How to add a custom page border to a Word Document

Question

Hi to all,

I'm developing a Word AddIn based on Word 2007 with Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Basic.

It's possible to add a custom page border to a Word Document ?

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Hi Fabrizio,

A fast way to get the base code for any standard Word function is to record the process from Word VBA and then adapt it to your add-in’s language and syntax requirements. Below is a recording of the VBA to set a custom page boarder on a one section Word document.

Sub Macro13()

'

' Macro13 Macro

'

'

    With Selection.Sections(1)

        With .Borders(wdBorderLeft)

            .LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle

            .LineWidth = wdLineWidth600pt

            .Color = wdColorAutomatic

        End With

        With .Borders(wdBorderRight)

            .LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle

            .LineWidth = wdLineWidth600pt

            .Color = wdColorAutomatic

        End With

        With .Borders(wdBorderTop)

            .LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle

            .LineWidth = wdLineWidth600pt

            .Color = wdColorAutomatic

        End With

        With .Borders(wdBorderBottom)

            .LineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle

            .LineWidth = wdLineWidth600pt

            .Color = wdColorAutomatic

        End With

        With .Borders

            .DistanceFrom = wdBorderDistanceFromPageEdge

            .AlwaysInFront = True

            .SurroundHeader = True

            .SurroundFooter = True

            .JoinBorders = False

            .DistanceFromTop = 24

            .DistanceFromLeft = 24

            .DistanceFromBottom = 24

            .DistanceFromRight = 24

            .Shadow = False

            .EnableFirstPageInSection = True

            .EnableOtherPagesInSection = True

            .ApplyPageBordersToAllSections

        End With

    End With

    With Options

        .DefaultBorderLineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle

        .DefaultBorderLineWidth = wdLineWidth600pt

        .DefaultBorderColor = wdColorAutomatic

    End With

End Sub

Hope this helps

---

Regards, Rich

Answer 2

Hi Rich Michaels,

thanks for your reply.

Word has a long list of builtin page borders such as "Cake,Apple,Ice Cream,..".

It's possible to add my custom page border to this list and use it on my Word AddIn ?

Answer 3

You can't add anything to a list in a built-in dialog. At least, this isn't allowed in the Word object model. There sre two ways out. A) you provide a control (say, a button) which allows the user to access your functionality. Or, you can create a form providing functionality similar to that provided by the built-in dialog (including an entry specifying the border style of your own) and show that form instead of the built-in one when the user shows up the built-in dialog.

In the second scenario, you'll need to handle two cases: the user clicks the item in the main menu (or context menu) or the user presses some key combination responsible for showing that dialog.

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Regards from Belarus (GMT + 2),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader