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Subject:Re: WORD97: is it worth upgrading? From:"Wing, Michael J" <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 2 Sep 1997 11:52:06 -0500
> John -dot- Cornellier -at- PARIS -dot- IE -dot- PHILIPS -dot- COM writes:
>
<snip>
> << I am particularly concerned about having to convert my macros>>
>
<snip>
> I'm an ex-programmer myself. But I'm floored that they expect a
> simple word
> processing user to plunge into an object-oriented language.
>
<snip>
> << Any functional advantages to the new macro language? >>
>
> Well, if you can master the fundamental approach of Visual Basic, it's
> far
> more generalized than straight application-bound macros. Basically,
> you'll
> have learned to program.
>
>
> Jim Chevallier
> Los Angeles
> =======================================================
>
>
My guess is that making Word available as an object is a benefit to
application developers more than Tech Writers. (Previously, I believe,
only word.basic (the macro language) was available as an object and
Word.Document as a custom control; the actually Word application was
not.) For example, my division at Intergraph creates object-oriented
mapping products. It would be nice to have the Word application
available as an object in order to integrate the applications while
running through a mapping application command (and thus use Word to
develop and format map notes and comments or to automatically create a
formatted list of street names within a fenced in area of the mapping
application).
With Word not available as an application object, I've hit some dead
ends in selectively running word macros from a custom-designed
interface. It would be nice to design the GUI through VB rather than
the simple Dialog Box editor supplied with Word Basic. Case in point, I
wrote a macro that allows Developers to add automation topics to the RTF
files. The problem is that certain fields are only applicable to
certain topic types. With Word Basic, I cannot disable the controls and
fields that are not applicable to the selected topic type. Thus, I have
to clutter the dialog box with "Use only if XXX option is selected"
text. If I was able to develop the interface in VB, I could
automatically disable the non-applicable controls and fields based on
the topic type selected. Furthermore, I could take advantage of the
common dialog box controls (color, open file, and so forth) to allow the
macro to be more interactive.
There's too many benefits in Word being able to interact with other
object-oriented applications to list in this message. However, my point
is that Tech Writers and Secretaries are not the only people for which a
word processor is designed. Application developers can add the word
processing automation to their applications and thus not have to
redevelop code to handle text.
Mike Wing
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