Macro for highlighting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anthony Giorgianni
  • Start date Start date
Anthony,

I know that your can use your current macros but, anyway, I will try to
explain a little more ;-) - not least because it could make your work even
easier.

After your latest explanation I am sure that what both Tony and I started to
explain is the only thing you need - a single line of code in the macro (no
SendKeys) - and you can have a macro for each highlight color. The only
passage in your explanation that confuses me a little is "(usually without
selecting it first)" - I think you select the text you want to highlight
or?...

I (and a lot of people I have created macros for) do what you do several
times every day, i.e. apply different highlight colors to text and for that
purpose I have created a series of macros like the ones below - one per used
color. In order to make it fast and easy to apply the different colors, I
have assigned shortcuts to the individual highlight macros (they have been
added to a custom toolbar as well - with colored icons as you describe). I
have used these shortcuts that do not conflict with built-in shortcuts and
that are easy to remember:
Alt+Ctrl+Y for Yellow (wdYellow)
Alt+Ctrl+P for Pink (wdPink)
Alt+Ctrl+G for Green (wdBrightGreen)
Alt+Ctrl+B for Blue (wdTurquoise)
Alt+Ctrl+R for Red (wdRed)
Alt+Ctrl+< for no highlight (wdNoHighlight) - i.e. the macro that removes
the highlight

The _important_ thing is that when you apply the highlight via a _macro_,
you can do that _without_ first changing the highlight color of the highlight
icon. You simply do not need "Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed". I
know that this line is the only one you get if you record a macro but, as
Tony said, the macro recorder is not perfect - that macro does not apply any
highlight when executed afterwards. For that purpose you need
"Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = [your color]".

So back to the start:

The following macro will change the highlight color of the selection to red
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon (i.e. the
macro determines the color, not the highlight icon):

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
End Sub

Correspondingly, the following macro will change the highlight color of the
selection to yellow _regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the
highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Yellow()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
End Sub

The following macro will _remove_ any highlight from the selection
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
End Sub

This way you can create a corresponding macro for each of the highlight
colors you want to use. And if you assign shortcuts, you can apply any of the
highlight colors or remove the highlight simply by pressing the shortcut
(that is what I always do). You never need to care about which color is
selected in the highlight icon.

Hope this helps.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word
 
Hey Lene

Thanks again. I'm sorry I'm not being clear . Or maybe I'm being dense :O).

When I say I don't want to select the text first, I mean that: I'm simply
reading through a document and want to turn on the highlighting tool - the
thing that changes the cursor into a virtual highlighting pen that you swipe
across any text to highlight. This avoids having to actually select the
text at all. So the combined function is 1) set the desired highlighting
color 2) turn on the highlighting tool.

So the macro would be

1) Select the highlight color (which we all know how to do)
2) Turn on the highlighting tool to transform the cursor into a highlighting
pen (which is the part I can't figure out how to do as part of the macro
without sendkeys)

Oddly, if a record a macro, I get the first step. But when I click on the
highlighting box to actually turn on the highlighting tool, that action
doesn't get recorded in the VB code.

See what I mean?

Regards,

Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please reply to the group.



Lene Fredborg said:
Anthony,

I know that your can use your current macros but, anyway, I will try to
explain a little more ;-) - not least because it could make your work even
easier.

After your latest explanation I am sure that what both Tony and I started
to
explain is the only thing you need - a single line of code in the macro
(no
SendKeys) - and you can have a macro for each highlight color. The only
passage in your explanation that confuses me a little is "(usually without
selecting it first)" - I think you select the text you want to highlight
or?...

