Excel to word document automation

Excel to Word Document Automation

This is the next post in the add-ins series, where we are exploring various add-ins that enhance and extend the capabilities of Excel. In this post, we’ll take a look at the Excel-to-Word Document Automation add-in. In summary, it enables us to get Excel data into a Word (or Power Point) document. It creates a link between the documents making it easy to update the Word document for any Excel changes. It can bring in tables, graphics, and values. Once the link is established, the data will continue to flow even if you change sheet names, file names, or file locations.

Objective

Before we get too far, let’s get a general sense of what the add-in does.

It allows you to transfer values, images, and tables from Excel into Word (or Power Point). But … wait up Jeff … I can already do that with a standard Copy/Paste! Yes, and for one-time projects, a copy/paste is all you need.

However, if this is something you do on a recurring-basis, every day, week, or month, this add-in can be very helpful.

You basically identify the specific items in Excel that you want to transfer. Then, in your Word document, you retrieve the selected elements. Once this mapping has been established, you can click a button to have any Excel changes sent to your Word document.

While Excel has had this basic capability built-in for years or decades, this add-in addresses some of the traditional limitations. For example, this add-in will continue to work even if you change sheet names, file names, or file locations.

Plus, the add-in will continue to work if you insert cells, rows, or columns because the add-in relies on defined names … brilliant! Let’s get into the details.

App Store

The Excel-to-Word Document Automation add-in is available in the app store. To get to the app store, just click Insert > Get Add-ins. Install the Excel-to-Word Document Automation add-in and you’ll be ready to go.

Once installed, you’ll see a new Automate Content button on the Home tab.

Note: depending on your version of Excel, you may or may not have access to these add-ins.

Walkthrough

Let’s walk through the entire process. We’ll start with setting up the Excel file.

Excel

We have some stuff in Excel that we’d like to get into a Word document. For example, we want to get the following vendor name, table, and graph from Excel to Word:

Within the Add-in, we define the prefix that we will use to identify any Excel elements we wish to transfer. For example, I set my prefix to tfr_ as shown:

The next step is to use this prefix when naming the various elements you wish to make available to Word.

There are three elements I want to transfer: the Vendor name, the Table, and the Graph.

• I gave the Vendor name cell the following name: tfr_name
• I gave the Table the following name: tfr_table
• And I named the Graph: tfr_chart

Once the individual elements are named, you click the Submit Content button:

You’ll then receive a notification indicating how may elements were uploaded:

Our Excel work is complete! We can now bring these elements into our Word document.

In Word, we need to install the same Add-in. Just head to the app store and install it just as we did in Excel.

We begin by clicking the Get Excel Content button.

We can then select which elements to retrieve from the drop-downs and click the Insert Content/Update Link button:

And the Excel content appears in our Word document, and we can apply standard Word formatting as desired:

We can insert the table as well:

Click Insert Content and bam …

And finally our graph:

And now for the moment of truth … the updates.

Updates

Let’s say we update our Excel file next period, like this:

We simply click the Submit Content button in the Excel add-in. The upload notification confirms the elements were successfully uploaded.

We head back to our Word document and click Update Document:

And bam, the updated company name appears, the new row in the table appears, and the next month in the chart appears …

Conclusion

This add-in will be VERY helpful if you create values, tables, or charts in Excel and need to export them to Word/Power Point on a recurring basis. If you have any other add-ins you’d like to suggest, please share by posting a comment below … thanks!

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How to automate Word from Excel using VBA

This post is the second in a series about controlling other applications from Excel using VBA. In the first part we looked at the basics of how to reference other applications using Early Binding or Late Binding. In this post, we will look at how we can automate Word from Excel even though we don’t know any VBA code for Word… yet. The process we will use for this is as follows:

1. Enable the Word Developer menu
2. Record a Word macro
3. Add the code to Excel VBA and amend
4. Record macros in Excel if necessary
5. Repeat the previous steps until macro complete

I am not an Excel VBA expert (I’m more of an Excel VBA tinkerer), and I am certainly not a Word VBA expert. The process I am about to show you may not create the most efficient code, but I know this process works, because I have used it myself to automate lots tasks using Microsoft Word.

If you have enabled the Excel Developer menu it is the same process in Word.

In Word: File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon

Then tick the Developer Ribbon option, OK.

Record a Word Macro

The key to the success of this method is taking small sections of code and building up a complex macro bit by bit. Using the Word Macro Recorder is again, similar to the Excel Macro recorder.

Click on: Developer -> Record Macro

For the example in this post, we will create a macro which will open a new Word document, then copy a chart from Excel and paste it into that Word document. We will tackle this one stage at a time. Firstly, lets create the macro to open a new word document.

Click – Developer -> Record Macro. The Record Macro window will open.

