Vba programming excel to word

This Excel VBA tutorial explains how to export Excel to Word.

You may also want to read:

Export Excel to PDF

In the previous post, I demonstrated how to export Excel to PDF, which is very easy because there is already a built in function to do that (using Save As and choose PDF). However, there is no built in function to export Excel to Word. Fortunately Excel cell is actually a table in Word, we can simply copy the cells and paste to Word. This tutorial explains how to do it automatically using Excel VBA to export Excel to Word.

Excel VBA export Excel to Word (Single Worksheet)

Excel has about 1M rows and 16k columns, we cannot simply export the whole spreadsheet to Word. So the first question to think about is, what Range do we need to export to Word? My recommendation is to export all UsedRange. You may also consider to reset UsedRange before copy as explained in my previous post.

Insert the following Procedure in Excel Module

Sub export_excel_to_word()
    Set obj = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    obj.Visible = True
    Set newObj = obj.Documents.Add
    ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Copy
    newObj.Range.Paste
    Application.CutCopyMode = False
    obj.Activate
    newObj.SaveAs Filename:=Application.ActiveWorkbook.Path & "" & ActiveSheet.Name
End Sub

For example, we have the below worksheet

Run the Macro, and the below new Word document will pop up. The Word document is automatically saved as the Worksheet name under the same folder of the Workbook.

It is possible that the imported table length is too wide to display in Word, you can also use Word VBA Table.AutoFitBehavior Method to auto fit the table, which has the same effect of AutoFit in Word as below.

Run the below macro in Word VBA to loop through all tables in Word document to autosize.

Sub autoSizeTbl()
    For Each tbl In ActiveDocument.Tables
        tbl.AutoFitBehavior wdAutoFitContent
    Next
End Sub

Ideally this Macro can be run from Excel VBA, unfortunately I can’t get it work properly.

Excel VBA export Excel to Word (Multiple Worksheets)

Assume that we have Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3 in a Workbook “Export.xlsm”, we want to export all three worksheets to a single workbook.

Insert a Excel Module and paste the below Procedure.

The below Procedure will copy usedRange of each Worksheet to Word and page break by each Worksheet. Finally save and name the Word document as the Workbook name.

Sub export_workbook_to_word()
    Set obj = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    obj.Visible = True
    Set newobj = obj.Documents.Add
    
    For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets
        ws.UsedRange.Copy
        newobj.ActiveWindow.Selection.PasteExcelTable False, False, False
        newobj.ActiveWindow.Selection.InsertBreak Type:=7
    Next
        newobj.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeBackspace
        newobj.ActiveWindow.Selection.TypeBackspace
          
    obj.Activate
    newobj.SaveAs Filename:=Application.ActiveWorkbook.Path & "" & Split(ActiveWorkbook.Name, ".")(0)

End Sub

Run the Macro, a Word document called “Export.docx” pops up. Worksheet1 is pasted in page 1, Worksheet2 is pasted in page 2, Worksheet3 is pasted in page 3.

In this article I will explain how you can write data from an excel workbook to a word document. The first step in doing this is to determine where the code is going to be written. There are 3 options:

1. In the excel workbook
2. In the word document
3. In a 3rd file

I will only consider the first two cases in this article.

–

---

Example 1, Excel VBA:

Lets assume we have an excel workbook with the following data:

Lets assume we are going  to write the code in the excel workbook.

Step 1:

The first step would be to automate a word document.  In the article below I’ve explained there are 2 methods for this.

1. Early binding
2. Late binding

To prevent compatibility issues I will be using late binding in this example:

• VBA, Automating Word From Excel

The function below will automate a word document and make it visible:

Sub main()
Dim objWord As Object
Dim objDoc As Object
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
objWord.Visible = True
Set objDoc = objWord.documents.Add()
End Sub


Step 2:

The code below will write data from the excel sheet to the word document:

Dim i As Integer
Dim strValue As String
For i = 1 To 5
    'bring focus to the document created
    objDoc.Activate
    'read the value from the cell
    strValue = Cells(i + 1, 1)
    'write the value to the document
    objWord.Selection.TypeText Text:=strValue
    'move to the next line
    objWord.Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i


Complete Version:

Below you can see the complete code. It automates a word document and writes the values from the cells B2:B6 to it:

Option Explicit
Sub main()
Dim objWord As Object
Dim objDoc As Object
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
objWord.Visible = True
Set objDoc = objWord.documents.Add

Dim i As Integer
Dim strValue As String
For i = 1 To 5
    'bring focus to the document created
    objDoc.Activate
    'read the value from the cell
    strValue = Cells(i + 1, 1)
    'write the value to the document
    objWord.Selection.TypeText Text:=strValue
    'move to the next line
    objWord.Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i
End Sub


Result:

–

---

Example 2, Word VBA:

In this example the code will be written inside a word document. Therefore the excel workbook will be automated.

