differences between vba on Word 2003-2007 (Win) and Word 2004(Mac)

[Peter]

I have a VBA application that is working well on Word 2003 and 2007 for
Windows and some of it works on Word 2004 for the Mac.

My question is:

Where can I find a list of differences in vba between Word 2003 (Win) and
Word 2004 (Mac)?

Any assistance would be gratefully received,
PeterEvans

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com]

You may be more likely to find people who know about this in one or the
other of the microsoft.public.mac.office newsgroups to which I have cross
posted this response.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

You may be more likely to find people who know about this in one or the
other of the microsoft.public.mac.office newsgroups to which I have cross
posted this response.

There is no published list of differences. Obviously, VBA for Word 2004
should not be trying to use any of the Windows 2003,or 2007 features. Other
than this, and that the Mac does not support Active-X, you'll have to
diagnose and fix each problem as it is discovered.

You say "some of it works on Word 2004" we don't know what that is, or what
does not work. So be specific in your questions and maybe we can help.

 

[John McGhie]

Peter:

There's no hard and fast rule: Word 2004 does not support Enums. That's
the main difference.

However, Word 2004/Office 2004 is basically at an Office 2000 feature level,
so you will find a number of things will fall over because Office 2004 does
not have the functionality.

For example: Anything to do with the "Email" document type will fall over
in 2004 unless you #-IF around it...

#IF Mac then
...

#Else
...

#EndIf

"Mac" is a compiler constant that reliably reveals whether you are on a Mac
and you can use it to avoid compiling code that breaks on the Mac.

If you send me your code, I will compile it in 2004 and let you know what
falls over.

Cheers

You may be more likely to find people who know about this in one or the
other of the microsoft.public.mac.office newsgroups to which I have cross
posted this response.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Peter]

thanks for everyone's help.

BUT not being able to tell in advance what is supported is frustrating. It
is quite a big application and I would like to at least have an idea of scale
of changes needed before I ttempt to make the applicaiton cross platform.

One of the first commands that I have found that is not supported is opening
a usrform in modeless mode i.e.
.show vbmodeless

Auuugh!

In case anyone is interested in looking at the application in Windows you
can see it at http://emarking-assistant.baker-evans.com
(It is basically an easy way of creating, working with and sharing
autotext/quickparts and moving them between machines. The interface is
EXACTLY the same using Word 2003 and 2007.

PeterEvans

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

thanks for everyone's help.

BUT not being able to tell in advance what is supported is frustrating. It
is quite a big application and I would like to at least have an idea of scale
of changes needed before I ttempt to make the applicaiton cross platform.

One of the first commands that I have found that is not supported is opening
a usrform in modeless mode i.e.
.show vbmodeless

Auuugh!

In case anyone is interested in looking at the application in Windows you
can see it at http://emarking-assistant.baker-evans.com
(It is basically an easy way of creating, working with and sharing
autotext/quickparts and moving them between machines. The interface is
EXACTLY the same using Word 2003 and 2007.

PeterEvans

I understand the frustration. But, it is impossible to estimate the effort
to make he application cross-platform without fully understanding the
assumptions that went into the original design. In my experience in
converting many many large Excel applications to make them cross platform,
it is often faster and cheaper to completely discard the original design and
code and start over with multi-platform as a design objective. This usually
means that the conversion effort to multi-platform is often at least as
great if not greater than the original effort to create the application in
the first place.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Peter:

Well, I am afraid you may have to get used to a very high level of
frustration

Every version of Word has "some" differences in its VBA. That's why it's
called "Visual Basic for Application" ‹ the runtime sits WITHIN the
application and behaves as if it were part of the target application. This
is different from compiled languages such as VB, where the functionality is
determined by the compiler and the target OS, not the target application.

So any extra features of a target application will appear in VBA, and those
that are missing will error.

The only way to know for sure is to buy yourself a copy of Word 2004 and a
Mac and test it.

I offered to do that for you

Cheers

thanks for everyone's help.

BUT not being able to tell in advance what is supported is frustrating. It
is quite a big application and I would like to at least have an idea of scale
of changes needed before I ttempt to make the applicaiton cross platform.

One of the first commands that I have found that is not supported is opening
a usrform in modeless mode i.e.
.show vbmodeless

Auuugh!

In case anyone is interested in looking at the application in Windows you
can see it at http://emarking-assistant.baker-evans.com
(It is basically an easy way of creating, working with and sharing
autotext/quickparts and moving them between machines. The interface is
EXACTLY the same using Word 2003 and 2007.

PeterEvans

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]