I (and a lot of people I have created macros for) do what you do several
times every day, i.e. apply different highlight colors to text and for
that
purpose I have created a series of macros like the ones below - one per
used
color. In order to make it fast and easy to apply the different colors, I
have assigned shortcuts to the individual highlight macros (they have been
added to a custom toolbar as well - with colored icons as you describe). I
have used these shortcuts that do not conflict with built-in shortcuts and
that are easy to remember:
Alt+Ctrl+Y for Yellow (wdYellow)
Alt+Ctrl+P for Pink (wdPink)
Alt+Ctrl+G for Green (wdBrightGreen)
Alt+Ctrl+B for Blue (wdTurquoise)
Alt+Ctrl+R for Red (wdRed)
Alt+Ctrl+< for no highlight (wdNoHighlight) - i.e. the macro that removes
the highlight

The _important_ thing is that when you apply the highlight via a _macro_,
you can do that _without_ first changing the highlight color of the
highlight
icon. You simply do not need "Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex =
wdRed". I
know that this line is the only one you get if you record a macro but, as
Tony said, the macro recorder is not perfect - that macro does not apply
any
highlight when executed afterwards. For that purpose you need
"Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = [your color]".

So back to the start:

The following macro will change the highlight color of the selection to
red
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon (i.e.
the
macro determines the color, not the highlight icon):

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
End Sub

Correspondingly, the following macro will change the highlight color of
the
selection to yellow _regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the
highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Yellow()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
End Sub

The following macro will _remove_ any highlight from the selection
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
End Sub

This way you can create a corresponding macro for each of the highlight
colors you want to use. And if you assign shortcuts, you can apply any of
the
highlight colors or remove the highlight simply by pressing the shortcut
(that is what I always do). You never need to care about which color is
selected in the highlight icon.

Hope this helps.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word


Anthony Giorgianni said:
Thanks everyone for your help.

I think I'll simply to stick with using the sendkeys command. That's a
neat
macro Lene but doesn't seem to do what I'm looking for. I think I'm
probably
not explaining it right. All I want to be able to do is simply turn on
highlighting with a certain color with one click, avoiding having to go
up
to the highlighting menu item, select the color and turn it on.

The reason is that, as a journalist, many times I'm reading a document
and
want to highlight items for different importance - green = interesting
but
not critical, yellow = pretty important, red = information that I must
use.
So when I see something pretty important, I want to turn on yellow
highlighting with one click of a toolbar icon. Then I highlight that
(usually without selecting it first) Later I might see something that's
critical, so I want to turn on red highlighting with one click.

This does that exactly

Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow REM: Selects the
highlighting color yellow
SendKeys "{F5}" REM Turns on highlighting, where Word has been set to
associate F5 with turning on highlighting.

Tony suggested that using sendkeys isn't the best way to do this. It
certainly doesn't make the macro portable if I want to transfer it to
another machine without having to set F5 (as I found out when I tried to
transfer it from my home to my work machine and forgot about setting F5
to
turn on highlighting.) So I was curious if there was another way to do
it.
But it's no big deal. It works fine. By the way, to make it really easy,
I
created a "highlighting" toolbar with icons that are simply colored
squares,
each assigned to a different color macro and one assigned to "no color"
for
clearing.

Thanks again.

Regards
Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please reply to the group.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes, now - finally - I see what you mean :-)
And now I also understand what you meant by "usually without
selecting it first".

Happy highlighting!

---
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word


Anthony Giorgianni said:
Hey Lene

Thanks again. I'm sorry I'm not being clear . Or maybe I'm being dense :O).

When I say I don't want to select the text first, I mean that: I'm simply
reading through a document and want to turn on the highlighting tool - the
thing that changes the cursor into a virtual highlighting pen that you swipe
across any text to highlight. This avoids having to actually select the
text at all. So the combined function is 1) set the desired highlighting
color 2) turn on the highlighting tool.

So the macro would be

1) Select the highlight color (which we all know how to do)
2) Turn on the highlighting tool to transform the cursor into a highlighting
pen (which is the part I can't figure out how to do as part of the macro
without sendkeys)

Oddly, if a record a macro, I get the first step. But when I click on the
highlighting box to actually turn on the highlighting tool, that action
doesn't get recorded in the VB code.

See what I mean?

Regards,

Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please reply to the group.



Lene Fredborg said:
Anthony,

I know that your can use your current macros but, anyway, I will try to
explain a little more ;-) - not least because it could make your work even
easier.

After your latest explanation I am sure that what both Tony and I started
to
explain is the only thing you need - a single line of code in the macro
(no
SendKeys) - and you can have a macro for each highlight color. The only
passage in your explanation that confuses me a little is "(usually without
selecting it first)" - I think you select the text you want to highlight
or?...