Step 1:

The first step would be to get the path of the excel workbook from the user. This can be done using an open file dialog. I have covered this topic in the article below:

• Excel VBA, Open File Dialog

Although the article was written for excel, the concept can be used in VBA for Word too. The code below will display an open file dialog and ask the user to select the path of the file to open. The path will be stored in the variable strPath:

Sub Example2()
Dim intChoice As Integer
Dim strPath As String

'only allow the user to select one file
Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).AllowMultiSelect = False
'make the file dialog visible to the user
intChoice = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).Show
'determine what choice the user made
If intChoice <> 0 Then
    'get the file path selected by the user
    strPath = Application.FileDialog( _
        msoFileDialogOpen).SelectedItems(1)
End If
End Sub


Result:

Step 2:

The function below receives as input a file path and automates that excel workbook:

Private Sub AutomateExcel(ByVal strPath As String)
Dim objExcel As Object
Dim objWorkbook As Object

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
Set objWorkbook = objExcel.workbooks.Open(strPath)
End Sub


 Step 3: 

The function below receives as input an reference to the excel workbook. It clears all the data in the current word document and it reads the values from the workbook:

Private Sub ReadData(ByRef objWorkbook As Object)
Dim i As Integer

Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
For i = 1 To 5
    Selection.TypeText Text:= _
        objWorkbook.sheets(1).Cells(i + 1, 1)
    'move to the next line
    Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i
End Sub


Complete Version:

By putting it all together we end up with the code below:

Option Explicit

Sub Example2()
Dim intChoice As Integer
Dim strPath As String

'only allow the user to select one file
Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).AllowMultiSelect = False
'make the file dialog visible to the user
intChoice = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).Show
'determine what choice the user made
If intChoice <> 0 Then
    'get the file path selected by the user
    strPath = Application.FileDialog( _
        msoFileDialogOpen).SelectedItems(1)
    Call AutomateExcel(strPath)
End If
End Sub

Private Sub AutomateExcel(ByVal strPath As String)
Dim objExcel As Object
Dim objWorkbook As Object

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
Set objWorkbook = objExcel.workbooks.Open(strPath)
Call ReadData(objWorkbook)
End Sub

Private Sub ReadData(ByRef objWorkbook As Object)
Dim i As Integer
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
For i = 1 To 5
    Selection.TypeText Text:= _
        objWorkbook.sheets(1).Cells(i + 1, 1)
    'move to the next line
    Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i
End Sub


Result:

You can download the file and code related to this article from the links below:

• Excel to Word.docm
• Excel to Word.xlsm

See also:

• Word VBA, Open Document
• Word Automation VBA, Common Errors
• Word VBA, Apply Macro to Multiple Files
• Word VBA, Modify Header For Multiple Files
• Word Automation VBA, Common Errors
• VBA, Automating Word From Excel

If you need assistance with your code, or you are looking for a VBA programmer to hire feel free to contact me. Also please visit my website  www.software-solutions-online.com

To copy data from Excel to a Word file using VBA we need to access the word application using Excel VBA. In this tutorial we will learn how to open a word application, add a document and copy-paste data from excel to it.

In this article, we will use the Early Binding method to create an object of word application instead of using the late binding. You can read about it here in detail.

The Process Of Copying Excel Data To A Word File Using Excel VBA

To copy data from excel to a word file using VBA, we first need to open the Word Application of course. Then add a document to it (if you want a new document). Copy data from excel file. Select the paragraph on the doc and paste on it.Finally save and close the document. Each of these steps can be done easily from Excel. You will not need to interact with the Word Document.

Let’s get started with an example without getting any further into theory. Because Iron Man said, «Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk».

Example : Paste Excel Data To Word Using VBA

The below code is an example of how you can copy some range of excel and paste it into a new word document and save it on the drive to use later

'VBA Code To Write to Copy data from Excel to A Document

Sub ExcelToWord()

   'Using Early Binding

    Dim wordApp As Word.Application

    Dim mydoc As Word.Document

        

    

    'Creating a new instance of word only if there no other instances

    Set wordApp = New Word.Application

    

    

    'Making word App Visible

    wordApp.Visible = True

   

    'Creating a new document

    Set mydoc = wordApp.Documents.Add()


    

    'copying the content from excel sheet


    ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("sheet1").Range("A1:g20").Copy


    'Pasting on the document


    mydoc.Paragraphs(1).Range.PasteExcelTable _

                               LinkedToExcel:=False, _

                               WordFormatting:=False, 

                               RTF:=False

    'saving the document

    mydoc.SaveAs2 "MyDoc"

    

    'closing the document

    mydoc.Close

   

    'Emptying the Clipboard 

    CutCopyMode = False

   

End Sub

Explanation of the Code:

Well I have explained each step in the code itself using comments but let’s have some word about the lines we have used in this sub.

  ‘Created variables of word application and document type

    Dim wordApp As Word.Application

    Dim mydoc As Word.Document

Here we have declared two variables of the required types. We can do this because  we have already added the reference to the word application. You can do this by going to tools in menu. Find references option and then look for the word reference.

    ‘Creating a new instance of word only if there no other instances

    Set wordApp = New Word.Application

    ‘Making word App Visible

    wordApp.Visible = True

    ‘Creating a new document

    Set mydoc = wordApp.Documents.Add()

In the first line above, we are intentiating the wordApp variable with an object of type Word.App using the New keyword. This will open the Word Application.

