By Steve Hudson
Version 1.2 – Published Sept 11, 2004
This reference explains how Task Panes work and, to the best of our ability, shows how to control the Word ones using VBA in Word 2002 and Word 2003.
The sound of a dialog not opening
God helps those who help themselves
Office XP introduces a new paradigm to our interface, the Task Panes. Ever since, developers have tried to get programmatic access to use them. Unfortunately for us, Microsoft has minimally exposed the objects and your control over them is very limited. Essentially, they have made this task a pain. However, this IS a known issue that has some strong pressure being applied already, so there is a small hope for whatever comes after 2003 IF you are using .Net.
This reference is purely about the shadowy Word Task Panes themselves in Word 2002 and 2003. It does not describe the use of other pane objects. Examples of these include the comments, endnotes and footnotes, headers and footers and so on. It also does not describe the new feature sets that are supported by the presence of a Task Pane. For example, it does not describe the use of the Translation tool nor the use of any SharePoint based services. It does not describe specific Task Panes from other Office applications.
There are new secondary objects that interact with the Task Panes with many features and methods. Most of them are incompletely described in this reference, which instead concentrates on those methods and properties that directly modify the Task Panes themselves. For example, this article does not teach you how to play with XML or what XML is.
It does not overly duplicate information from the Word Help System. Thus, to fully teach yourself everything you must also look up the help topics on the various objects, methods and properties discussed. The closer to the core topic of Task Panes, the less looking elsewhere is required.
The author gleefully notes at this point that the human race has enough intelligence to get itself into cauldrons of boiling water that it cannot climb out of and that means you and me both! If you like to be ultra-safe, stay way from this reference and wait for MS to hand over full functionality. You will end up crashing Word many times and you can really damage your user interface.
If you are not careful, you can get Word into a state where you cannot use it properly. If you do, rename Normal.dot and kill the Word data key in the registry, for more information see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm. This might help. If it does not, well, we warned you mate!
None of this information is guaranteed to be future compatible or even advisable. It is tested for Word 2002 and Word 2003. At the very best, this is a set of workable band-aids for a final solution beyond our means and well over due-already. Patience grasshopper…
This reference requires intermediate level VBA skills. If you have happily completed the VBA tutorial on the MVP web site, you should be capable of utilising this reference.
There are several advanced VBA topics required to fully master Task Panes in Word 2002 or Word 2003. These are not described other than to provide the advanced reader enough information to pursue the solution. Examples include reading Registry keys and handling the new events.
Task Panes are a new interface method. In the same way as the old Styles and Formatting pane supported the Styles object, the Task Panes support various Word objects. Rather than deal with the Task Panes, as developers we deal directly with the objects behind the interface.
Unfortunately, the MS reference on them is poor and has several mistakes and some glaring omissions. Do not waste your time trying to find it; this reference more than covers the subject, avoids several bad practices and has less mistakes.
To avoid confusion and get the new terminology right, what we see is a Work Pane area showing a specific Task Pane from a small, informal collection of the beasts. The MS documentation is not as specific as this and the vagueness can cause some confusion. For example, View > Task Pane should really be View > Work Pane. You cannot show the Work Pane without a Task Pane, the same as you cannot show a document window without a document.
Task Panes have two loose categories as far as we VBA developers are concerned. There are those with a WdTaskPanes type, and there are those without. This reference uses the terms Nice Task Panes for those with a type and Bad Task Panes for those without.
|
IRM |
Information Rights Management, programs that agree to play nice will deny access to documents with conflicting IRM information. It does not necessarily mean you have actually protected the information in any meaningful way as it is not encrypted. Mind, even encryption has limits – whatever a computer can read, a computer can write! |
|
Word 2002 |
The version of Word that comes with Office XP. |
This document is designed to quickly satisfy the three types of reader that this site attracts: If you want to be the guru on Task Panes, read the whole thing, but be warned it is a long, wide load. You will have difficulty emailing this document as standard server filters erroneously detect the presence of VBScript in the body of the document and fail the message. Send the URL instead.
