ConvertToText Method

Microsoft Word Visual Basic

Converts a table to text and returns a Range object that represents the delimited text.

expression.ConvertToText(Separator, NestedTables)

expression    Required. An expression that returns a Row, Rows, or Table object.

Separator    Optional Variant. The character that delimits the converted columns (paragraph marks delimit the converted rows). Can be any following WdTableFieldSeparator constants..

WdTableFieldSeparator can be one of these WdTableFieldSeparator constants.
wdSeparateByCommas
wdSeparateByDefaultListSeparator
wdSeparateByParagraphs
wdSeparateByTabs Default.

NestedTables    Optional Variant. True if nested tables are converted to text. This argument is ignored if Separator is not wdSeparateByParagraphs. The default value is True.

Remarks

When you apply the ConvertToText method to a Table object, the object is deleted. To maintain a reference to the converted contents of the table, you must assign the Range object returned by the ConvertToText method to a new object variable. In the following example, the first table in the active document is converted to text and then formatted as a bulleted list.

Dim tableTemp As Table
Dim rngTemp As Range

Set tableTemp = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
Set rngTemp = _
    tableTemp.ConvertToText(Separator:=wdSeparateByParagraphs)

rngTemp.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplate _

ListTemplate:=ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1)
		

Example

This example creates a table and then converts it to text by using tabs as separator characters.

Dim docNew As Document
Dim tableNew As Table
Dim intTemp As Integer
Dim cellLoop As Cell
Dim rngTemp As Range

Set docNew = Documents.Add
Set tableNew = docNew.Tables.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, _
    NumRows:=3, NumColumns:=3)

intTemp = 1

For Each cellLoop In tableNew.Range.Cells
    cellLoop.Range.InsertAfter "Cell " & intTemp
    intTemp = intTemp + 1
Next cellLoop

MsgBox "Click OK to convert table to text."
Set rngTemp = _
    tableNew.ConvertToText(Separator:=wdSeparateByTabs)
		

This example converts the table that contains the selection to text, with spaces between the columns.

If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then 
    Selection.Tables(1).ConvertToText Separator:=" "
Else
    MsgBox "The insertion point is not in a table."
End If