In the second line we are making the word application visible so that we can work with it.

In the next line, we add a new document to the word application using Word.Documents.Add() function. This is stored in the mydoc variable.

    ‘copying the content from excel sheet

    ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(«sheet1»).Range(«A1:G20»).Copy

Here we are simply copying a range from excel. You must have done it before. It is stored on the clipboard.

    ‘Pasting on the document

    mydoc.Paragraphs(1).Range.PasteExcelTable _

                               LinkedToExcel:=False, _

                               WordFormatting:=False, 

                               RTF:=False

We are using the PasteExcelTable method of Paragraph.Range class of mydoc to paste data from clipboard.

 ‘saving the document

    mydoc.SaveAs2 «MyDoc»

    ‘closing the document

    mydoc.Close

    ‘Emptying the Clipboard 

    CutCopyMode = False

We are saving the document with the name MyDoc. Then we close the document using the Close function. Finally we release the clipboard to be used by others.

So yeah guys, this is how you can create a new Word document and copy Excel data to it using VBA. I have not gone into details as it would make the article exhaustingly long. This was only to learn how you can paste to a word document through Excel. I hope it helped you understand the process. If you have any questions regarding this article, you can contact me through the comments section below.

Related Articles:

Getting Started With Excel VBA UserForms| I will explain how to create a form in excel, how to use VBA toolbox, how to handle user inputs and finally how to store the user inputs. We will go through these topics using one example and step by step guide.

VBA variables in Excel| VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications. It is a programming language from Microsoft. It is used with Microsoft Office applications such as MSExcel, MS-Word and MS-Access whereas VBA variables are specific keywords.

Excel VBA Variable Scope| In all the programming languages, we have variable access specifiers that define from where a defined variable can be accessed. Excel VBA is no Exception. VBA too has scope specifiers.

ByRef and ByVal Arguments | When an argument is passed as a ByRef argument to a different sub or function, the reference of the actual variable is sent. Any changes made into the copy of the variable, will reflect in the original argument.

Delete sheets without confirmation prompts using VBA in Microsoft Excel | Since you are deleting sheets using VBA, you know what you are doing. You would like to tell Excel not to show this warning and delete the damn sheet.

Add And Save New Workbook Using VBA In Microsoft Excel 2016| In this code, we first created a reference to a workbook object. And then we initialized it with a new workbook object. The benefit of this approach is that you can do operations on this new workbook easily. Like saving, closing, deleting, etc

Display A Message On The Excel VBA Status Bar| The status bar in excel can be used as a code monitor. When your VBA code is lengthy and you do several tasks using VBA, you often disable the screen update so that you don’t see that screen flickering.

Turn Off Warning Messages Using VBA In Microsoft Excel 2016| This code not only disables VBA alerts but also increases the time efficiency of the code. Let’s see how.

Popular Articles:

50 Excel Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity | Get faster at your task. These 50 shortcuts will make you work even faster on Excel.

The VLOOKUP Function in Excel | This is one of the most used and popular functions of excel that is used to lookup value from different ranges and sheets. 

COUNTIF in Excel 2016 | Count values with conditions using this amazing function. You don’t need to filter your data to count specific values. Countif function is essential to prepare your dashboard.

How to use SUMIF Function in Excel | This is another dashboard essential function. This helps you sum up values on specific conditions.

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.

Enable the Word Developer menu

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.

Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
'
'
    Documents.Add Template:="Normal", NewTemplate:=False, DocumentType:=0
    Windows("Document1").Activate
    Windows("Document2").Activate
End Sub

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:

Dim WordApp As Word.Application
Set WordApp = New Word.Application

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.

Sub CreateWordDocument()

'Connect using Early Binding.
'Remember to set the reference to the Word Object Library
'In VBE Editor Tools -> References -> Microsoft Word x.xx Object Library
Dim WordApp As Word.Application
Set WordApp = New Word.Application

WordApp.Documents.Add Template:="Normal", NewTemplate:=False, DocumentType:=0
WordApp.Visible = True 'New Apps will be hidden by default, so make visible

Set WordApp = Nothing 'release the memory

End Sub

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:

WordApp.Visible = True

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

Sheets("Sheet1").Select
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Activate
ActiveChart.ChartArea.Copy

Macro Recording from Word – pasting a chart into a document

Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteEnhancedMetafile, _
        Placement:=wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False

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

Sub CreateWordDocument()

'Connect using Early Binding.
'Remember to set the reference to the Word Object Library
'In VBE Editor Tools -> References -> Microsoft Word x.xx Object Library
Dim WordApp As Word.Application
Set WordApp = New Word.Application

WordApp.Documents.Add Template:="Normal", NewTemplate:=False, DocumentType:=0
WordApp.Visible = True 'New Apps will be hidden by default, so make visible

'code copied from Excel Macro recorder
Sheets("Sheet1").Select
Selection.ChartObjects("Chart 1").ChartArea.Copy

'code copied from Word Macro recorder with WordApp. added to the front.
WordApp.Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteEnhancedMetafile, _
        Placement:=wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False

Set WordApp = Nothing 'release the memory 

End Sub

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.