I (and a lot of people I have created macros for) do what you do several
times every day, i.e. apply different highlight colors to text and for
that
purpose I have created a series of macros like the ones below - one per
used
color. In order to make it fast and easy to apply the different colors, I
have assigned shortcuts to the individual highlight macros (they have been
added to a custom toolbar as well - with colored icons as you describe). I
have used these shortcuts that do not conflict with built-in shortcuts and
that are easy to remember:
Alt+Ctrl+Y for Yellow (wdYellow)
Alt+Ctrl+P for Pink (wdPink)
Alt+Ctrl+G for Green (wdBrightGreen)
Alt+Ctrl+B for Blue (wdTurquoise)
Alt+Ctrl+R for Red (wdRed)
Alt+Ctrl+< for no highlight (wdNoHighlight) - i.e. the macro that removes
the highlight

The _important_ thing is that when you apply the highlight via a _macro_,
you can do that _without_ first changing the highlight color of the
highlight
icon. You simply do not need "Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex =
wdRed". I
know that this line is the only one you get if you record a macro but, as
Tony said, the macro recorder is not perfect - that macro does not apply
any
highlight when executed afterwards. For that purpose you need
"Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = [your color]".

So back to the start:

The following macro will change the highlight color of the selection to
red
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon (i.e.
the
macro determines the color, not the highlight icon):

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
End Sub

Correspondingly, the following macro will change the highlight color of
the
selection to yellow _regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the
highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Yellow()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
End Sub

The following macro will _remove_ any highlight from the selection
_regardless_ of what color is currently shown in the highlight icon:

Sub HighLight_Red()
Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = wdNoHighlight
End Sub

This way you can create a corresponding macro for each of the highlight
colors you want to use. And if you assign shortcuts, you can apply any of
the
highlight colors or remove the highlight simply by pressing the shortcut
(that is what I always do). You never need to care about which color is
selected in the highlight icon.

Hope this helps.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word


Anthony Giorgianni said:
Thanks everyone for your help.

I think I'll simply to stick with using the sendkeys command. That's a
neat
macro Lene but doesn't seem to do what I'm looking for. I think I'm
probably
not explaining it right. All I want to be able to do is simply turn on
highlighting with a certain color with one click, avoiding having to go
up
to the highlighting menu item, select the color and turn it on.

The reason is that, as a journalist, many times I'm reading a document
and
want to highlight items for different importance - green = interesting
but
not critical, yellow = pretty important, red = information that I must
use.
So when I see something pretty important, I want to turn on yellow
highlighting with one click of a toolbar icon. Then I highlight that
(usually without selecting it first) Later I might see something that's
critical, so I want to turn on red highlighting with one click.

This does that exactly

Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow REM: Selects the
highlighting color yellow
SendKeys "{F5}" REM Turns on highlighting, where Word has been set to
associate F5 with turning on highlighting.

Tony suggested that using sendkeys isn't the best way to do this. It
certainly doesn't make the macro portable if I want to transfer it to
another machine without having to set F5 (as I found out when I tried to
transfer it from my home to my work machine and forgot about setting F5
to
turn on highlighting.) So I was curious if there was another way to do
it.
But it's no big deal. It works fine. By the way, to make it really easy,
I
created a "highlighting" toolbar with icons that are simply colored
squares,
each assigned to a different color macro and one assigned to "no color"
for
clearing.

Thanks again.

Regards
Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please reply to the group.




Greg,

About changing the previous highlighting too: after reading the
description
again now, I am sure you are right - however, I did not read it that
way
first.

About the insertion point being in a word: you are right, if the option
"When selecting, automatically select entire word" in Tools > Options >
Edit
tab is turned on, the code line "Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex =
wdRed"
would highlight that word. I should have taken this into consideration
by
making a check in the code as you did in your version - unfortunately,
I
failed to notice this because I do not have that option turned on.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks again for all your help!!!!

Regards
Anthony Giorgianni

For everyone's benefit, please reply to the group.
 
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