Re: Automating steps to copy URL from IE into Word

Steve,

This is just amazing. It will be fantastic to be able to do all this in
one step. I can't wait to install and try this out. I didn't know that
an html file could have text that was executible code that could be run
like a macro or a .vbs script.

I'm going to use your install files rather than try to create this
manually. The only change I will have to make is changing the path of
Web_Research" doc since I long ago change my "My Documents" folder's
name to "Documents."

I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm curious to see if character formatting in the selection, such as
italics, is carried over.

Larry



Steve Yandl wrote:
> Larry,
>
> This is more a vbs and html solution than Word and it isn't quite
> what you asked for but I think the end result is something you will
> like. I've done a script that adds a new item to your Internet
> Explorer context menu. If you select some text on a web page and
> then right click the selected text, instead of selecting 'Copy' you
> select the new item 'Research Entry'. The script looks in your
> MyDocuments folder for a Word document named "Web_Research.doc" and
> creates it if it doesn't already exist. It then appends that
> document with the date and time, the URL of the page, the document
> title for the page and the selected text. You get a pop up html
> window to confirm that you want all this to happen and you can enter
> a typed comment if you want to add a note to the text capture.
>
> The easy way to get all this is to go to
> http://yandlfiles.home.comcast.net/ and click the link in the upper
> left for my text archive programs (you will want the second one which
> requires Word). The zip files contain a ReadMe file, the core htm
> file and installation and uninstall scripts. All can be opened in
> notepad allowing you to check for security concerns or modify the
> scripts if you're comfortable with that sort of thing.
>
> If you want do do this the manual way, it isn't that tough.
> Essentially, a new registry key called
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
> Explorer\MenuExt\Research_Entry is created. It is given a default
> value that is the path and file name to the new htm file with the
> working components of the script. There is also a value named
> "Flags" with DWord value of 1.
>
> The critical part of the new htm file (beside placing where the above
> registry key points) are the lines below:
> Set oWindow=window.external.menuArguments
> Set oDocument=oWindow.document
> docAddress=oDocument.URL
> docTitle=oDocument.Title
>
> When those lines are in a script launched from the IE context menu,
> the appropriate information from the document that was right click is
> returned. The entire contents of the html file I use is below:
>
> <html>
> <head>
> <TITLE>Retrieve and Save Web Document Information</TITLE>
> </head>
>
> <BODY STYLE="BACKGROUND-COLOR:#EEEEEE; MARGIN:10">
> <P ID=para1></P>
> <P ID=para2></P>
> <P ID=para3></P>
> <P ID=para4></P>
> <P ID=para5></P>
> <p><font size="4" color="red">Enter any comments to go with the
> document information</font></p>
>
> <TEXTAREA ID="comments" cols="52"></TEXTAREA>
> <P ID=para6></P>
> <P ID=para7></P>
> <p><input type="button" name="B1" value=" SAVE TO WEB_RESEARCH.DOC
> ">
>
> <script language="VBScript"><!--
>
> Dim oWindow, oDocument, docAddress, docTitle, oSelect, oSelectRange,
> strSelection, WSH, fso
> Set oWindow=window.external.menuArguments
> Set oDocument=oWindow.document
> docAddress=oDocument.URL
> docTitle=oDocument.Title
> If docTitle = "" Then
> docTitle = "(no document title)"
> End If
> Set oSelect=oDocument.selection
> Set oSelectRange=oSelect.createRange()
> strSelection=oSelectRange.text
> Set WSH = CreateObject ("WScript.shell")
> strMyDocs = WSH.SpecialFolders("MyDocuments")
> ' strMyDocs = "C:\Test\myfolder"
> Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
>
> Dim dy, mo, yr, hr, mi, se, dyStr, moStr, yrStr, hrStr, miStr, seStr,
> serStr mo=month(Now)