'Pressing the Enter Key to move to a new line in Word
WordApp.Selection.TypeParagraph

'Turn on/off Bold Text
WordApp.Selection.Font.Bold = wdToggle

'Change Font Size
WordApp.Selection.Font.Size = 16

'Type some text
WordApp.Selection.TypeText Text:="Here is some text"

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.

'Declare a specific document as a variable
Dim WordDocument As Object
Set WordDocument = WordApp.Documents.Open(sourceFileName)

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

'Delcare a new document as a variable
Dim WordDocument As Object
Set WordDocument = WordApp.Documents.Add Template:="Normal", _
NewTemplate:=False, DocumentType:=0

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

WordApp.Selection.TypeParagraph

Would become this code:

WordDocument.TypeParagraph

Or this code:

WordApp.Selection.TypeText Text:="Here is some text"

Would become this code:

WordDocument.TypeText Text:="Here is some text"

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:

• 5 quick ways to embed a Word document in Excel
• Controlling Powerpoint from Excel using VBA
• Edit links in Word using VBA
• How to link Excel to Word

Sub ExcelRangeToWord()

‘PURPOSE: Copy/Paste An Excel Table Into a New Word Document
‘NOTE: Must have Word Object Library Active in Order to Run _
  (VBE > Tools > References > Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library)
‘SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com

Dim tbl As Excel.Range
Dim WordApp As Word.Application
Dim myDoc As Word.Document
Dim WordTable As Word.Table

‘Optimize Code
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Application.EnableEvents = False

‘Copy Range from Excel
  Set tbl = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(Sheet1.Name).ListObjects(«Table1»).Range

‘Create an Instance of MS Word
  On Error Resume Next

        ‘Is MS Word already opened?
      Set WordApp = GetObject(class:=»Word.Application»)

        ‘Clear the error between errors
      Err.Clear

    ‘If MS Word is not already open then open MS Word
      If WordApp Is Nothing Then Set WordApp = CreateObject(class:=»Word.Application»)

        ‘Handle if the Word Application is not found
      If Err.Number = 429 Then
        MsgBox «Microsoft Word could not be found, aborting.»
        GoTo EndRoutine
      End If

  On Error GoTo 0

  ‘Make MS Word Visible and Active
  WordApp.Visible = True
  WordApp.Activate

    ‘Create a New Document
  Set myDoc = WordApp.Documents.Add

  ‘Copy Excel Table Range
  tbl.Copy

‘Paste Table into MS Word
  myDoc.Paragraphs(1).Range.PasteExcelTable _
    LinkedToExcel:=False, _
    WordFormatting:=False, _
    RTF:=False

‘Autofit Table so it fits inside Word Document
  Set WordTable = myDoc.Tables(1)
  WordTable.AutoFitBehavior (wdAutoFitWindow)

   EndRoutine:
‘Optimize Code
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
  Application.EnableEvents = True

‘Clear The Clipboard
  Application.CutCopyMode = False

End Sub

In this part of the code we are determining if Microsoft Word is open or not.  If Word is already open, we can set a variable equal to the entire program by using GetObject.  If MS Word is not currently running we can use CreateObject to run an instance of Word and then set a variable equal to that specific instance of MS Word.

When using CreateObject, the target application will start running but it is not visible on screen.  Therefore we need to turn the Visible setting on (equal to true).  Also, VBA with Word is a little bit different than with Excel in that it is much more dependent on its window showing on screen.  Therefore a second command must be written to Activate Microsoft Word.

Copy From Excel, Paste Onto Document

Now that you have a new document created, you can command Excel to paste your table into MS Word.  Near the beginning of the code, there was a line that allowed you to specify the exact table you wanted to copy.  The variable tbl was used to remember this table range and to allow you to reference the range later on in the code.  

Guru Tip: It is a good idea to place code that may need to be manually changed at some point in the future near the beginning of the subroutine.  This prevents you from having to scroll through your code and pinpoint the exact place where you spelled out which range you wanted to copy or which worksheet you wanted to pull data from.  This can save you a bunch of time and prevent confusion!

Word has a special method called PasteExcelTable, which (as you can guess) allows you paste in an Excel table.  There are three variables you can tweak to get you table looking and functioning just the way you want.

• LinkedToExcel — True links the pasted table to the original Excel file so that changes made to the Excel file are reflected in Microsoft Word.

• WordFormatting — True formats the table using the formatting in the Word document.  False formats the table according to the original Excel file.

• RTF — True pastes the Excel table using Rich Text Format (RTF).  False pastes the Excel table as HTML.

Now for the last step!  Depending on how large your table is, it may be spilling outside of your document page.  In order to prevent this from happening you can go ahead and use AutoFitBehavior to resize the table to fit perfectly inside your Word document.