For those readers seeking information on Task Panes generally, rather than Word’s Task Panes, the first two chapters have great relevance, the third chapter has some relevance and the XML chapter has some extended notes on creating your own Task Pane using a compiled language.
The rest of the chapters are fairly Word specific and are organised based on the feature sets supported by the Task Panes.
The last chapter, Ramifications and Ravings is a ramble. It discusses the ramifications of the appearance of the Work Pane into our GUI. Each other chapter deals with a single facet of the Word Task Panes. Each of these chapters is then broken into three major sections:
These major sections contain the basics for controlling that facet of the Task Panes. They are mainly example VBA6 code samples demonstrating each of the available commands and objects. These sections make little attempt to explain things and are structured by Task Pane. For explanations, see the What is it? section. To extend the samples in this section, see the Developer References section.
These major sections contain longer descriptions of the topic and its context in a workflow in an ideal world. It tries to tie all the information from the other two sections together. It describes the objects behind each Task Pane and how to use them to affect the Task Panes or simulate their actions. For examples of the knowledge from this section, see the How to section. For full extensions of all the objects described, see the Developer References section.
These major sections contain matrices cross-referencing all the VBA bits and pieces that assemble into the Task Panes. If you want to seriously muck about with code as an advanced user, these sections are the condensed guide to life, Task Panes and everything. You can use Word’s table sort feature to use these tables for many purposes in the document version of this reference. For example implementations, please see the How to section. For explanations, please see the What is it? section.
Microsoft planned to release programmatic control once they had finished the interface properly in a future release of Office. They forgot they have whole newsgroups full of deviant code fiends. I am not sure though whether their surprise equals mine at the size of this document. This was originally supposed to be a two page blurb which said things like “If you wanna know what control id is necessary, work it our yourself now I’ve told you where to look.” Then the Word MVP terrorists attacked, God bless their souls, and encouraged me to finish this reference before publication.
The title picture is my chosen visual metaphor for people involved in a painful task, trying to clear a space to work.
All up, this reference is well over a month’s solid work, so thanks must first go to my perpetually persevering wife, Natnitta. Thanks also go to Beth Melton for providing a whack of data for the initial FindControl ID’s table, Cindy Meister for nailing the Styles and Formatting Task Pane modification solution, Doug Robbins for code fragments, Santa Klaus for continually prodding me to add another dozen topics and finally Mr McGhie for identifying the need for this reference and striving to get the best out of me.
Inspiration, information, support and blessings were in bountiful supply the whole way through from many MVPs. So, after these fine folk have had a say, things can only get bigger and better. My thanks to them all for their constructive and encouraging comments.
Yes, I am truly sick of Task Panes for the moment. I am blaming Klaus because John buys me beer :-)
Most of this information is from repeated experimentation with the VBE. Some information was located in:
· Microsoft Word’s Help system
· MSDN Online
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/ShowTaskPane.htm
A practical tool to control the startup behavior of the Task Panes that
implements some of the knowledge from this reference.
For explanations please see What is it?.
Hide the Work Pane at start up
Application.ShowStartupDialog = False
Show the Work Pane at start up
Application.ShowStartupDialog = True
Hide the Work Pane
To hide the entire Work Pane area no matter which actual Task Pane is displaying, use
CommandBars("Task Pane").Visible = False
Show the Work Pane
Avoid this method:
CommandBars("Task Pane").Visible = True
It only works if the Task Pane has been visible for that document before. You are much better off displaying a specific Task Pane using the FindControl method, as described in the next chapter.
Resize the Work Pane
This example sizes it to a nice width.
CommandBars("Task Pane").Width = 200
Reposition the Work Pane
If you just cannot live without it being up the top where you are used to your menus being, run this:
CommandBars("Task Pane").Position=msoBarTop
This reference assumes the Task Pane is docked to the right, as per default.
Task Panes display within a Work Pane’s area. A Work Pane is created by the combination of two objects. These objects are shrouded in misery and thwart most attempts to play with them. The whole area is hidden away from the Kill Cursor invoked with Ctrl+Alt+-, which changes to a hand when waved over a Work Pane. Functions are hidden away from the macro recorder. To make it easier, if it is not in this reference, it is hidden. It is like when a spy is caught and the government disavows all knowledge of their actions. The Task Panes are spies from Microsoft that are known to only a few objects, in these versions of Office anyway.
