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For developers
Articles for developers of Word templates and tools, whether you use .NET, VSTO, VB6, VBA, VB Script or another language to address the Word object model
Development
Design Mode in Word 2007 and Word 2010: How to detect it and turn it on and off
Word 2007 and Word 2010 have a 'Design mode' button for editing content controls. .FormsDesign and .ToggleFormsDesign detect or toggle Design mode.
Created 13 August 2010. Last updated 28 August 2010.
How to create a ribbon button to show the Signatures pane in Word
The FileViewDigitalSignatures command in Word is broken. But you can work around this by creating a custom button on the ribbon to display the Signatures task pane directly.
How to detect whether a Word COM Add-in is connected and, if not, load it
Word's object model provides a COMAddIns collection of COMAddIn objects. In theory, the .Connect property of a COMAddIn object should tell you whether the add-in is connected and/or allow you to load it. In practice, not so.
Selecting or referring to a page in the Word object model
It's common to feel that you need to cycle through all the pages in a Word document and perform some processing on each page. This article discusses why it's not possible for developers to refer to a printed page using the Word object model, and some workarounds.
Word.Application.Options.LabelSmartTags doesn’t work in Word 2010. But there is a workaround.
In Word 2010, Smart Tags are re-named as Actions, and are deprecated. The user can still turn on the recognition of Actions but we can no longer read or write the corresponding option in the object model. This article proposeds a workaround.
Formatting
Layout
Managing Word
Asking questions, getting help
4 ways to get free information about how to use Word.
Styles
4 ways to control page breaks within tables and table styles (for developers)
For developers: How to prevent a whole table, or just one or more rows, from breaking across a page. The Microsoft Word object model has 4 ways to manage, or prevent, tables from breaking across a page. Some of them work.
Background and foreground: Shading in paragraph styles
For developers: The background colour in a paragraph style is controlled through the Shading object. It manages background and foreground colour and texture. The Word object model is straight-forward, but you need to choose the right texture as well as the background and foreground colours.
Created 25 April 2010. Last updated 28 August 2011.
Borders in character and paragraph styles
How to control borders in Character and Paragraph styles. Includes bugs, annoyances and limitations.
How to detect frames in paragraph styles
In the user interface, it is obvious if a paragraph style has a frame. It's not so obvious in the Word object model. There is no built-in method to determine whether a style has a Frame. This article identifies one possible way around this problem.
Shading (ie background colour) in table styles
For developers: how to set the background colour in a table style using the Microsoft Word object model. There are 7 ways to set shading (ie background or foreground colour) on elements of a table style in Microsoft Word. Most don't work. This article describes what does seem to work, and identifies the bugs and annoyances in setting shading in table styles.
Templates
Front cover images in Microsoft Word report templates
In a Microsoft Word template for a business report we often need a front cover with a big image and text overlaying the image. How to do it and traps to avoid.
Tags: Content Controls, Headers and footers, Images, Page breaks, Page numbers, Pagination, Templates
Created 30 August 2010
How to save a Word document as a template
If you save a Word document as a template, your template will start life with all the accumulated baggage and garbage that the document had acquired. Here is how to create a pristine, clean, new Word template in Word 2007 or Word 2010.