Question

I have a VB.net test application that clicks a link that opens the Microsoft Word application window and displays the document. How do I locate the Word application window so that I can grab some text from it?

Answer 1

You can use the Word COM object to open the work document and then you manipulate it. Make sure to add a reference for Microsoft Word first.

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word  Public Class Form1  Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form  Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click  Dim strFileName As String Dim wordapp As New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application Dim doc As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document  Try     doc = wordapp.Documents.Open('c:\testdoc.doc')     doc.Activate()  Catch ex As COMException      MessageBox.Show('Error accessing Word document.')  End Try  End Sub  End Class 

The doc object is a handle for the instance of Word you have created and you can use all the normal options (save, print etc). You can do likewise with the wordapp. A trick is to use the macro editor in Word to record what you want to do. You can then view this in the Macro Editor. This give you a great starting point for your VB code.

Also, be sure to dispose of the Word COM objects at the end.