Word tracks whether the Work Pane appears on startup or not. It is nice to see Microsoft giving us this option as not everyone is going to like having 1/3 of their screen disappear. Unfortunately, there are still other automatic behaviors of the Work Pane area beyond our reach in this way, such as the XML document view.
Yes, The Work Pane is just a locked-down CommandBar with a single nifty exploded MsoControl on it. It is referenced in the registry in the Word Data key along with the descriptions of the other built-in toolbars.
If you look at the Work Pane area carefully, you notice the top strip is quite thin and sits on a bordered area. This bordered area is the CommandBar. It seems blended into the expanded control area for showing Task Panes because MS have negatively offset the vertical start of the Work Pane area up and over the bottom of the CommandBar. The thin strip is the control’s face on the bar. The rest of the Work Pane is the auto-exploded control area – similar to the space a dropdown menu creates when it is activated – for the Task Panes to use for a display area.
The only properties of this CommandBar that you can use are the visibility, position and width methods – you cannot add nor modify controls. As all Task Panes faces sit on the control on this bar, you hide whatever Task Pane is shown when you hide the bar. If you really want to ruin the use of the Task Pane, set it to floating rather than its default of docked.
As it is a CommandBar, it competes with other CommandBars in the same docking space for precedence. In its default, right-hand-side docking there are no other competitors.
The nifty exploded control on the CommandBar is of type msoControlWorkPane. It manages the display space and displays the contents of the Task Panes. The built-in Task Panes shown on this Work Pane are HTML files built from XML controls by a new component called InfoPath, but they are hard-compiled into the InfoPath executable so there is no editing them. There are no descriptions of the control type Work Pane to use, and there is no such object to declare and assign. This control is beyond the reach of VBA and is useless to us.
All these objects are old ones put to new uses.
|
Parent Object |
Property / Method / Item |
Type |
|
Application |
ShowStartupDialog |
Boolean |
|
CommandBars("Task Pane") |
Visible |
Boolean |
|
CommandBars("Task Pane") |
Width |
Long |
|
CommandBars("Task Pane") |
Position |
MsoBarPosition |
Read Only properties
CommandBars("Task Pane").Controls(1)
.Id=5746
.Type= msoControlWorkPane = 25
.Caption= Task Pane Name
.Left is 3 plus the screen width (to allow for 3d highlighting and border space) minus the CommandBars("Task Pane").Width
.OLEUSage = msoControlOLEUsageServer = 1
.Top = Document window top
.Width = six less than the CommandBar
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\General\DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane
A Value of 1 prevents the Task Pane from dismissing when it creates or opens a new document.
SP-3 uses
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options\StartupDialog
A Value of 1 addresses the issue of the Task Pane being unintentionally dismissed when add-ins are present.
Notes
The DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane came before the StartupDialog and a side effect of the hack was to prevent the Task Pane from dismissal when add-ins are present. Adobe used the former as an attempt to workaround this issue. This was not the best method as this hack disregards the Tools > Options > Show task pane at startup option which is still an issue in both Word 2002 and Word 2003. MS are still working on fully correcting this issue as of May 2004.
Shame Microsoft! Shame shame shame! Two errors, two messages, one error number. This list spans the whole set of Task Panes. It is not complete as Microsoft were far less than helpful when asked for more information. These errors are not listed in the Office Resource Kit errormsgs.xls spreadsheet. The problem is they come from external libraries, the main one being an InfoPath library.
|
Number |
Description |
Caused by |
|
4605 |
This command is not available. |
Out of context showing of wdTaskPaneDocumentActions |
|
4605 |
This method or property is not available because the current document has been modified or does not have an XML transform associated with it. |
Out of context showing of wdTaskPaneXMLDocument |
|
5941 |
Method 'Item' of object 'TaskPanes' failed |
Using a TaskPanes() id that does not exist |
|
6134 |
XML Expansion Pack is invalid or cannot be loaded. |
Attempting to programmatically add XML from VBA. |
|
6162 |
This command is not available outside of the fax mail envelope. |
Out of context showing wdTaskPaneFaxService |
|
-2147467259 |
Automation error. Unspecified error. |
Trying to change Read Only properties of msoControlWorkPane or the Task Pane CommandBar or make it visible when it hasn’t been shown for that document |
There are two schools of thought on programming methodology. One is to handle the errors; the other is to avoid them. I subscribe to the latter, so thus this topic.