About The Author

Hey there! I’m Chris and I run TheSpreadsheetGuru website in my spare time. By day, I’m actually a finance professional who relies on Microsoft Excel quite heavily in the corporate world. I love taking the things I learn in the “real world” and sharing them with everyone here on this site so that you too can become a spreadsheet guru at your company.

Through my years in the corporate world, I’ve been able to pick up on opportunities to make working with Excel better and have built a variety of Excel add-ins, from inserting tickmark symbols to automating copy/pasting from Excel to PowerPoint. If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest Excel news and directly get emailed the most meaningful Excel tips I’ve learned over the years, you can sign up for my free newsletters. I hope I was able to provide you with some value today and I hope to see you back here soon!

— Chris
Founder, TheSpreadsheetGuru.com

Using Excel VBA to create Microsoft Word documents

In these examples, we generate Microsoft Word Documents with various formatting features using
the Microsoft Excel VBA scripting language. These techniques can have many useful applications.
For instance if you have a list of data like a price or product list in Excel that you want to present
in a formatted Word Document, these techniques can prove useful.

In these examples, we assume the reader has at least basic knowledge of VBA, so we will not
go over basics of creating and running scripts. This code has been tested on Microsoft Word and Excel
2007. Some changes may be required for other versions of Word and Excel.

Writing to Word
Inserting a Table of Contents
Inserting Tabs
Inserting Tables
Inserting Bullet List
more on Inserting Tables
Multiple Features

Function that demonstrates VBA writing to a Microsoft Word document

The following code illustrates the use of VBA Word.Application object and related properties.
In this example, we create a new Word Document add some text.

    'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.
	
    'Early Binding
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    
    'Alternatively, we can use Late Binding
    'Dim wdApp As Object
    'Set wdApp = CreateObject("word.Application")
        
    With wdApp
        .Visible = True
        .Activate
        .Documents.Add
        
        With .Selection
            .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
            .Font.Bold = True
            .Font.Name = "arial"
            .Font.Size = 14
            .TypeText ("My Heading")
            .TypeParagraph            
        End With
    End With 

Some VBA Vocabulary

ParagraphFormat
Represents all the formatting for a paragraph.

output in MS Word:

Inserting a Table of Contents into Word Document using Excel VBA

In this example, we generate a Table of Contents into a Word Document using Excel VBA

Sub sAddTableOfContents()
    
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
	
    'Alternatively, we can use Late Binding
    'Dim wdApp As Object
    'Set wdApp = CreateObject("word.Application")
    
    Dim wdDoc As Word.Document
    Set wdDoc = wdApp.Documents.Add
    
    ' Note we define a Word.range, as the default range wouled be an Excel range!
    Dim myWordRange As Word.range
    Dim Counter As Integer
    
    wdApp.Visible = True
    wdApp.Activate
    
    'Insert Some Headers
    With wdApp
        For Counter = 1 To 5
            .Selection.TypeParagraph
            .Selection.Style = "Heading 1"
            .Selection.TypeText "A Heading Level 1"
            .Selection.TypeParagraph
            .Selection.TypeText "Some details"
        Next
    End With

    ' We want to put table of contents at the top of the page
	Set myWordRange = wdApp.ActiveDocument.range(0, 0)
    
    wdApp.ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents.Add _
     range:=myWordRange, _
     UseFields:=False, _
     UseHeadingStyles:=True, _
     LowerHeadingLevel:=3, _
     UpperHeadingLevel:=1

End Sub

Some VBA Vocabulary

ActiveDocument.TablesOfContents.Add
The TablesOfContents property to return the TablesOfContents collection.
Use the Add method to add a table of contents to a document.

Some TablesOfContents Parameters

Range The range where you want the table of contents to appear. The table of contents replaces the range, if the range isn’t collapsed.

UseHeadingStyles True to use built-in heading styles to create the table of contents. The default value is True.

UpperHeadingLevel The starting heading level for the table of contents. Corresponds to the starting value used with the o switch for a Table of Contents (TOC) field. The default value is 1.

LowerHeadingLevel The ending heading level for the table of contents. Corresponds to the ending value used with the o switch for a Table of Contents (TOC) field. The default value is 9.

output Word Table in MS Word:

Write Microsoft Word Tabs

A function that writes tabbed content to a Microsoft Word Document. Note in each iteration, we change the
value of the leader character (characters that are inserted in the otherwise blank area created by the tab).

Public Sub sWriteMicrosoftTabs()

    'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.
    
    'Early Binding
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    
    'Alternatively, we can use Late Binding
    'Dim wdApp As Object
    'Set wdApp = CreateObject("word.Application")
        
    With wdApp
        .Visible = True
        .Activate
        .Documents.Add
    
        For Counter = 1 To 3
            .Selection.TypeText Text:=Counter & " - Tab 1 "
            
            ' position to 2.5 inches
            .Selection.Paragraphs.TabStops.Add Position:=Application.InchesToPoints(2.5), _
                Leader:=Counter, Alignment:=wdAlignTabLeft
            
            .Selection.TypeText Text:=vbTab & " - Tab 2 "
            
            ' position to 5 inches
            .Selection.Paragraphs.TabStops.Add Position:=Application.InchesToPoints(5), _
                Leader:=Counter, Alignment:=wdAlignTabLeft
            
            .Selection.TypeText Text:=vbTab & " - Tab 3 "
                    
            .Selection.TypeParagraph
        Next Counter
        
    End With
End Sub

Some VBA Vocabulary

.TabStops.Add Use the TabStops property to return the TabStops collection. In the example above,
nprogram adds a tab stop positioned at 0, 2.5 and 5 inches.

output in MS Word:

Write Microsoft Word Tables

In this example, we generate a Microsoft Table using Excel VBA

Sub sWriteMSWordTable ()
 
    'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.
    
