Hack 13 Build a Better MRUSummon more than your nine most recently used files at the touch of a button with this hack. When you work in Word, you often need to access files you were using earlier. To help you, Word provides a list of the most recently used files: the MRU, which appears by default at the bottom of the File menu. 2.12.1 How Word's MRU Works
Barring any action on your part, Word automatically adds files to the MRU when you do the following: Open an existing document. Save a file for the first name. Use the Save As command to save a file under a different name.
Generally, the MRU works well for light users of Word. To change the
number of entries on the MRU, select Tools Figure 2-35. Changing your MRU settingsIf you want to wipe the MRU clean, clear the checkbox, close the Options dialog box, reopen it, and specify how many entries you want for your fresh start. (Remember that other lists, such as the My Recent Documents list in Windows XP and Windows 2000, can still betray your indiscretions.)
The MRU is handy, but for a power user it doesn't go nearly far enough. If you open 90 documents each day, a list of 9 is a waste of time. Here's how to pump up the MRU to power-user proportions, creating a MegaMRU. 2.12.2 Getting Started
You will implement this MegaMRU as a user form (see Figure 2-36) that displays the names of the last 25 documents you used in Word. To open a document, select it from the list and click the Open button. Figure 2-36. A custom MRU lets you access far more of your recent documentsThe key to this hack is the PrivateProfileString command [Hack #67], which lets you store data in a plain-text .ini settings file on your system. For this hack, create the following .ini file: [MRU_Files] MRU01=C:\Dox\Doc 1.doc MRU02=C:\Dox\Doc 2.doc 2.12.3 The Code
The MegaMRU uses an event handler [Hack #69] with the DocumentBeforeClose event to get its information: Open the Visual Basic Editor and make sure you display the Project Explorer and the Properties window. In the Project Explorer, right-click Normal and select
Insert Press F7 to activate the Code window for the class module and insert the following code, which will ignore unsaved documents. It will, however, alert you to save previously saved documents. Public WithEvents MyMRU As Word.Application
Private Sub MyMRU_DocumentBeforeClose(ByVal Doc As Document, _
Cancel As Boolean)
With ActiveDocument
If .Path <> " Then
Add_to_MRU
Else
If .Saved = False Then
Select Case MsgBox("Do you want to save the changes " & _
"to " & .Name & "?", _
vbYesNoCancel + vbExclamation, _
"Microsoft Office Word")
Case vbYes
Dialogs(wdDialogFileSaveAs).Show
If .Saved = True Then Add_to_MRU
Case vbNo
.Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
Case vbCancel
End
End Select
End If
End If
End With
End SubClick the Close button to close the MRUClass window. 2.12.3.1 Creating the MRU module
Next, create a code module in
Normal.dot with the macro for initializing the
class module, the macro for displaying the user form, and the macro
for adding items to the MRU. To create a new module, select Normal in
the Project Explorer and choose Insert 2.12.3.2 Initializing the class module
The code for initializing the class module consists of a declaration of MyMRU as a new member of the MRU class and a short macro that assigns the Word.Application object to the MyMRU property of the MyMRU object: Dim MyMRU As New MRUClass Sub Initialize_MyMRU( ) Set MyMRU.MyMRU = Word.Application End Sub Each time you start Word, you must run the Initialize_MyMRU macro to start your event handler. Usually, you put a call to the macro in your AutoExec macro [Hack #60] . If you don't have an AutoExec macro already, you can simply name the Initialize_MyMRU macro above AutoExec instead. 2.12.3.3 Displaying the user form
To display the user form, use its Show method: Sub Open_MyMRU( ) frmMRU.Show End Sub Because you'll use this macro to open one of the documents on your MRU, create a menu item, a toolbar button, or a keyboard shortcut [Hack #1] for the macroor even all three. 2.12.3.4 Adding a document's information to the MRU
The macro for adding a document's information to the MRU moves all the existing entries in the MRU list (except the last entry) one place down the list: item 25 drops off the list, item 24 moves to item 25, item 23 moves to item 24, and so forth. (You use a For... Next loop with a negative increment to make this change, because working positively propagates the same item through the list: item 1 becomes 2 becomes 3 becomes 4, and so on.) The new document then enters at the top of the chart. Sub Add_to_MRU( ) Dim i As Integer For i = 24 To 1 Step -1 System.PrivateProfileString(FileName:="c:\windows\mru.ini", _ Section:="MRU_Files", Key:="MRU" & Format(i + 1, "00")) = _ System.PrivateProfileString(FileName:="c:\windows\mru.ini", _ Section:="MRU_Files", Key:="MRU" & Format(i, "00")) Next i System.PrivateProfileString(FileName:="c:\windows\mru.ini", _ Section:="MRU_Files", Key:="MRU01") = ActiveDocument.FullName End Sub 2.12.4 Creating the User Form