|
Feature |
Test with |
|
SharePoint |
ActiveDocument.SharedWorkspace.Connected |
|
XML |
ActiveDocument.XMLNodes.Count>0 |
|
XSL |
Application.ArbitraryXMLSupportAvailable ActiveDocument.XMLSchemaReferences.Count>0 |
|
Online Fax Service provider |
Read Chapter 10 of the VBA Developer’s Handbook by Ken Getz et al on how to use registry keys. ProfileString is frustratingly one path off being usable. If this key exists, there is an online provider: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Services\Fax |
You can access these from the Tools > Macro > Macros… dialog, change Macros in to Word Commands. These built-in Word commands either call a new WordBasic function of the same name or display a Task Pane or Dialog to do the real work. For example:
Sub ViewTaskPane()
'
' ViewTaskPane Macro
' Shows or hides the Task Pane
'
WordBasic.ViewTaskPane
End Sub
Some of these commands, when created through the Macros dialog, come up empty, but are using the WordBasic commands, unless otherwise noted.
|
DocumentActionsPane |
Requires a SharePoint environment. Can be triggered by WordBasic.FileNewContext and other routines that open SharePoint documents. The Document Actions Task Pane is not necessarily at the front. |
|
EditOfficeClipboard |
Shows the Clipboard Task Pane |
|
FaxService |
Shows the Fax Service Task pane. |
|
FileCheckIn |
Requires a SharePoint environment. |
|
FileCheckOut |
Requires a SharePoint environment. |
|
FileFind |
This also shows a dialog, wdDialogFileFind, but the functionality of this dialog has changed from the File > Open dialog to the File > Save As dialog. It is now useless for finding a file to open. |
|
FileNewContext |
Creates a new document based on the active document. |
|
FilePermission |
Displays the wdDialogPermission dialog. |
|
FileSearch |
Shows the Basic File Search Task Pane by displaying the wdDialogSearch dialog. |
|
FileVersionServer |
Requires a SharePoint environment. |
|
FormatStyleByExample |
Creates a new style based on the selected formatting. |
|
FormatStyleVisibility |
Displays the Format Settings dialog, wdDialogFormatStylesCustom. |
|
FormattingPane |
Displays the Styles and Formatting Task Pane. |
|
FormattingProperties |
Displays the Reveal Formatting Task Pane. |
|
FormattingRestrictions |
Shows the wdDialogFormattingRestrictions dialog. |
|
MailMergeWizard |
Displays the Mail Merge wizard using the Mail Merge Task Pane. |
|
MicrosoftOnTheWeb1-17 |
Various MS web pages to support the online links through the Task Panes. |
|
Research |
Target of Tools > Research, displays the Research Task Pane. |
|
ResearchLookup |
Target of right-click a word and select Lookup…, displays the Research Task Pane. |
|
SelectSimilarFormatting |
Performs a multiple-select on all formatting identical to the selection. |
|
ShowSmPane |
Shows the Document Updates Task Pane. |
|
ToggleXMLTagView |
Does a ActiveWindow.View.ShowXMLMarkup = wdToggle |
|
ToolsThesaurusRR |
Displays the thesaurus results in the Research Task Pane. |
|
Translate |
Target of Tools > Translate, displays the Research Task Pane. |
|
TranslatePane |
Target of right-click a word and select Translate, displays the Research Task Pane. |
|
ViewTaskPane |
Target of View > TaskPane. |
|
XMLDocument |
Target of selecting XML Document from the list of available Task Panes. |
|
XMLOptions |
Displays the wdDialogXMLOptions dialog. |
This chapter describes the generic use of Task Panes rather than specific Task Panes themselves. These solutions apply to all or most Task Panes.