    'Early Binding
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    
    'Alternatively, we can use Late Binding
    'Dim wdApp As Object
    'Set wdApp = CreateObject("word.Application")
        
    With wdApp
        .Visible = True
        .Activate
        .Documents.Add
        
        With .Selection
        
            .Tables.Add _
                    Range:=wdApp.Selection.Range, _
                    NumRows:=1, NumColumns:=3, _
                    DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord9TableBehavior, _
                    AutoFitBehavior:=wdAutoFitContent
            
            For counter = 1 To 12
                .TypeText Text:="Cell " & counter
                If counter <> 12 Then
                    .MoveRight Unit:=wdCell
                End If
            Next
        
        End With
        
    End With

End Sub

Some VBA vocabulary

Table.AddTable object that represents a new, blank table added to a document.

Table.Add properties

Range The range where you want the table to appear. The table replaces the range, if the range isn’t collapsed.

NumRows The number of rows you want to include in the table.

NumColumns The number of columns you want to include in the table.

DefaultTableBehavior Sets a value that specifies whether Microsoft Word automatically resizes cells in tables to fit the cells� contents (AutoFit). Can be either of the following constants: wdWord8TableBehavior (AutoFit disabled) or wdWord9TableBehavior (AutoFit enabled). The default constant is wdWord8TableBehavior.

AutoFitBehavior Sets the AutoFit rules for how Word sizes tables. Can be one of the WdAutoFitBehavior constants.

output in MS Word:

Write Microsoft Word bullet list

In this example, we write with bullet list and outline numbers with Excel VBA

    'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.
    
    'Early Binding
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    
    'Alternatively, we can use Late Binding
    'Dim wdApp As Object
    'Set wdApp = CreateObject("word.Application")
    
    With wdApp
        .Visible = True
        .Activate
        .Documents.Add
        ' turn on bullets
        .ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1).Name = ""
        .Selection.Range.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplate ListTemplate:=.ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1), _
            continuepreviouslist:=False, applyto:=wdListApplyToWholeList, defaultlistbehavior:=wdWord9ListBehavior
        
        With .Selection
            .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphLeft
            .Font.Bold = False
            .Font.Name = "Century Gothic"
            .Font.Size = 12
            .TypeText ("some details")
            .TypeParagraph
            .TypeText ("some details")
            .TypeParagraph
        End With
        
        ' turn off bullets
        .Selection.Range.ListFormat.RemoveNumbers wdBulletGallery
        
        With .Selection
            .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphLeft
            .TypeText ("some details")
            .TypeParagraph
            .TypeText ("some details")
            .TypeParagraph
            
        End With
        
        ' turn on outline numbers
        .ListGalleries(wdOutlineNumberGallery).ListTemplates(1).Name = ""
        .Selection.Range.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplate ListTemplate:=.ListGalleries(wdOutlineNumberGallery).ListTemplates(1), _
            continuepreviouslist:=False, applyto:=wdListApplyToWholeList, defaultlistbehavior:=wdWord9ListBehavior
        
        With .Selection
            .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphLeft
            .TypeText ("some details")
            .TypeParagraph
            .TypeText ("some details")
            
        End With
        
    End With

output in MS Word:

Another example of Writing Tables to Microsoft Word

In this example we will create a word document with 20 paragraphs. Each paragraph will have a header with a header style element

    
   'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    Dim wdDoc As Word.Document

    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    wdApp.Visible = True
    
    
    Dim x As Integer
    Dim y As Integer
    
    wdApp.Visible = True
    wdApp.Activate
    wdApp.Documents.Add
            
    wdApp.ActiveDocument.Tables.Add Range:=wdApp.Selection.Range, NumRows:=2, NumColumns:= _
        2, DefaultTableBehavior:=wdWord9TableBehavior, AutoFitBehavior:= _
        wdAutoFitFixed
                
    With wdApp.Selection.Tables(1)
        If .Style <> "Table Grid" Then
            .Style = "Table Grid"
        End If
        .ApplyStyleHeadingRows = True
        .ApplyStyleLastRow = False
        .ApplyStyleFirstColumn = True
        .ApplyStyleLastColumn = False
        .ApplyStyleRowBands = True
        .ApplyStyleColumnBands = False
    End With
            
    With wdApp.Selection
        
        For x = 1 To 2
            ' set style name
            .Style = "Heading 1"
            .TypeText "Subject" & x
            .TypeParagraph
            .Style = "No Spacing"
            For y = 1 To 20
                .TypeText "paragraph text "
            Next y
            .TypeParagraph
        Next x
    
        ' new paragraph
        .TypeParagraph
        
        ' toggle bold on
        .Font.Bold = wdToggle
        .TypeText Text:="show some text in bold"
        .TypeParagraph
        
        'toggle bold off
        .Font.Bold = wdToggle
        .TypeText "show some text in regular front weight"
        .TypeParagraph
        
        
    End With
        
    

Some VBA vocabulary

TypeText

Inserts specified text at the beginning of the current selection. The selection is turned into an insertion point at the end of the inserted text.
If Options.ReplaceSelection = True then the original selection will be replaced. This behaves exactly the same as typing some text at the keyboard.