Here's how to create the user form used to display the MegaMRU, as shown in Figure 2-36: Right-click Normal in the Project Explorer and select
Insert Press F4 to activate the Properties window, type frmMRU as the name, and press Enter. Use the down arrow key to move to the Caption property, type Most Recently Used Word Documents as its value, and press Enter. Increase the user form's height to about 350 pixels and its width to about 400 pixels. (Either drag the sizing handle or type the measurements in the Properties window.) Add a label with the caption Most Recently Used Documents, with AutoSize set to True and WordWrap set to False. Position the label at the upper-left corner of the user form. Add a listbox, name it lstMRU, and make it about
250 pixels high and 360 pixels wide. To make sure the user can select
only one item in the list at a time, set the
MultiSelect property to 0
- fmMultiSelectSingle. Center
the listbox horizontally in the user form (Select
Format Create a command button named cmdOpen, set Accelerator to O, set Caption to Open, set Default to True, and set Enabled to False. You may want to reduce the button's height and width a little from the (rather big) default measurements. Create a second command button. Name this one cmdCancel, set its Accelerator to C, set Cancel to True, set Caption to Cancel, set Default to False, and make sure Enabled is True. If you changed the height or width of cmdOpen, make this button the same size. Select and group the buttons (Format 2.12.5 Adding the Code to the User Form
After laying out the user form, select the user form and press F7 to display its code sheet in a window. Then create the following four macros. 2.12.5.1 Creating the UserForm_Initialize macro
The UserForm_Initialize macro adds the items in the MRU file to the listbox in the user form. This macro runs when you call the user form. Private Sub UserForm_Initialize( ) Dim i As Integer For i = 1 To 25 lstMRU.AddItem System.PrivateProfileString( ,_ FileName:="d:\windows\mru.ini", _ Section:="MRU_Files", Key:="MRU" & Format(i, "00")) Next i End Sub 2.12.5.2 Creating the lstMRU_Click macro
The lstMRU_Click macro enables the cmdOpen button on the user form as soon as the user clicks an entry. This macro prevents the user from clicking the Open button with no entry selected. Private Sub lstMRU_Click( ) cmdOpen.Enabled = True End Sub 2.12.5.3 Creating the cmdCancel_Click macro
The cmdCancel_Click macro hides the user form and then unloads it from memory after the user clicks the Cancel button: Private Sub cmdCancel_Click( ) frmMRU.Hide Unload frmMRU End Sub 2.12.5.4 Creating the cmdOpen_Click macro
The cmdOpen_Click macro hides the user form, opens the document corresponding to the item chosen in the listbox, and then unloads the user form from memory. This macro also contains a short error handler, but it reports an error only if Word can't find the file. Private Sub cmdOpen_Click( ) On Error GoTo Trap frmMRU.Hide Documents.Open lstMRU.Value Unload frmMRU End Trap: If Err.Number = 5174 Then MsgBox "Word cannot find the file " _ & lstMRU.Value & "." _ & vbCr & vbCr &_ "The file may have been renamed, moved, or deleted.", vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "MRU - File Not Found" End Sub After you make your changes, click the Save Normal button in the Visual Basic Editor to save Normal.dot. 2.12.6 Using the MRU
With all these items in place, you're ready to use the user form. Run the Initialize_MyMRU macro to initialize your event handler, which will start monitoring Word's document closures. Each document you close will be added in turn to your MRU. To open a document on your MRU, use the menu, toolbar, or keyboard customization you created to display the user form. Next, click the document in the listbox and click the Open button. 2.12.7 Hacking the Hack
You can modify the MegaMRU in several ways: Increase the number of documents involved. You can track as many documents as you want, but you will likely reach the point of diminishing returns somewhere between 100 and 200 documents. If you add too many entries to the list, rewriting the .ini file can slow down an aging PC, but today's brawny processors sneer at such trivial tasks. To increase the number of files to, for example, 100, change the 25 in the UserForm_Initialize procedure to 100 and the 24 in the Add_to_MRU procedure to 99. To present the documents on the MRU list by date, file size, or another useful attribute, create a separate section for each document within the .ini file: MRUFile01 for the first document, MRUFile02 for the second document, and so on. You can then use the keys to create further subdivisions of data:
[MRUFile01] Name=c:\dox\Example 1.doc Size=144048 Creator=Adam Schmidt [MRUFile02] Name=Z:\Public\Memo 1443.doc Size=256074 Creator=Stelios Jones To exclude certain documents, folders, or templates from the MRU, add one line to the MyMRU_DocumentBeforeClose procedure. For example, to exclude documents based on a template named Secret.dot, make the following the first line of the Add_to_MRU macro:
If ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate = "Secret.dot" Then Exit Sub Guy Hart-Davis |