recognize these object types and the application
would fail.
You then use the application variable ( oWd ) to hold the created object for the Word application.
Note that in the CreateObject parameter, the description goes inside quote marks. This description
uses the class name for the object and does not appear automatically because it is being entered
as a string. You are not offered a list of choices for it. The string "Word.Application" is the class
name for the application object within Word, which is why it is used here.
The oWdoc variable is now set to hold a new document based on the application variable ( oWd ).
This is exactly the same as if you had loaded Word and then selected File New from the menu.
The text My new Word Document is then added to the first section of the document. This
appears on the first section because you loaded the Word document, effectively in the same way
as if you had opened Word and then opened the file in Word. The cursor automatically defaults to
the top of the document when this happens, and exactly the same thing happens in your code,
because you are emulating the document being opened.
The document is saved as C:\MyTest.doc to the local hard drive, and the Word document is then
closed. Leaving it open causes reservation problems and can cause problems when exiting Excel.
Because this is a virtual application, the document stays in memory if it is not closed (even if
Excel is shut down) properly, even though Excel only had a reference to it. However, this
particular instance of Word does not appear on the Windows taskbar because it was created
virtually in code. The only way to detect its presence is to look in Task Manager.
If you do not close the virtual object down properly, when Windows shuts down, the virtual
Word application will ask if the document needs saving because it still considers that there is an
open document. This can be extremely confusing to the user since they may have no idea that a
Word application was open. To avoid this situation, the variables oWd and oWdoc are set to
Nothing, and all memory held by them is released.
Try loading your newly created file into Word and you will see that it works as a perfectly
normal Word document, just as if you created it using Microsoft Word.
This is a very simple example of manipulating Word from within Excel using VBA. This can be
very useful for example, you could have a standard document with tables that the macro
populated from the spreadsheet data. You can run your macro and the data will be transferred
into the document tables.
Recently, I had the task of writing a program to populate an SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Report. The SLA Report was a Word document with many tables of data and charts, but the input
came from nine spreadsheets. Using the methods just detailed, I was able to write VBA code that
worked through the individual spreadsheets, extract the relevant data, and place the figures in the
correct tables or charts in the Word document. Previously, it had taken someone half a day to do
this manually, but the code accomplished it in under five minutes.
Sub
Dim
Dim
Set
Set
Set

Test_Word()
oWd As Word.Application, oWdoc As Word.Document
or As Word.Range, ot As Word.Table
oWd = CreateObject("Word.Application")
oWdoc = oWd.Documents.Add
or = oWdoc.Range

Set ot = oWdoc.Tables.Add(r, 4, 5)
ot.Cell(1, 1).Range.Text = "test"
oWdoc.SaveAs ("c:\MyTest.doc")
oWdoc.Close
oWd.Quit
Set oWdoc = Nothing
Set oWd = Nothing
End Sub

This example cannot be done from within Excel unless you manually copy and paste, which
could get laborious if there is a lot of data. This is a good example of the macro language giving
the user enormous power to automate tasks within Microsoft Office and enabling you to work
outside the menu structure that Microsoft has put in place.

Can I use the SendKeys command in

Excel VBA to interact with other
applications other that Microsoft
Office?
I am in the middle of a macro that performs several different functions one of them runs
a .bat file that then opens a program that requires me to sign into. Is there a way to
make that program an Object so I can use the macro and Sendkeys (or something
similar) commands to sign in automatically?
Yes, you can do something along the lines of this:
'Set strProgLoc to the executable file that is being opened by the batch file
strProgLoc = "C:\Program Files\Monarch\program\MONARCH.EXE"
Shell strProgLoc, vbMaximizedFocus
FunctionGet_Data()
DimstrRPTLocAsString
DimstrMODLocAsString
DimstrRPTNameAsString
DimstrProgLocAsString

'MonarchImport
strProgLoc="C:\ProgramFiles\Monarch\program\MONARCH.EXE"

ShellstrProgLoc,vbMaximizedFocus'openmonarch

Pause5'waittoopenmonarch

SendKeys"^o"'CtrlOopenfile
SendKeysstrRPTLoc,True'reportname/location
Pause1'waittoexit
SendKeys"~",True'Enter
Pause1'waittoexit
SendKeys"^o",True'CtrlOopenfile
SendKeysstrMODLoc,True'modelname/location
Pause1'waittoexit
SendKeys"~",True'Enter
Pause1'waittoexit
SendKeys"%w",True'Windowmenu
SendKeys"t",True'table
SendKeys"%e",True'Editmenu
SendKeys"s",True'selectall
SendKeys"^c",True'CtrlCcopy

Pause2'waittocopy

SendKeys"%f",True'filemenu

SendKeys"x",True'Exitmonarch

Pause1'waittoexit
EndFunction
PublicFunctionPause(lngSecondsAsLong)
DimStartAsVariant
Start=Timer'Setstarttime.
DoWhileTimer<Start+lngSeconds
DoEvents'Yieldtootherprocesses.
Loop
EndFunction

I think I was on the right track, but the Sendkeys didn't seem to recognize the open primgram window.
This is what I have, it runs the batch and opens the program and the login/password bow is the Active window, but the senkeys do not populate it.
Sub OpenMyMonitor()
Dim RetVal3
RetVal3 = Shell("cmd /c" & "C:\MyMonitor\Monitor\startMonitorLinux.bat", vbMaximizedFocus)
SendKeys "USERID"
SendKeys "<Tab>"
SendKeys "PASSWORD"
SendKeys "<Enter>"
End Sub
First thing is that "<Tab>" and "<Enter>" is not valid sendkeys syntax.
Use this instead:
TabKey = "{TAB}"
EnterKey = "~"
Trying tabbing through your form until you get to the UserID field. You can't just do this:
SendKeys "USERID"
For the syntax look here:
http://orlando.mvps.org/SendKeysMore.asp

When the MyMonitor program opens a pop up appears that asks for a name and password. The curser is already in the Name box so shouldn't be able to just:
Sendkeys "my name"
and it should fill in the Name box?
Do I need to CreateObject for the MyMonitor PopUp?
>>Sendkeys "my name" and it should fill in the Name box
No, you can't just sent over text, you have to send of the code for that text. As you can see at the link I provided sending an "M" would be this: {VK 77}
>>Do I need to CreateObject for the MyMonitor PopUp?
If there's an available dll for it that you can reference, then you could do that. I don't know the program, so I wouldn't know if there is one or not. If you go this route, then you
would not need send keys. In this case, close this question, as I have already provided you an answer to your original question and open a new one on how to create and
object for that application.

Yeah, I tried it with that too, and it didn't work for me either.
I found this example, that works with notepad. You should be able to modify to your needs.
http://bytes.com/topic/access/answers/849035-sendkeys-another-application
Subtest()

DimretValAsVariant

retVal=Shell("Notepad",vbNormalFocus)'RunNotepad

SendKeys"GeorgeW.Bush"'TypeGeorgeW.BushinNotepadWindow
SendKeys"%{F4}",True'SendALT+F4tocloseNotepad

SendKeys"{ENTER}",True'YesattheSavePrompt


SendKeys"GeorgeW.Bush.txt",True'TypeFilenametoSaveDocumentto

SendKeys"%S"'ActivatestheSaveButton

EndSub