Terry's TMG Tips

Recording Macros in Microsoft Word97

This page created 20 Feb 2001; reformatted 20 Jan 2002

 

The following steps describe how to record a macro in MS Word97. These instructions use the commands in MS Word97; minor adjustments may be required for other versions up to Word 2007, in which major changes in Word's user interface were made. For information about recording macros in Word 2007 and later, see my current article on recording macros.

  1. Go through the entire series of operations you want to record, repeating until you have a sequence that correctly does what you have in mind. Remember that you can use the mouse to select menu commands and options within dialog boxes. But you cannot use the mouse to navigate in the body of the document – you must only use keyboard commands for that.
  2. Once you have perfected your sequence, start again with a fresh unedited copy of your file, and you are ready to record.
  3. Choose Tools/Macro/Record New Macro from the menu
  4. In the Record Macro dialog, give the macro a name you will recognize (no spaces allowed – if you use more than one word, capitalize the first letter of each, and Word will use your name with spaces between the words as the tool-tip if you put your macro on the toolbar.) You could assign a keyboard shortcut to the macro at this time, and even attach it to a toolbar, but it's probably easier to make sure you have the macro right and then do that later.
  5. Click OK, and recording starts. A small toolbar opens with stop and pause icons, and the cursor changes to show that recording is underway.
  6. Step through all the operations you want to include in your macro, then click the stop icon on the small toolbar, or choose Tools/Macro/Stop recording to end the macro.
  7. You can test the macro, again with a fresh unedited copy of the file, by choosing Tools/Macro/Macros, selecting your macro, and clicking Run.
  8. If you made an error in recording, start over, using the same name for the macro.

When you are satisfied with your macro, you might want to add it to the toolbar for easy access – see my article on Attaching Your Macro to the Toolbar for details on how to do that.


ReigelRidge Home Terry's Tips Home Contact Terry

 

 

Copyright 2000- by Terry Reigel