Word table border puzzle

[RobBroekhuis]

Hi all,
My Word object model knowledge is sketchy, and I can't figure this one out. I have a table in Word (a document I didn't create myself) with a variety of line styles along the left and right borders. I'm trying to query the line style along the left of the table. When I put the cursor into a first-column cell with a solid line along its left edge, and query in the immediate window:

?selection.cells(1).borders(wdBorderLeft).linestyle
0

(0 is wdLineStyleNone)
similarly, if I try instead of cells(1) to use rows(1) or tables(1), I get the same answer. Is there a different property that sets some of the line styles? The value for .borders(wdBorderRight) is correct, by the way.
Any ideas?



Rob

 

[TonyJollans]

Hi Rob,

Long time, no see

There is no easy way I know - you COULD do it if you really tried with Drawing objects but you would have to have time on your hands. But if you have a variety of styles it sounds like it was done by someone with time to play, so you never know.

Just to double-check, if you select the cell and Format > Borders & Shading, what does it show?

Enjoy,
Tony

 

[RobBroekhuis]

Some background - I'm converting a Word document created by exporting and reformatting a web page. As is, it has the ugly double-line formatting typical of html tables. If I go in manually, and change "cell spacing" to 0 in table properties, all is well. However, when I try to automate that:

for each t in activedocument.tables
t.spacing=0
next t

the table is modified in different ways as well: all of the borders along the right-hand side of the table disappear. I've no idea why. I'm now trying to fix that problem, but I can't just put a uniform border along the right side - whether there should be a border along the right depends on whether there is a border along the left. And I can't seem to find a way to figure out if there is one. After some more detective work, I've found that I can accurately detect borders in the table interior, but borders along the exterior always have Linestyle=0. Bah!


Rob

 

[TonyJollans]

Hi Rob,

I went and grabbed a random web page with a table as you describe and it is an absolute horror.

The table seemed to be connected to an Inline Shape which is what had the exterior lines. I have no idea of the best way to go about dealing with it. I wish you well!!

If I get some time later I might have a bit more of a play.

Enjoy,
Tony

 

[RobBroekhuis]

I actually found out a little more about this problem (TIP: when you have a tough problem, it pays to check out archives of newsgroups. I usually go to

http://www.dejanews.com,

which takes me to Google's service).
Turns out that my problem is a documented inadequacy of Word VBA - there is no way of disabling cell spacing through VBA. There is, however, also a documented work-around: instead of setting the spacing to 0, set it to -1. It's ridiculous, but it works.


Rob