TypeParagraph

Insert a new blank paragraph. The selection is turned into an insertion point after the inserted paragraph mark. If Options.ReplaceSelection = True then the original selection will be replaced. This behaves exactly the same as pressing the Enter key.

output in MS Word:

Generating a Word table with VBA

	'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word XX.X Object Library" before running.

	Dim wdApp As Word.Application
	Dim wdDoc As Word.Document
	Dim r As Integer

	Set wdApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
	wdApp.Visible = True

	Set wdDoc = wdApp.Documents.Add
	wdApp.Activate

	Dim wdTbl As Word.Table
	Set wdTbl = wdDoc.Tables.Add(Range:=wdDoc.Range, NumRows:=5, NumColumns:=1)

	With wdTbl

		.Borders(wdBorderTop).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		.Borders(wdBorderLeft).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		.Borders(wdBorderBottom).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		.Borders(wdBorderRight).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		.Borders(wdBorderHorizontal).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		.Borders(wdBorderVertical).LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
		
		For r = 1 To 5
			.Cell(r, 1).Range.Text = ActiveSheet.Cells(r, 1).Value
		Next r
	End With

	

output in MS Word:

Option Explicit
Dim wdApp As Word.Application
 
Sub extractToWord()

   'In Tools > References, add reference to "Microsoft Word 12 Object Library" before running.
   
    Dim lastCell
    Dim rng As Range
    Dim row As Range
    Dim cell As Range
    Dim arrayOfColumns
    arrayOfColumns = Array("", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "")
    Dim thisRow As Range
    Dim thisCell As Range
    Dim myStyle As String
    
    ' get last cell in column B
    lastCell = getLastCell()
    
    Set rng = Range("B2:H" & lastCell)
    
    'iterate through rows
    For Each thisRow In rng.Rows
            
        'iterate through cells in row row
        For Each thisCell In thisRow.Cells

            If thisCell.Value = arrayOfColumns(thisCell.Column) Or thisCell.Value = "" Then
            ' do nothing
                ''frWriteLine thisCell.Value, "Normal"
                ''frWriteLine arrayOfColumns(thisCell.Column), "Normal"
                  If thisCell.Value = arrayOfColumns(thisCell.Column) Or thisCell.Value = "" Then
                  End If
                  
            Else
                myStyle = "Normal"
                Select Case thisCell.Column
                    Case 2
                        myStyle = "Heading 1"
                    Case 3
                        myStyle = "Heading 2"
                    Case 4
                        myStyle = "Heading 3"
                    Case Is > 5
                        myStyle = "Normal"
                    
                End Select
                    
                frWriteLine thisCell.Value, myStyle
            End If
        
        arrayOfColumns(thisCell.Column) = thisCell.Value
    
      Next thisCell
    Next thisRow
    
End Sub

Public Function getLastCell() As Integer

    Dim lastRowNumber As Long
    Dim lastRowString As String
    Dim lastRowAddress As String
         
    With ActiveSheet
        getLastCell = .Cells(.Rows.Count, 2).End(xlUp).row
    End With
    
End Function

Public Function frWriteLine(someData As Variant, myStyle As String)
    
    If wdApp Is Nothing Then
        
        Set wdApp = New Word.Application
        With wdApp
            .Visible = True
            .Activate
            .Documents.Add
        End With
            
    End If
    
    With wdApp
        
        With .Selection
            .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
            .Style = myStyle
            .TypeText (someData)
            .TypeParagraph
        End With
    End With
    
End Function

output in MS Word:

With the current article I will show you how to transfer data from Excel to Word. I will use Office 2010 and windows 7.

In the first code snippet, I declare 2 objects and a range. The first Object is the Word Application object (oWord) and the second one is the document itself. As far as the code is ran from an Excel file, no object for the file is needed. The copied used range is simply pasted in the word file. Here is the code:

In the second snippet, I will do the same, but I will use the function Selection.TypeText, in which one may type whatever he wants. With this function, I will write the name of the Excel file and the current date.

This is done with the following:

The whole code goes here:

🙂

Enjoy it!

During your work week, there are probably lots of times that you find yourself copying and pasting information from Excel into Word, or the other way around. This is how people often produce written reports based on data that’s accumulated and updated in an Excel spreadsheet. In this article, I’m going to dive a little more into the background VBA scripting that allows you to actually program connections between data in Excel and Word.

