Hello -

New to Word VBA, just got a book on it actually. I'm a Systems Admin. by
trade, but this programming stuff is pretty new to me... Before I dig into
the whole book I was going to see if any of you experts could get me started
on something:

I have some simple word forms with items such as text input boxes, yes/no
check boxes, drop down boxes, etc... I ahve seen that you can give each text
box field a 'bookmark' value, and also that you can run macros on entry and
exit. I have about 300 "completed" (filled out) forms for my small business
and they are growing each day... I would like to be able to export this data
into a searchable access database (also new to access, hope I'm not getting
in over my head). So, I have a few questions:

1. Will VBA "recognize" each text box based on the "bookmark" value? So, if
I give a box the bookmark of "CustomerName", can I then you VBA to say,
"take the value in the CustomerName box and put it in this column in Excel
(or Access)."

2. Once I figure out the above (a bit of example code would be very
appreciated), I want to apply that code to 300 + documents that are in a
given folder on our file server, can this be done? Any hints?

3. Where it says "run macro on entry", does it mean on entry of text? If so,
do I ahve to have a separate code module for each text box, or can I just
make a little subroutine for each text box and tell it to "run the
subroutine called xxxx".

I'll stop there for now, because I know I am being really demanding since I
don't know squat here, just wanting to hear from you all if what I am trying
to do is even possible before I get too crazy with these ideas.

Thanks!!

PS - I would be happy to email the form to anyone who want sto have a look
to really see what I am talking about.

Hi Fletcher,

I hope you have some time available to get this up and running ;-)
See comments inline

Yep. Try:
    MsgBox ActiveDocument.Formfields("CustomerName").Result
to get the result of a specific formfield

See some example code to process all the files in a specific folder at
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/BatchFR.htm

It's both possible. You can write separate routines for separated formfields, or you can write a general procedure that uses the name of a selected formfield. Some example code on how to get the name of that field at:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/GetCurFmFldName.htm

I would like to be able to export this data

If this is what you're planning to do, I suggest you won't run any code after leaving or entering any formfield. Just write the whole buch when you're ready. Start a routine which does that by pressing a button or automatically whenever the file is saved for example.

For some code examples on how to write stuff into Excel , see:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/InterDev/ControlXLFromWord.htm
If it is Access that you want, we need to know the Office version you're using.

Hope this helps,
regards,
Astrid

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