For explanations please see What is it?.
There are several useful commands available to every Task Pane, regardless of its niceness.
Determine the displayed Task Pane
In this example solution, TheTaskPane contains the name of the active Task Pane after running the code.
Dim TheTaskPane as String
TheTaskPane = CommandBars("Task Pane").Controls(1).Caption
Show a particular Task Pane on startup
This code should be placed in an add-in for best effect. It can cause a runtime error if it is in a document that is double-clicked from Explorer. This example shows the Styles and Formatting Task Pane on startup; see the Developer References to display other Task Panes. As it uses the OnTime command, it is not compatible with other add-ins using this command because Word can only support one OnTime command at a time. We use a 5 second delay because we are executing this during the starting of Word which can take some time with a few add-ins loaded. Any less than this can occasionally cause the problem of the OnTime not executing.
Public Sub AutoExec()
Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:05"), "AutoPart2"
End Sub
Public Sub AutoPart2()
Application.TaskPanes(wdTaskPaneFormatting).Visible = True
End Sub
Update a Task Pane
If you update the controls or settings on a Task Pane using any of the specialized hooks into the new feature sets, you might have to refresh the display of the Task Pane. To do this, you hide the Work Pane and show it again.
With CommandBars("Task Pane")
.Visible = False
.Visible = True
End With
It is a simple job to handle Task panes with a Type, by using the TaskPanes collection.
Show/hide a specific Task Pane
To specifically show any of the Nice Task Pane, use the Application.TaskPanes() object. You do not have to do a CommandBars("Task Pane").Visible = True first. For example, to show the Styles and Formatting Task Pane:
Application.TaskPanes(wdTaskPaneFormatting).Visible = True
To hide just that Task Pane again
Application.TaskPanes(wdTaskPaneFormatting).Visible = False
There are varieties of GUI tricks we can use to invoke the functions that summon the Task Pane. They work with some of the Nice Task Panes as well. To hide these Task Panes again is impossible, you can either show another one over the top, or hide the entire set.
Using the Developers References at the end of this chapter to obtain the ID for those Task Panes that have an associated control in the menu structure, you can generically use
CommandBars.FindControl(ID:=<Num>).Execute
For example, to show the Insert Clip Art Task Pane use
CommandBars.FindControl(ID:=682).Execute
We can intercept and disable most of the Task Panes using Word’s built-in commands. Where possible, a sensible alternative to the Task Pane is presented as a replacement.
|
View > Task Panes |
To disable the feature entirely for the GUI user:
Sub ViewTaskPane() End Sub
|
|
Basic File Search |
Sub FileSearch() SendKeys "%L", False Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen).Show End Sub
This comes as close as possible to having a decent find file dialog without using the Task pane. You still have to press Enter to go into the search dialog.
|
|
Clipboard |
Sub EditOfficeClipboard() End Sub
|
|
Document Actions |
Some customization is available from: Tools > Options > General > Service Options > Shared Workspace
To disable the feature entirely for the GUI user:
Sub DocumentActionsPane() End Sub
|
|
Document Updates |
Some customization is available from: Tools > Options > General > Service Options > Shared Workspace
To disable the feature entirely for the GUI user:
Sub ShowSmPane() End Sub
|
|
Fax Service |
To disable the feature entirely for the GUI user:
Sub FaxService() End Sub
|
|
Getting Started |
To show / hide the recently
used files list: To show / hide the help link:
To disable the feature
entirely for the GUI user, use
|
|
Help |
This is a poor substitute:
Sub Help() WordBasic.MicrosoftOnTheWeb2 End Sub
Sub HelpAW() WordBasic.MicrosoftOnTheWeb2 End Sub
|
|
Insert Clip Art |
No can do.
|
|
Mail Merge |
Sub MailMergeWizard() Dialogs(wdDialogMailMerge).Show End Sub
|
|
New Document |
Public Sub FileNew() Dialogs(wdDialogFileNew).Show End Sub
Public Sub FileNewDefault() Dialogs(wdDialogFileNew).Show End Sub
|
|
Protect Document |
Sub ToolsProtect() Dialogs(wdDialogFormattingRestrictions).Display End Sub
This would see you using the Forms toolbar to lock / unlock forms, Tools > Track Changes to toggle protected for changes and Tools > Protect… to alter the editing restrictions. You lose the ability to set user-based editing restrictions, but you could either set a shortcut to FilePermission or call your own macro to display the dialog.