Make a note of the “Store macro in” option, as we will need to know where to find the recorded code later. Normal.dotm is fine for now. Click OK – the Macro Recorder is now running.

Open a new Word Document – File -> New -> Blank Document

Stop the Macro from recording – Developer -> Stop Recording

We can now view the code for opening a new Word Document in the Visual Basic Editor. Click: Developer -> Visual Basic.

Find the location of your recorded code in the Visual Basic Editor. In this example: Normal -> Modules -> NewMacros.

Your code should look like the following. It may be slightly different, but not significantly.

Add the code to Excel VBA and amend

Let’s head back to the Excel VBA Editor and use the Early Binding method to control to Microsoft Word. In the Visual Basic Editor click Tools -> References select Microsoft Word x.xx Object Library. Then click OK.

As we are using Early Binding we need to declare the Application as a variable as follows:

Now copy and paste the code from the Word VBA Editor into the Excel VBA Editor.

The Word VBA code started with Documents.Add, all we have to do is add our application variable to the front of that line of code. Now becomes WordApp.Documents.Add . . .

Often, Selecting and Activating Objects is not required in VBA code, so I have not copied those statements into the code below.

A point to note, when an application is opened with VBA, it is normally opened in the background. To make the Word document visible I have added the following code:

Record macros in Excel (if necessary)

If we want to copy Excel content into a Word document, we will need to copy that content using Excel VBA. We can use the Macro Recorder in Excel to obtain the VBA code for copying, then we can use the Word Macro Recorder to obtain the VBA code for pasting.

Macro Recording from Excel – selecting a worksheet and copying chart

Macro Recording from Word – pasting a chart into a document

We can add both Macro recordings into our Excel macro. Remember to add WordApp. at the start of each statement of Word VBA code.

This code is not particularly efficient; it contains a few unnecessary sections code. However… it works!

Repeat the previous steps until macro complete

By repeating the same steps above; recording short actions, then transferring the code into Excel, we can slowly build up much more complex Macros. The key is to keep the actions short, if you do too many actions with the Macro Recorder, code starts to look long and scary.

If you’ve you tried to use the Macro Recorder before you will know that this is not as easy as it seems. And this simple tutorial may make you think it is easy, when it’s not. Sometimes, it can be quite frustrating trying to find out where the issues and errors are. The key to success is recording very short actions, such as those below and copying them into the Visual Basic Editor.

You will soon build up a standard library of code that you can use to control Word for most basic tasks.

In recorded VBA code from Word, the word “Selection” in the code often refers to the document itself. It is possible to make the code a little bit more efficient by declaring the document as a variable. If we were opening a specific document, we could include this at the start, just below the declaration of the application.

Or, if we created a new document we could include the following below the declaration of the application variable.

If we have created the document as a variable we can then reference the specific document. This code:

Would become this code:

Would become this code:

This method is much better, as it doesn’t rely on the Selection of the user being in the right place.

Conclusion

We have seen in this post that it is possible to create complex Macros to automate Word from Excel using VBA. By understanding how to declare variables for the application and documents we can create much more robust macros, even without knowing a lot of VBA code.

Related Posts:

About the author

Hey, I’m Mark, and I run Excel Off The Grid.

My parents tell me that at the age of 7 I declared I was going to become a qualified accountant. I was either psychic or had no imagination, as that is exactly what happened. However, it wasn’t until I was 35 that my journey really began.

In 2015, I started a new job, for which I was regularly working after 10pm. As a result, I rarely saw my children during the week. So, I started searching for the secrets to automating Excel. I discovered that by building a small number of simple tools, I could combine them together in different ways to automate nearly all my regular tasks. This meant I could work less hours (and I got pay raises!). Today, I teach these techniques to other professionals in our training program so they too can spend less time at work (and more time with their children and doing the things they love).

Do you need help adapting this post to your needs?

I’m guessing the examples in this post don’t exactly match your situation. We all use Excel differently, so it’s impossible to write a post that will meet everybody’s needs. By taking the time to understand the techniques and principles in this post (and elsewhere on this site), you should be able to adapt it to your needs.

But, if you’re still struggling you should:

1. Read other blogs, or watch YouTube videos on the same topic. You will benefit much more by discovering your own solutions.
2. Ask the ‘Excel Ninja’ in your office. It’s amazing what things other people know.
3. Ask a question in a forum like Mr Excel, or the Microsoft Answers Community. Remember, the people on these forums are generally giving their time for free. So take care to craft your question, make sure it’s clear and concise. List all the things you’ve tried, and provide screenshots, code segments and example workbooks.
4. Use Excel Rescue, who are my consultancy partner. They help by providing solutions to smaller Excel problems.

What next?
Don’t go yet, there is plenty more to learn on Excel Off The Grid. Check out the latest posts:

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