Writing Word Macros, Second Edition

Debugging

Invariably, you will encounter errors in your code. Design-time and compile-time errors are relatively easy to deal with because Word helps us out with error messages and by indicating the offending code. Logical errors are much more difficult to detect and to fix. This is where debugging plays a major role. The Word IDE provides some very powerful ways to find bugs.

Debugging can be quite involved, and I could include a whole chapter on the subject. There are even special software applications designed to assist in complex debugging tasks. However, for most purposes, a few simple techniques are sufficient. In particular, Word makes it easy to trace through programs, executing one line at a time, watching the effect of each line as it is executed.

Try a very simple example, with which you should follow along on your PC. If possible, you should arrange your screen as in Figure 4-10. This will make it easier to follow the effects of the code, since you won’t need to switch back and forth between the Word window and the Word VBA window. The code that we will trace is shown in Example 4-1. (Note that lines beginning with an apostrophe are comments that are ignored by Word.)

Example 4-1. A Simple Program to Trace

Sub test() Dim sent As Range ' Get the third sentence Set sent = ActiveDocument.Range.Sentences(3) ' Select it sent.Select ' Boldface it sent.Bold = True ' Select the first character in the sentence sent.Characters(1).Select ' Change the font Selection.Font.Size = 24 End ...