> dy=day(Now)
> yr=year(Now)
> hr=hour(Now)
> mi=minute(Now)
> se=second(Now)
> '
> If len(CStr(mo))=1 Then
> moStr="0"&CStr(mo)
> Else
> moStr=CStr(mo)
> End If
> '
> If len(CStr(dy))=1 Then
> dyStr="0"&CStr(dy)
> Else
> dyStr=CStr(dy)
> End If
> '
> yrStr=Right(CStr(yr),2)
> '
> If len(CStr(hr))=1 Then
> hrStr="0"&CStr(hr)
> Else
> hrStr=CStr(hr)
> End If
> '
> If len(CStr(mi))=1 Then
> miStr="0"&CStr(mi)
> Else
> miStr=CStr(mi)
> End If
> '
> If len(CStr(se))=1 Then
> seStr="0"&CStr(se)
> Else
> seStr=CStr(se)
> End If
> '
> serStr="T"&yrStr&moStr&dyStr&hrStr&miStr&seStr
>
> document.all("para1").innerText="Information collected at: " & Now
> document.all("para2").innerText="Document URL = " & docAddress
> document.all("para3").innerText="Document Title = " & docTitle
> document.all("para4").innerText="Document Last Modified on " &
> oDocument.LastModified
> If strSelection <> "" Then
> document.all("para5").innerText="Document Selection = " & strSelection
> End If
> document.all("para6").innerText="The info will be bookmarked as " &
> serStr & " in Word document below"
> document.all("para7").innerText=strMyDocs & "\Web_Research.doc"
>
> Sub B1_onClick
> On Error Resume Next
> Dim oWd, doc
> Set oWd = CreateObject("Word.Application")
> If Err.Number <> 0 Then
> Alert "Problem opening Word or initiating some other object"
> Window.Close
> End If
> If fso.FileExists(strMyDocs & "\Web_Research.doc") Then
> Set doc = oWd.documents.open(strMyDocs & "\Web_Research.doc")
> Else
> Set doc = oWd.documents.add
> doc.SaveAs strMyDocs & "\Web_Research.doc"
> End If
> Dim rngCurrent
> oWd.Selection.WholeStory
> oWd.Selection.MoveRight
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("Information gathered at " & Now)
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
>
> Set rngCurrent = oWd.Selection
> oWd.ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add serStr,rngCurrent
>
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("From ")
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=255
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("URL ")
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=0
> oWd.Selection.TypeText(docAddress)
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("Document Title = " & docTitle & " then last
> modified on " & oDocument.LastModified)
> If strSelection <> "" Then
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=255
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("Selected Text = ")
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=0
> oWd.Selection.TypeText(strSelection)
> End If
> If comments.Value <> "" Then
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=255
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("Comment = ")
> oWd.Selection.Font.Color=0
> oWd.Selection.TypeText(comments.Value)
> End If
> oWd.Selection.TypeParagraph
> oWd.Selection.TypeText("********************************")
> oWd.ActiveDocument.Save
> oWd.ActiveDocument.Close
> oWd.Quit
> Set oWd = Nothing
> Window.Close
>
> End Sub
>
> Set WSH = Nothing
>
> --></script>
>
> </BODY>
> </html>
>
> "Larry" <larry328NOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:%23ExdcyGVFHA.580@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > This seemed like a Windows question more than a Word question, I
> > sent it to a Windows newsgroup, and was told it was a Word
> > question. So here goes.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here's the kind of thing I do a million times. I've just copied
> > some text from a web page into Word. Now I want to copy the URL of
> > that web page into Word.
> >
> > I do Alt+Tab to switch back to the Internet Exporer page.
> >
> > I press Alt+D to place cursor in address bar.
> >
> > I press Ctrl+C to copy the address.
> >
> > I use Alt+Tab switch back to Word.
> >
> > I press Ctrl+V to paste the url into Word.
> >
> > Would there be a way to automate these five steps into one action,
> > whether done by a .vbs file or some other means?


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