Reading form values with WordApplication

Problem

The WordApplication API can represent several Word elements that can appear in documents. These are outlined in Word file representation in WordApplication. These elements do not include form components, such as check boxes or text fields.

However, WordApplication can detect form elements on a basic level and some components can be parsed minimally.

Solution

WordApplication does not support manipulating form elements, but it is possible to get a handle on form fields using Document.GetElements(Element.Type.Field). This will return all the field elements in the document, even if they are not Mergefields or Hyperlinks.

GetElements() returns a collection of generic Element objects. Element is the parent class for all other objects represented by WordApplication.

The contents of an Element can be read in Element.Text, which is a text of the content contained in the Element.

For a few form fields, such as text fields, the value of the field will appear in Element.Text. Others, such as check boxes, will show a string form of the object (e.g. “FORMCHECKBOX”).

This is not officially supported in the WordApplication API, so we cannot guarantee that the form field values can be parsed by WordWriter.

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