Development of Microsoft Word templates & VBA macros

Word programming of intelligent document templates with automatic placeholder replacement

The global system partner for stainless steel fasteners Wagener & Simon WASI GmbH & Co. KG (Wuppertal) has commissioned eWorks to create Microsoft Word document templates for the most important business transactions such as letters, faxes, etc.

The objective was to develop modern, state-of-the-art Word templates that would make employees' day-to-day office work easier thanks to their ease of use, useful format templates and intelligent additional functions.

The software development process consisted of three phases: in phase 1, eWorks first analyzed the client's requirements and, based on the specified corporate design (CD), developed a new Word 2010 template for letters that met all these requirements. In particular, the template had to be suitable for both single-page and multi-page documents, and for printing on both letterhead and white paper. "Safeguards" had to be provided to prevent users from inadvertently misusing or even damaging the template - but only in a supportive way, without putting it on a "virtual chain".

In phase 2, the developed Word document template was extended using VBA programming ("VisualBasic for Applications") to automatically enter the user's personal and contact data such as name, e-mail address, telephone and fax number etc. - completely unnoticed, whenever a new Word document is created (using an embedded Word macro). A settings mask was developed for this purpose, which users can call up with a button to enter, view and change their telephone number and other data.

In phase 3, all other templates required for Word 2010 were derived from the developed letter template including VBA macros, e.g. for faxes, internal averages, etc. Because the document templates were largely similar, this phase was correspondingly quick.

eWorks supported the client from the conception stage through Word programming to commissioning, and also helped with questions about operation and general Word problems afterwards. Since then, the client has been using the developed Word templates to create all kinds of correspondence and benefits from a more uniform appearance of its Word documents while at the same time reducing production costs.

Used technologies

VBA
Microsoft Office

Related references

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