Word Document Properties

Listing 5-1
Using an If...Then Statement for Decisions
Public Sub IfThenTest()
‘ Create a variable for the selected text.
Dim TestText As String
‘ Get the current selection.
TestText = ActiveWindow.Selection.Text
‘ Test the selection for “Hello.”
If TestText = “Hello” Then
‘ Modify the selected text to show it’s correct.
TestText = “Correct!” + vbCrLf + “Hello”
End If
‘ Test the selection for end of line.
If TestText = Chr(13) Then
‘ Modify the selected text to show the control
(continued)
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Chapter 5: Creating Structured Programs
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Listing 5-1 
(continued)
‘ character.
TestText = “End of line selected!”
End If
‘ Test the selection for a space.
If TestText = Chr(32) Then
‘ Modify the selected text to show the space.
TestText = “Space selected!”
End If
‘ Display the selected text.
MsgBox TestText
End Sub
The code begins by creating a variable to hold the selected text. It then
shows how to use a new object, 
ActiveWindow
. The 
ActiveWindow
object
is useful for a number of tasks, but in this case you use it to get hold of the
selected text, if any. If you don’t have any text selected, the resulting message
box may simply display an OK button without any additional information.
The first 
If...Then
structure determines whether you select the word
Hello.
If so, the statement 
TestText = “Correct!” + vbCrLf +
“Hello”
executes. Otherwise, VBA ignores the statement and moves on to
the next test.
The second 
If...Then
structure determines whether the cursor is at the
end of the line. This test tells you two things about selections. First, VBA
always sees at least one character selected. If you haven’t selected anything,
ActiveWindow.Selection.Text
returns the next character in line.
Second, the 
vbCrLf
constant does have two control characters in it. The
code tests for 
Chr(13)
or a carriage return because that’s always the first
character in the 
vbCrLf
sequence. If you set the cursor at the end of the line,
VBA modifies 
TestText
as shown in the code.
The third 
If...Then
structure checks for a space. Although it isn’t always
essential to check for spaces, in this case viewers will see a blank dialog box
when they place the cursor immediately before a space in the line of text.
Making this additional check reduces the risk that the user will see some-
thing unexpected. You should always try to include checks such as this one
in your code. Unfortunately, you won’t always find all of these difficult sce-
narios immediately, which is why you should ask other people to check your
applications for potential problems.
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