Updated by Brad Jones on 25 August 2017.

During your work week, there are probably lots of times that you find yourself copying and pasting information from Microsoft Excel into Word, or the other way around.

This is how people often produce written reports based on data that’s accumulated and updated in a spreadsheet. Excel is a great program for everything from creating professional looking charts, to setting up a project management tracker — but when it comes to writing up a report, Word is a much better tool.

In this article, we’re going to dive into background VBA scripting that allows you to actually program connections between data that are stored in an Excel file and Word documents where you’re producing reports.

It’s surprisingly easy to integrate Microsoft Excel data into Microsoft Word once you know how to add the right references, and how to lay out the syntax of the background VBA code.

Setting Up the Spreadsheet

In this example, I’m going to start out with a fairly simple Excel spreadsheet. In practice, the Excel file can consist of multiple spreadsheets with lots of data — it doesn’t matter.

So long as you know where to find the data in the spreadsheet, you’ll be able to reach in and grab it using VBA.

Here’s what my sample spreadsheet looks like. It’s a list of expense totals that have been calculated throughout the entire year.

Setting Up the Word Document

Let’s say you have a manager that would like to see a nicely formatted report that describes the expenses, grouping together like items and presenting the information in a layout that’s a little more aesthetically pleasing.

You can do this by incorporating objects like text boxes and labels into your Word document. When you’re in Word, just click on the Developer menu tab, and then select «Design Mode» in the Controls section. Use the Legacy Tools drop-down icon to insert various different elements into your document.

Use this menu to insert a Label.

Once you have the label placed in the document where you want it (not always an easy task), you’re ready to program the data feed. But first, you’ll need to name the label so that the VBA can identify it. Right click on the label and go into Properties. Find the (Name) field and call it something that you’ll remember.

Now, add a Command Button from the same Legacy Tools drop-down list, and double click it to open up the VBA editor. When you get your code working later, you can modify it so that the code runs on the Document Open() event. You’ll see that in the object drop-down boxes in the editor window.

Working With VBA

To get started connecting Word to Excel, you’ll need to make sure you can reference the latter in VBA.

Prepare the Excel Data Import

Click on Tools, and then References. Scroll down the list until you see the Microsoft Excel 16.0 Object Library and select it.

Once you’ve done this, the rest is just a matter of writing a ridiculously simple VBA script to pull in data from an Excel spreadsheet, and automatically update the label caption with the data.

Here’s the code:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

Dim objExcel As New Excel.Application

Dim exWb As Excel.Workbook

Set exWb = objExcel.Workbooks.Open("C:UsersBradDesktopexpenses.xlsx")

ThisDocument.total_expenses.Caption = exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(12, 2)

exWb.Close

Set exWb = Nothing

End Sub

See how that works? The «exWb» Excel application object opens the Microsoft Excel file at the path you provide it, and it’ll go right into the specific sheet and cell number, extract the data, and place it into the Caption property of the label that I named total_expenses. All you need to edit in your script is the file path and the label name.

Test Your Macro

To test out your command button, save your document, remembering to specify that you want a Word Macro-Enabled Document so that your code works.

Here’s the VBA macro in action.

Integrate Excel Labels

The hard part with dealing with labels in Word is that it’s sometimes hard to align it at the end of a sentence or alongside any other text.

One way of overcoming that is actually incorporating some of the text alongside the data in the VBA code itself.  As you can see here, I’ve put the static text right into the Caption when I create the label itself.

Now, all you have to do is include that text when you update the label with your VBA script, and just append the data from the Microsoft Excel file to the end of that text.

Here’s what that kind of code would look like.

Dim objExcel As New Excel.Application

Dim exWb As Excel.Workbook

Set exWb = objExcel.Workbooks.Open("c:UsersBradDesktopexpenses.xlsa")

ThisDocument.total_expenses.Caption = exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(12, 2)

ThisDocument.total_hotels.Caption = "Hotels: " & exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(5, 2)

ThisDocument.total_dining.Caption = "Dining Out: " & exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(2, 2)

ThisDocument.total_tolls.Caption = "Tolls: " & exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(3, 2)

ThisDocument.total_fuel.Caption = "Fuel: " & exWb.Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(10, 2)

exWb.Close

Set exWb = Nothing

You can use the string concatenation «&» symbol to place connect the static text with the data extracted from the Excel sheet. Here’s what the final results look like in the updated Word document:

Taking Things Further

If you want to test your abilities, why not automate your report even further? You can remove that ugly gray command button from your Microsoft Word document, simply by having the data-update script run on Document.Open() — the whole process will take place behind the scenes.

This means that in many cases, you could create the initial document once, and then never have to create it again. All you’ll have to do is open it, and all of the labels will automatically update for you with the data from the updated Microsoft Excel file. Just click Print, and submit the report to your manager. A 30-minute job just turned into a one-minute printout!

Can you think of any other cool uses for this data-integration technique using VBA? Share some of your own ideas and thoughts in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Punyaphat Larpsomboon via Shutterstock.com