Getting the headings from a Word document

Question

How do I get a list of all the headings in a word document by using VBA?

Answer 1

You mean like this createOutline function (which actually copy all headings from a source word document into a new word document):

(I believe the astrHeadings = _docSource.GetCrossReferenceItems(wdRefTypeHeading) function is the key in this program, and should allow you to retrieve what you are asking for)

Public Sub CreateOutline()     Dim docOutline As Word.Document     Dim docSource As Word.Document     Dim rng As Word.Range      Dim astrHeadings As Variant     Dim strText As String     Dim intLevel As Integer     Dim intItem As Integer      Set docSource = ActiveDocument     Set docOutline = Documents.Add      ' Content returns only the main body of the document, not the headers/footer.             Set rng = docOutline.Content     ' GetCrossReferenceItems(wdRefTypeHeading) returns an array with references to all headings in the document     astrHeadings = docSource.GetCrossReferenceItems(wdRefTypeHeading)      For intItem = LBound(astrHeadings) To UBound(astrHeadings)         ' Get the text and the level.         strText = Trim$(astrHeadings(intItem))         intLevel = GetLevel(CStr(astrHeadings(intItem)))          ' Add the text to the document.         rng.InsertAfter strText & vbNewLine          ' Set the style of the selected range and         ' then collapse the range for the next entry.         rng.Style = "Heading " & intLevel         rng.Collapse wdCollapseEnd     Next intItem End Sub  Private Function GetLevel(strItem As String) As Integer     ' Return the heading level of a header from the     ' array returned by Word.      ' The number of leading spaces indicates the     ' outline level (2 spaces per level: H1 has     ' 0 spaces, H2 has 2 spaces, H3 has 4 spaces.      Dim strTemp As String     Dim strOriginal As String     Dim intDiff As Integer      ' Get rid of all trailing spaces.     strOriginal = RTrim$(strItem)      ' Trim leading spaces, and then compare with     ' the original.     strTemp = LTrim$(strOriginal)      ' Subtract to find the number of     ' leading spaces in the original string.     intDiff = Len(strOriginal) - Len(strTemp)     GetLevel = (intDiff / 2) + 1 End Function 

UPDATE by @kol on March 6, 2018

Although astrHeadings is an array (IsArray returns True, and TypeName returns String()) I get a type mismatch error when I try to access its elements in VBScript (v5.8.16384 on Windows 10 Pro 1709 16299.248). This must be a VBScript-specific problem, because I can access the elements if I run the same code in Word's VBA editor. I ended up iterating the lines of the TOC, because it works even from VBScript:

For Each Paragraph In Doc.TablesOfContents(1).Range.Paragraphs   WScript.Echo Paragraph.Range.Text Next 

Answer 2

The easiest way to get a list of headings, is to loop through the paragraphs in the document, for example:

 Sub ReadPara()      Dim DocPara As Paragraph      For Each DocPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs       If Left(DocPara.Range.Style, Len("Heading")) = "Heading" Then         Debug.Print DocPara.Range.Text       End If      Next   End Sub 

By the way, I find it is a good idea to remove the final character of the paragraph range. Otherwise, if you send the string to a message box or a document, Word displays an extra control character. For example:

Left(DocPara.Range.Text, len(DocPara.Range.Text)-1)