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AppleScript Reference

  VBA to AppleScript 2004 Migration Guide
  Getting Started
  Word 2004 AppleScript
  Excel 2004 AppleScript
  PowerPoint 2004 AppleScript
  Entourage 2004 AppleScript
  Microsoft Office 2008 AppleScript
  Microsoft Word 2008 AppleScript
  Microsoft Excel 2008 AppleScript
  Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 AppleScript

Office 2004 AppleScript Resources

Reference Documents

Microsoft Word 2004 AppleScript Reference   You are leaving Microsoft Mactopia

Microsoft Excel 2004 AppleScript Reference   You are leaving Microsoft Mactopia

Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 AppleScript Reference   You are leaving Microsoft Mactopia

Sample Scripts

iTunes List Creator   You are leaving Microsoft Mactopia

Entourage Contact Import   You are leaving Microsoft Mactopia

Print

Bookmarks

Using bookmarks

To get started, depending on your version of Microsoft Word, you can make bookmarks show by doing more or less the following:

  1. On the Word menu, click Preferences, and then click View.

  2. Under Show, select the Bookmarks check box.

Below are Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and AppleScript code samples. The first two are used to insert text at a placeholder bookmark, which is a point in the text that you selected for your bookmark. Compare the following examples:

VBA

ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("myBookmark").Range.Text= "Inserted Text"

AppleScript

tell application "Microsoft Word"
	set content of text object of bookmark ¬
		"myBookmark" of active document to "Inserted Text"
end tell

The next examples are used to insert text at an enclosing bookmark, which is some text that you selected as your bookmark. The code also recreates the bookmark, which would otherwise vanish. Compare the following examples:

VBA

Dim bmRange As Range 
 
Set bmRange = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("myBookmark").Range 
bmRange.Text = "Inserted Text" 
ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add _ 
	Name:="myBookmark", _ 
	Range:=bmRange

AppleScript

tell application "Microsoft Word"
	set bmRange to text object of bookmark "myBookmark" of active document
	set content of bmRange to "Inserted Text"
	make new bookmark at active document with properties ¬
		{name:"myBookmark", text object:bmRange}
end tell

Dynamic ranges affect scripts for bookmarks

However, when you use the AppleScript code for the enclosing bookmark, the result is a placeholder bookmark in a completely different location in the document. In AppleScript, you cannot keep the same variable for a range after you change it, and ranges are not dynamic. As soon as you change the text of the text range of the bookmark, the range assigned to bmRange disappears.

To verify this, you can run two tests. For the first, do the following to the code block for the enclosing bookmark:

  1. Create a new second line inside the tell block, just after defining bmRange in the first line, by inserting this statement: properties of bmRange.

  2. End the script after your new second line with this statement: end tell.

The result is an enormous record of properties for this text range.

For the second test, do the following to the original code block for the enclosing bookmark:

  1. Create a new third line inside the tell block, just after setting the content of bmRange to "Inserted Text", by inserting this statement: properties of bmRange.

  2. End the script after your new third line with this statement: end tell.

You expect to get the same enormous record of properties with the content property changed. Instead, you get no result at all, because bmRange does not exist any more. Therefore, you cannot use it to define the text object of your new bookmark.

Make your own bookmark by finding its location

Instead, you do the following:

  1. Find the start of content for bmRange before you alter it, which is identical to the start of bookmark for the bookmark.

  2. Measure the length of bmRange; that is, count the string you are inserting.

  3. Add the length to the start of content result to get the new end of content and the new end of bookmark.

Note The start of content is an insertion point whose number is the same as that of the character it comes after. Remember that the document's first insertion point and start of content are 0, not 1. Therefore, to get the new end of content, you don't need to subtract 1 after you add the length of the new text.

Use these two numbers for the start of bookmark and end of bookmark properties to make your new bookmark. These properties are also advantageous because they are designed to have values assigned to them, whereas the text object property is read-only.

The following is the complete script for this procedure:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
	set bmRange to text object of bookmark "myBookmark" of active document
	set bmStart to bmRange's start of content
	set content of bmRange to "Inserted Text"
	set bmEnd to bmStart + (count "Inserted Text")

	make new bookmark at active document with properties ¬
		{name:"myBookmark", start of bookmark:bmStart, ¬
			end of bookmark:bmEnd}
end tell

This works. It had to be adapted from the first VBA translation to accommodate the fact that ranges are not dynamic in AppleScript. The alternative approach utilizes some of the many properties, classes, and commands available.

There's almost always a solution. When you encounter issues in translating your macros from VBA to AppleScript, if you have a sense of why things work as they do, you will undoubtedly find the solutions.

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