Enumerating and changing Word properties

mmcdonal · December 18th, 2008, 10:35 AM

I want to run through a series of folders and copy the Date Created for each document to it's Title using either VBA or VBScript. Is this possible? For example:

From:

Doc1.doc
Title: ""
DateCreated: 1/1/2007

Doc2.doc
Title: "Sample"
DateCreated: 1/2/2007

To:

Doc1.doc
Title: "1/1/2007"
DateCreated: 1/1/2007

Doc2.doc
Title: "Sample, 1/2/2007"
DateCreated: 1/2/2007

Thanks.

Shasur · December 19th, 2008, 05:42 AM

You can try using BuiltInDocumentProperties

Code:

 
Sub StoreProperty()
Dim oWD As Word.Document

Set oWD = Word.Documents.Open("c:\sample.doc")
oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Title") = oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Creation date")
oWD.Save
oWD.Close (False)
End Sub

Cheers
Shasur

mmcdonal · December 19th, 2008, 09:03 AM

Thanks, that looks promising. I am doing this from inside Access, and I get

Microsoft Visual Basic
Compile Error:
User-defined type not defined.

Is there a reference I am missing?

Shasur · December 19th, 2008, 09:11 AM

You are right

You need to Include Microsoft Word 11.0 (or whatever) Object Library

Cheers
Shasur

mmcdonal · December 19th, 2008, 09:20 AM

The object library worked to get me past the Word.Document error, but now I am stuck on:

Set oWD = Word.Documents.Open("C:\Sample.doc")

I get:

Microsoft Visual Basic
Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object

oWD = Nothing

There is a word doc at C:\Sample.doc that is closed when this runs.

mmcdonal · December 19th, 2008, 09:26 AM

I changed this line:

Dim oWD As Word.Document

to this:

Dim oWD As New Word.Document

I still get the same error, but now the tool tip says:

oWD = <Object variable or With block variable not set>

Shasur · December 19th, 2008, 10:05 AM

Oh! You are trying from Access. I should have changed the code to create a Word instance. Can you try if the following works

Code:

 
Sub StoreProperty_V2()
Dim oWA As Word.Application
Dim oWD As Word.Document
Set oWA = New Word.Application
Set oWD = Word.Documents.Open("c:\sample.doc")
oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Title") = oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Creation date")
oWD.Save
oWD.Close (False)
oWA.Quit
If Not oWD Is Nothing Then Set oWD = Nothing
If Not oWA Is Nothing Then Set oWA = Nothing
End Sub

Cheers
Shasur

mmcdonal · December 19th, 2008, 10:13 AM

Sorry for the confusion. This runs without errors, but it doesn't write to the Title, so the Title remains unchanged. I guess I will create a csv of file attributes and then do the updates manually, unless you have further suggestions.

Shasur · December 19th, 2008, 10:20 AM

Can you hardcode the title and check if it works

Code:

 
Sub StoreProperty_V2()
Dim oWA As Word.Application
Dim oWD As Word.Document
Set oWA = New Word.Application
Set oWD = oWA .Documents.Open("c:\sample.doc")
oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Title") = "Mytitle" ' oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties("Creation date")
oWD.Save
oWD.Close (False)
oWA.Quit
If Not oWD Is Nothing Then Set oWD = Nothing
If Not oWA Is Nothing Then Set oWA = Nothing
End Sub

cheers
Shasur