As I develop my code, I find myself constantly looking for information about
a particular API in the MSDN CD-ROMs, the Microsoft web site and sometimes all
over the Internet. When I find links relevant to the work at hand, I copy and
paste them as comment into my code. Whenever I want to reference this
information again, I copy the link into my browser and away it goes. After doing
this a few times, I knew there had to be a better way, that is how the LaunchApp
macro was born. LauchApp allows you to fire up links from within a comment block
to Word, Excel, Access, Power Point, Visio and Html files. The macro can be
extended to handle any file type (PDF, Corel Draw, etc) you or your team include
in your code documentation. The following code fragment shows a typical use of
the macro.
/*CustomRecipient
Creates a custom recipient in MS Exchange Global address list. For more
information on the technique used in this function and other aspects of
DAPI see [mk:@ivt:kb/source/mapi/q165931.htm].
For information on the interface design for this class see [d:dataxfilesmyproject.doc].
For a quick solution to send email see the code guru site. [https://www.codeguru.com/internet/imapi.shtml]
CustomRecipient(LPSTR strRecipient)
{
// Your code goes here
}
*/
To access any of the links embeded in your comment, all you need to do is place the cursor
anywhere within the [ ] pair and lauch the LaunchApp macro. The macro will bring the proper
application with the document or link loaded. Needless to say that you will save time by adding
this macro to a tool bar or keyboard pair of keys.
Sub LaunchApp()
‘DESCRIPTION: Launch link or document embeded in comment block
‘Get the current cursor positon
cpos = ActiveDocument.Selection.CurrentColumn
‘Select, capture current line and convert tabs to spaces
ActiveDocument.Selection.SelectLine
ActiveDocument.Selection.Untabify
Link = ActiveDocument.Selection.Text
‘Restore tabs
ActiveDocument.Undo
‘Delete return&linefeed at the end of line
Link = Left(Link,Len(Link)-2)
‘ Split selected line at cpos – Check for Rpos at end of line
Rpos = Len(link)-cpos
if Rpos <= 0 then
Rside = ""
else
Rside = Right(Link,Len(Link) – cpos)
end if
Lside = Left(Link, cpos)
‘ Get text within [ ] pair
bpos = InstrRev(Rside, "]", -1)
if bpos > 0 then
Rside = Left(Rside, bpos – 1 )
else
Rside = ""
Lside = Left(Lside, Len(Lside) – 1) ‘ ] is included in left side
end if
Lside = Right(Lside,Len(Lside) – InstrRev(Lside, "[", -1))
Link = Lside & Rside
‘ Open link – If no application is found default is web browser
if Link <> "" then
‘ Trim tab and spaces from selected text.
Do While InStr(Link, vbTab) <> 0
Link = Right(Link, Len(Link) – InStr(Link, vbTab))
Loop
Link = Trim(Link)
‘ Determine file type by looking at the extension
ExtPos = InstrRev(Link, ".", -1, 1)
‘ An extension must exist in order to process the selected text
if ExtPos > 0 then
Ext = LCase(Right(Link,Len(Link)-ExtPos))
‘ This is the object to handle the selected application. See
‘ [mk:@ivt:project/project/pssvba/mod3les3.htm] for object information
‘ TODO$: Use Shell or Explorer object to handle any registered file format.
Dim AppObject
Select Case Ext
Case "doc", "rtf" ‘MS word
Set AppObject = CreateObject("Word.Basic")
AppObject.AppShow
AppObject.FileOpen Link
Case "xls" ‘MS Excel
Set AppObject = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
AppObject.Visible = True
AppObject.Workbooks.Open Link
Case "ppt" ‘MS Power Point
Set AppObject = CreateObject("PowerPoint.Application")
AppObject.Visible = True
AppObject.Presentations.Open Link
Case "mdb" ‘MS Access
Set AppObject = CreateObject("Access.Application")
AppObject.Visible = True
AppObject.OpenCurrentDatabase Link
Case "vsd" ‘Visio
Set AppObject = CreateObject("visio.application")
AppObject.Documents.Open Link
Case Else ‘ Internet Explorer
Set AppObject = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application.1")
AppObject.Visible = True
AppObject.Navigate(Link)
End Select
else
MsgBox("The text you have selected does not have a valid file extension.")
end if
end if
End Sub