Replace word in ms word with cell value in excel vba

Question

I've been experimenting with the code below but I can't make it work. What I'm trying to accomplish is for example cell "A1" in excel has a customers name, and I want to replace every instance that has "CName" in a word document with the value in cell "A1". Currently, the code only selects "CName" in the word document but it does not replace the value.

Sub test()

    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim objWord As Object
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim strValue As String

    Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("CustomerNames")
    Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    objWord.Visible = True
    objWord.Documents.Open "F:\Test folder\TestFolder\Test.docx"

    objWord.Activate
    strValue = Range("C1525").Value

    With objWord.Selection.Find
        .Text = "CName"
        .Replacement.Text = strValue
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With

End Sub

Solution

Replace this line

• With objWord.Selection.Find

with

• With objWord.ActiveDocument.Content.Find

---

Option Explicit

Public Sub WordFindAndReplace()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, msWord As Object

    Set ws = ActiveSheet
    Set msWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    With msWord
        .Visible = True
        .Documents.Open "F:\Test folder\TestFolder\Test.docx"
        .Activate

        With .ActiveDocument.Content.Find
            .ClearFormatting
            .Replacement.ClearFormatting

            .Text = "CName"
            .Replacement.Text = ws.Range("C1525").Value2

            .Forward = True
            .Wrap = 1               'wdFindContinue (WdFindWrap Enumeration)
            .Format = False
            .MatchCase = False
            .MatchWholeWord = False
            .MatchWildcards = False
            .MatchSoundsLike = False
            .MatchAllWordForms = False

            .Execute Replace:=2     'wdReplaceAll (WdReplace Enumeration)
        End With
        .Quit SaveChanges:=True
    End With
End Sub

---

.

If column A had a list of words to be replaced, and column B - the replacements (same row):

---

Option Explicit

Public Sub WordFindAndReplace()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, msWord As Object, itm As Range

    Set ws = ActiveSheet
    Set msWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

    With msWord
        .Visible = True
        .Documents.Open "F:\Test folder\TestFolder\Test.docx"
        .Activate

        With .ActiveDocument.Content.Find
            .ClearFormatting
            .Replacement.ClearFormatting

            For Each itm In ws.UsedRange.Columns("A").Cells

                .Text = itm.Value2                          'Find all strings in col A

                .Replacement.Text = itm.Offset(, 1).Value2  'Replacements from col B

                .MatchCase = False
                .MatchWholeWord = False

                .Execute Replace:=2     'wdReplaceAll (WdReplace Enumeration)
            Next
        End With
        .Quit SaveChanges:=True
    End With
End Sub

---

.

Find Reference - Criteria for find operations

---

Methods

Name                 Description
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ClearAllFuzzyOptions Clears all nonspecific search options for Japanese text
ClearFormatting      Removes text and paragraph formatting from the text
ClearHitHighlight    Removes highlighting for all text. Boolean (Successful/Not)
Execute              Runs the find operation. Boolean (Successful/Not)
Execute2007          Runs the find operation. Boolean (Successful/Not)
HitHighlight         Highlights all found matches. Boolean (Successful/Not)
SetAllFuzzyOptions   Activates all nonspecific search options for Japanese text

---

Properties - 1 of 2

Name                 Description
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application          Returns an Application object that represents the Ms Word app
CorrectHangulEndings Read/Write Boolean - True if it corrects Hangul endings
Creator              Read-only Long - Returns 32-bit int - indicates app of the object
Font                 Read/Write Font - Returns or sets a Font object (char formatting)
Format               Read/Write Boolean - True if formatting is included
Forward              Read/Write Boolean - True if the find operation searches forward
Found                Read-only Boolean - True if the search produces a match
Frame                Read-only - formatting for specified style or find/replace
HanjaPhoneticHangul  Read/Write Boolean - locate phonetic Hangul & hanja chars in Korean
Highlight            Read/Write Long - True if highlight formatting included in criteria
IgnorePunct          Read/Write Boolean - ignore punctuation in found text
IgnoreSpace          Read/Write Boolean - ignore extra white space in found text
LanguageID           Read/Write WdLanguageID - Returns or sets the language
LanguageIDFarEast    Read/Write WdLanguageID - Returns or sets an East Asian language
LanguageIDOther      Read/Write WdLanguageID - Returns or sets the language
MatchAlefHamza       Read/Write Boolean - True if find match txt with alef hamzas Arabic
MatchAllWordForms    Read/Write Boolean - True for all forms ("sit," "sat" and "sitting")
MatchByte            Read/Write Boolean - True if distinguishes full or half-width ltrs
MatchCase            Read/Write Boolean - True if it is case sensitive. Default is False
MatchControl         Read/Write Boolean - True for right-to-left lang
MatchDiacritics      Read/Write Boolean - True for right-to-left lang
MatchFuzzy           Read/Write Boolean - True if uses nonspecific options for Japanese
MatchKashida         Read/Write Boolean - True for matching kashidas in an Arabic
MatchPhrase          Read/Write Boolean - True ignores white sp/ctrl chars between words
MatchPrefix          Read/Write Boolean - True to match words beginning with search str
MatchSoundsLike      Read/Write Boolean - True to return words that sound similar
MatchSuffix          Read/Write Boolean - True to match words ending with search str
MatchWholeWord       Read/Write Boolean - True to locate only entire words
MatchWildcards       Read/Write Boolean - True if the text to find contains wildcards

.

Properties - 2 of 2

Name                 Description
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NoProofing           Read/Write Long - True to find/replace txt ignored by spell & grammar
ParagraphFormat      Returns or sets a ParagraphFormat object (settings). Read/write
Parent               Returns parent object of the specified Find object
Replacement          Returns Replacement object that contains criteria for replace op
Style                Read/Write Variant - Returns or sets style for the specified object
Text                 Read/Write String - Returns or sets the text to find
Wrap                 Read/write WdFindWrap - wrapping if start point other than doc start

Comments

[Christopher Oezbek]

For a more general solution to this, I have written a generic script that will export all Named Ranges (using the Name Box) to Word: github.com/coezbek/…

[MathCurious314]

The second code only works for the content of the body but not for the header/footer. How can one make it work for the header?