|
|
Research |
To disable the feature entirely for the GUI user:
Sub Research() End Sub
Sub ResearchLookup End Sub
|
|
Reveal Formatting |
Sub FormattingProperties() Dialogs(wdDialogFormatFont).Show End Sub
|
|
Search Results |
See Basic File Search.
|
|
Shared Workspace |
Some customization is available from: Tools > Options > General > Service Options > Shared Workspace
|
|
Styles and Formatting |
Sub FormattingPane() Dialogs(wdDialogFormatStyle).Show End Sub
|
|
Thesaurus |
Sub ToolsThesaurusRR() Dialogs(wdDialogToolsThesaurus).Show End Sub
|
|
Translate |
To disable the feature for the GUI user:
Sub Translate() End Sub
Sub TranslatePane() End Sub
|
|
XML Document |
See Disable the default XML document view on page 22.
|
|
XML Structure |
To disable the feature for the GUI user:
Sub ViewXMLStructure() End Sub
|
For those with no simple trigger (marked No can do), you can customize the toolbars to have the menu entries and shortcuts call your own replacement routines, or simply banish the toolbar buttons altogether.
Some of the Bad Task Panes can be found on the dropdown of Task Panes in the Work Pane. The Nice Task Panes are easily determined from inside of your VBE, just load up the Object Explorer (F2) and search for wdTaskPanes.
If you go to your VBE > Tools > References and add in the Microsoft Smart Tags library, you can use the Object Explorer (F2) to list the C_TYPE enumeration. This defines the control types available for use in a Task Pane: ActiveX, Button, Checkbox, Combo, DocumentFragment, DocumentFragmentURL, Help, HelpURL, Image, Label, Link, ListBox, RadioGroup, Separator, TextBox.
If you are compiling a DLL from another language, you can then use these controls to build a custom Task Pane that appears on the Document Actions Task pane. Each of these controls then has corresponding method in the ISmartDocument interface. The controls themselves are created using HTML and the page itself is HTML. As these features are called in by XML, the XML Task Panes chapter contains more information.
The reason there is little functionality exposed in the Task Panes to the programmer is that the Task Panes are just a GUI interface into the new objects. Thus, as is the case with many GUI features, you are far better off using the object itself rather than going through the GUI. Using the appropriate object sometimes helps to interface with the GUI.
|
Basic File Search 1 |
The new File > Search dialog to find files. There is also an Advanced File Search Task Pane that is only accessible through the Basic File Search Task Pane. |
|
Clipboard |
The clipboard manager, reasonably useful as a docked dialog. |
|
Document Actions 2 |
Supports the new 2003 collaboration feature. This is a place for external solutions developed using Smart Document technology to place their controls. |
|
Document Updates |
Supports the new 2003 collaboration feature to synchronize the local copy to the SharePoint server. |
|
Fax Service 2 |
If you have signed up for an Internet Fax Service Provider this interfaces to them. |
|
Getting Started |
If you are using Online Content it displays a bunch of links, and always provides the recently used files list. There is no way to display this programmatically. It also provides a link for selecting how much Online content you want. This has no VBA equivalent. |
|
Help |
The help system has been through an Assistant, HTML and now finally, why not a Task Pane as well. Show help, up it comes. The attempt at a tri-pane view is poorly implemented and forced. Unfortunately, context sensitive help is outdated. |
|
Insert Clip Art |
Why this became a Task Pane, I will never know. The thumbnail dialog worked wonderfully. We pick the insertion point before calling this option, so we do not need to see it. Mind you, it was never a built-in dialog anyway. |
|
Mail Merge |
The old Mail Merge wizard on a dose of steroids. A proper task. |
|
New Document |
Gives you many more choices for sourcing documents. 2002 is extremely cluttered as a default, 2003 is much nicer with the Recent files making their way to the Getting Started Task Pane. |
|
Protect Document |
Supports the new document protection features. You can lock down a document so that the only allowable formatting is style selection with no manual formatting. This is heavenly, late and well worth the upgrade. The old tracked changes / comments /forms protection feature is here as well but is dressed up to also include users for a given set of protection settings. Users can be nominated by email address or windows login name. |
