[2008 VSTO] Giving focus back to Word document

[NickThissen]

Hi,

I am in the process of creating a small Add-in to Word 2007 which is basically just a list of Greek symbols I frequently have to use in a CustomTaskPane.

I came up with the idea because every time I have to add a greek symbol I have to manually change the font, type the letter, then change it back again, which I thought could be automated pretty easily.

The original idea of my add-in is pretty much working completely:

I have a set of buttons, each displaying a different greek symbol. Once I click a button, I set the current Font to "Symbol" (which hosts the greek symbols). Then I use TypeText to type the button's Text property (which is the letter) to the document, and finally I change the Font back to "Times New Roman".

In code:

Private Function getWordApp() As Word.Application
        Dim wordApp As Word.Application = DirectCast(Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.GetObject(, "Word.Application"), Word.Application)
        If wordApp IsNot Nothing Then
            Return wordApp
        Else
            Return Nothing
        End If
    End Function
 
Private Sub Button_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Z.Click, Y.Click, X.Click, W.Click, V.Click, U.Click, T.Click, S.Click, R.Click, Q.Click, P.Click, O.Click, N.Click, M.Click, L.Click, K.Click, J.Click, I.Click, H.Click, G.Click, F.Click, E.Click, D.Click, C.Click, B.Click, A.Click
        'Type button text
        Dim appWord As Word.Application = getWordApp()
        If appWord Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
 
        Dim btn As Button = DirectCast(sender, Button)
 
        SetSymbol(appWord)
        appWord.Selection.TypeText(btn.Text)
        SetTimes(appWord)
 
        'Return focus to document (not working!!)
        appWord.Application.ActiveDocument.Activate()
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub SetSymbol(ByVal appWord As Word.Application)
        'Changes font to Symbol
        If appWord Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
 
        appWord.Selection.Font.Name = "Symbol"
        appWord.Selection.Font.Italic = True
        'If CheckBox1.Checked THen appWord.Selection.TypeText(" ")
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub SetTimes(ByVal appWord As Word.Application)
        'Changes font to Times
        If appWord Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
 
        appWord.Selection.Font.Name = "Times New Roman"
        appWord.Selection.Font.Italic = False
        If CheckBox1.Checked = True Then appWord.Selection.TypeText(" ")
    End Sub

Now, everything works just fine except for returning focus to the document so I can immediately start typing after inserting the greek symbol.

I have tried various combinations but none are working...:

appWord.Application.ActiveDocument.Activate()
appWord.Activate()
appWord.Application.Activate()

All just leave the focus on the button I clicked, and I have to click into the document to be able to start typing again...

Any help would be much appreciated!

[NickThissen]

I have tried yet another approach:

appWord.ActiveDocument.Activate()

Also does not work.

However!

When I debugged the code and put a breakpoint on that line, so I could see if 'appWord.ActiveDocument' actually contained something, I couldn't see anything, it wouldn't show me.
Now the weird thing, as soon as I stepped out of the Button_Click() sub, it DID put the focus back!

So if I run the code as normal the document does not gain focus.
If I run step through the code slowly in debug mode, it DOES!

What is going on..??

[NickThissen]

Bump I still need this...

[Straadin]

Was there a solution ever found to this? I am having the same issue.

[NickThissen]

I never found a solution, though I didn't look much further. There might be more help available this time around though, who knows

[westconn1]

try using doevents after activating the document

[Straadin]

That worked beautifully. Thank you!

[schuege]

Hello,

I have the same problem. I'm developing in C#. The situation is that the user opens Word and then default a blank document is loaded. I added a new menu item so the user is able to open a form where he can select another Word document stored on a server.

He picks one document and presses a button 'Open file'.

Then I want to leave the default blank document open and create a new document where I load the selected document. The problem is that all the time when I run the code without debugging the default document is staying active instead of the new opened document.

After the document is opened, the popup form closes.

I use the DoEvent method, but that isn't working for me...

This is my code:

//Word.Document wdActive = wdApp.ActiveDocument;
                        //wdActive.Application.WindowState = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdWindowState.wdWindowStateMinimize;
                        //Application.DoEvents();                        

                        Word.Document wdDoc = wdApp.Documents.Open2000(ref fileName, ref missing, ref strfalse, ref strfalse, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref strtrue);
                        //wdDoc.Application.WindowState = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.WdWindowState.wdWindowStateMaximize;
                        //Application.DoEvents();
                        wdDoc.Activate();
                        Application.DoEvents();

                        frmWait.Hide();
                        frmWait.Close();
                        this.Hide();
                        this.Close();
                        Application.DoEvents();

[westconn1]

is the document actually opening?
normally word would bring the newly opened document to the top

i am not familiar with c#
can you check if the opened document is referenced by the wddoc variable?

try wdapp.documents(filename).acivate
if that works it would appear that you wddoc does not reference the opened document

[vajanko]

Here is a solution in C# which is working very well. It simulates the press of "F10" and "Esc" keys.

// Activate Ribbon = deactivate CustomTaskPane (is there other way to do that?)
System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.Send("{F10}");
// Deactivate Ribbon - document get the focus
System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys.Send("{Esc}");