We have several thousand historical MS Word documents with embedded MS Excel Worksheets.

This data predates a relational database system which now manages all this data. Sound familiar!

We need to create a spreadsheet which has a row for each embedded MS Excel Worksheet with columns for specified values. We have no problem aggregating multiple spreadsheets into a single spreadsheet.

We have been unable to automatically extract The MS Excel worksheets from the MS Word documents.

We have tried two general approaches:
Approach 1, Obtain Control of the Excel object from VB running inside Word
Approach 2, Select the Excel object inside Word and save as a separate file

Sample code for both approaches below.

Comments indicating which lines of code are working and not working.


Approach 1, Obtain Control of the Excel object from VB running from Word

Help with Code Tags

Visual Basic 4 / 5 / 6 Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

'We launch the code from a form which will later loop through the 1000+ documents.
 
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
 
 
 
'Start a new instance of Microsoft Word with the target document
 
Dim oWordDoc As Word.Document 
 
Set oWordDoc = GetObject("C:\SourceDocument.doc", "Word.Document")
 
'This works, Word opens with the document.
 
 
 
Dim intCount As Integer
 
intCount = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.count
 
' This works, we see the single OLE object embedded.
 
 
 
Dim oInlineShape As InlineShape
 
Set oInlineShape = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.Item(1)
 
'This works, we obtain control of the OLE object.
 
 
 
'Dim oExcelSheet As Excel.Worksheet
 
'Set oExcelSheet = oInlineShape
 
'This DOES NOT work.
 
'Have tried several means to cast to an Excel object.
 
'Am not sure this type of cast can be done at all, and, if the object is a Worksheet.
 
 
 
'Once we have it as an object we might manipulate it in place to get the fields
 
' Or, at minimum save it to disk as an Excel document.
 
'oExcelSheet.SaveAs ("C:\SourceDocument.xls")
 
 
 
'Clean up here.
 
 
 
End Sub

'We launch the code from a form which will later loop through the 1000+ documents. Private Sub CommandButton1_Click() 'Start a new instance of Microsoft Word with the target document Dim oWordDoc As Word.Document Set oWordDoc = GetObject("C:\SourceDocument.doc", "Word.Document") 'This works, Word opens with the document. Dim intCount As Integer intCount = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.count ' This works, we see the single OLE object embedded. Dim oInlineShape As InlineShape Set oInlineShape = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.Item(1) 'This works, we obtain control of the OLE object. 'Dim oExcelSheet As Excel.Worksheet 'Set oExcelSheet = oInlineShape 'This DOES NOT work. 'Have tried several means to cast to an Excel object. 'Am not sure this type of cast can be done at all, and, if the object is a Worksheet. 'Once we have it as an object we might manipulate it in place to get the fields ' Or, at minimum save it to disk as an Excel document. 'oExcelSheet.SaveAs ("C:\SourceDocument.xls") 'Clean up here. End Sub

Approach 2, Select the Excel object inside Word and save as a separate file

Help with Code Tags

Visual Basic 4 / 5 / 6 Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

'We launch the code from a form which will later loop through the 1000+ documents.
 
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
 
 
 
'Start a new instance of Microsoft Word with the target document
 
Dim oWordDoc As Word.Document 
 
Set oWordDoc = GetObject("C:\SourceDocument.doc", "Word.Document")
 
'This works, Word opens with the document.
 
 
 
Dim intCount As Integer
 
intCount = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.count
 
' This works, we see the single OLE object embedded.
 
 
 
Dim oInlineShape As InlineShape
 
Set oInlineShape = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.Item(1)
 
'This works, we obtain control of the OLE object.
 
 
 
oInlineShape.OLEFormat.DoVerb (wdOLEVerbShow)
 
'This works, opens the OLE Excel object in Excel.  Very cool.
 
 
 
 
'But now we attempt to gain control of the Excel Worksheet which was opened
 
' and can not seem to find it.
 
 
 
'The idea here is to find the Active Excel window which was opened by the code above.
 
Dim xlWindow As Excel.Window
 
Set xlWindow = xlApp.Windows.Item(1)
 
'The Window count is zero and there are no items to grab.
 
xlWindow.Activate
 
 
 
Set xlWorkbook = xlApp.ActiveWorkbook
 
'This too is empty
 
xlWorkbook.SaveAs ("C:\SourceDocument.xls")
 
xlWorkbook.Close
 
 
 
'Clean up here.
 
 
 
End Sub

'We launch the code from a form which will later loop through the 1000+ documents. Private Sub CommandButton1_Click() 'Start a new instance of Microsoft Word with the target document Dim oWordDoc As Word.Document Set oWordDoc = GetObject("C:\SourceDocument.doc", "Word.Document") 'This works, Word opens with the document. Dim intCount As Integer intCount = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.count ' This works, we see the single OLE object embedded. Dim oInlineShape As InlineShape Set oInlineShape = oWordDoc.InlineShapes.Item(1) 'This works, we obtain control of the OLE object. oInlineShape.OLEFormat.DoVerb (wdOLEVerbShow) 'This works, opens the OLE Excel object in Excel. Very cool. 'But now we attempt to gain control of the Excel Worksheet which was opened ' and can not seem to find it. 'The idea here is to find the Active Excel window which was opened by the code above. Dim xlWindow As Excel.Window Set xlWindow = xlApp.Windows.Item(1) 'The Window count is zero and there are no items to grab. xlWindow.Activate Set xlWorkbook = xlApp.ActiveWorkbook 'This too is empty xlWorkbook.SaveAs ("C:\SourceDocument.xls") xlWorkbook.Close 'Clean up here. End Sub

Originally Posted by RobertB

If you are still interested, I know how!

Robert