|
Research |
Limited web search tool that only searches in online encyclopedias, thesauri, dictionaries and so on. |
|
Reveal Formatting |
Works well as a docked dialog to let you scan around document for specific, detailed settings. |
|
Search Results |
The old file search dialog in a new home. |
|
Shared Workspace |
Supports the collaboration feature set that works only in conjunction with SharePoint. This feature is outside the scope of this reference. |
|
Styles and Formatting |
Nice docked dialog usage. The Styles and Formatting Task Pane is a clear winner of the move to a docked Work Pane. This is the first essentially the rudiments of a document reformatting wizard to accelerate document cleanups. Everyone who has used it loves it. 2002 has some quirky problems in the styles implementation, requiring many sets and resets of Track manual formatting to get full use out of it without ruining your document, but these are addressed both in a 2002 Service Pack and in 2003. The one big problem you are stuck with is the large size of the styles in the list, thus showing less than a desirable number of entries at once. It would also be nice to see a Sort by frequency of appearance list. Still nicer would be to see the provided hooks for this object actually work! It works in conjunction with several settings in Tools > Options > Edit. |
|
Translate |
A simple translation interface that uses an online engine. 2003 cheats mildly and actually uses the Research Task Pane retargeted to the translation interface. MS have obviously made a standard control for this one and have exposed it internally. Would have been fine as a dialog. |
|
XML Document 2 |
Only applicable to XSLT / schema based documents; it lets you select from multiple data views of the document. To see this in action, open the file xsl-mappings.xml from within C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem. This Task Pane automatically displays whenever you open an XML document with an associated XML transform within it (XSL). This would be better off as a dropdown on a standard toolbar rather than chewing up a whole Task Pane with it. |
|
XML Structure 2 |
Only applicable to XML documents, it shows the hierarchy of XML nodes (instanced XML elements) in an exploded tree form. It makes a luscious docked dialog. It also contains one of the annoyingly buried links to the XML Options dialog. Everyone repeat after me: The XML Options dialog belongs in Tools > Options > XML! The XML options change the way the XML information operates and displays in the document content, this Task Pane and Word’s functionality, such as saving XML files. |
1 Is not in the GUI dropdown.
2 Supports a feature that makes little sense to have evocable from the GUI without the presence of the required secondary features. When these secondary features are present, these Task Panes join the list in the GUI.
The Nice Task Panes are a formal collection – Application.TaskPanes. Word is the only Office Application to have Nice Task Panes so try to feel privileged – I tried but failed. The Bad Task Panes live in binary cyberspace, locked away behind private addresses in isolation wards. Unfortunately, this sanitarium is in a not the same one where the MVPs are locked up so no one can get to them.
This hard-core table quickly references the known Task Panes to their VBA partners in slime. My many thanks to Beth Melton, Microsoft Office MVP, for doing the hard yards in the VBE to provide some of the initial raw data for this table.
Those task panes with a wdTaskPanes type are Nice Task Panes as described in Definitions. For alternative means of calling many of the Task panes, see also New Built-in Word Commands on page 5.
|
Name |
wdTaskPanes type |
Value |
Ctrl ID |
Word |
|
Clip Art |
Null |
Null |
682 |
2002 |
|
Clipboard |
Null |
Null |
809 |
2002 |
|
Document Actions |
wdTaskPaneDocumentActions |
7 |
Null |
2003 |
|
Document Updates |
wdTaskPaneDocumentUpdates |
13 |
7423 1 |
2003 |
|
Fax Service |
wdTaskPaneFaxService 2 |
11 |
Null 3 |
2003 |
|
Getting Started |
Null |
Null |
Null |
2003 |
|
Word Help |
wdTaskPaneHelp |
9 |
984 4 |
2003 |
|
Mail Merge |
wdTaskPaneMailMerge |