Activate vba in word

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Macros are considered a standard feature in programming as well as the use of computer programs. They are basically subprograms that developers and users can create to save sequences of commands or operating instructions, which can then be started with a simple action. When faced with many regularly recurring tasks, Microsoft Word is typically an application that benefits from the option to automate work steps.

For this reason, the Editor (as well as Access, Excel or PowerPoint, for example) include an integrated tool for recording and executing custom Word macros. The script language Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), likewise developed by Microsoft, serves as the recording language here.

The event-driven programming language VBA replaced the mutually incompatible macro languages of the various Microsoft Office programs in the mid-1990s. Thanks to this standardized solution, cross-program command chains can also be created and run to transfer data from a Word document into an Excel table with a single click, for example.

Creating macros in Word may sound like a task for experienced programmers at first. After all, writing new program code in a special programming language is not often among the core skills of the average Word user. However, the fact that creating and using Word macros is possiblewithout any programming knowledge at all is thanks to the integrated macro tool. Known as a macro recorder, this tool makes writing code completely unnecessary. To create a new macro, all the user has to do is start recording, perform the desired operating steps and commands, and then stop the recording again when the sequence is finished. The VBA code for Word macros is generated automatically; no further action is required on the part of the user.

With the Visual Basic Editor, the Microsoft Office tools have integrated their own VBA development environment that allows the code of recorded macros to be viewed and edited.

The typical solution for a new macro in Word is one that can be run by clicking a button. If you would like to create such a macro using the developer tools, first click on the “Developer” tab and then select the option “Record Macro”:

Confirm your desired button by clicking on “OK” twice. Now perform the actions you want to save in the macro. Word will record your mouse clicks as well as key strokes. However, the recorder will not save any movements or highlighting with the mouse. So if you want to select some text, for example, you will need to use the keyboard (hold down the [Shift] key and use the arrow keys).

Once you have finished the sequence for the macro, you can stop the recording via “Stop Recording”:

You can create a Word macro that can be started using a unique key combination in essentially the same way as for macro buttons: Start the process using the “Record Macro” button in the macro menu under “Developer”, enter a suitable name, and decide whether you want to make the macro available in all documents or only in a certain project. In the final step before beginning the recording, you should choose the “Keyboard” option in order to open the menu for new hotkeys:

Integrating a Word macro into a user-defined group:

After creating a user-defined group for a tab’s ribbon, you can now add any number of Word macros to this group. First click on the “Macros” option in the left menu section under “Choose commands from:” and then on the Word macro you wish to integrate. In the right menu window, now click on the user-defined group before finally pressing the “Add” button:

Importing macro code:

If you only have the code for a certain macro, other steps have to be taken for importing. Here too, you start by selecting the document you wish to add the automatic command sequence to. Open the explorer and double-click on the entry “ThisDocument” (in the subfolder “Microsoft Word Objects”) for the respective document or under “Normal” (to save the macro in the universal template):

Now that you know what a Word macro is and how to use macros in Word (creating, running, and importing macros), we can explain the purpose of these command chains for automation in Microsoft’s text editor using a number of specific Word macro examples.

There are various web tools you can use to analyze your texts – such as to ascertain the average length of your sentences. Using the right macro, you can also find this out directly in Word. The following code automatically looks at all the sentences in your document and divides the total word count by the number of sentences. The macro then displays the average length in a text popup (“Average Words Per Sentence:”):

Anyone who regularly types texts on a computer will know just how quickly typos like transposed letters occur. But these errors can be quickly corrected. Using the following macro, you only need to place the marker in front of the erroneous pair of letters. Running the macro via key combination or button then allows the letters to be swapped around automatically:

Whenever you include website addresses in your texts, Word will automatically change them into clickable hyperlinks to the corresponding sites. But if you don’t want your document to contain these hyperlinks, you usually have to delete the links individually. The following Word macro example saves you a whole lot of work by automatically removing the first hyperlink found in the document. You can therefore run the macro as often as necessary until all the hyperlinks are gone: