OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide.pdf - OpenOffice.org wiki

Editing Text Documents 98
Terminology differs from that used in VBA: In terms of scope of function, the Range object from VBA
can be compared with the TextCursor object in OpenOffice.org and not — as the name possibly
suggests — with the Range object in OpenOffice.org.
The TextCursor object in OpenOffice.org, for example, provides methods for navigating and
changing text which are included in the Range object in VBA (for example, MoveStart,
MoveEnd, InsertBefore, InsertAfter). The corresponding counterparts of the TextCursor
object in OpenOffice.org are described in the following sections.
Navigating within a Text
The TextCursor object in OpenOffice.org Basic acts independently from the visible cursor in
a text document. A program-controlled position change of a TextCursor object has no
impact whatsoever on the visible cursor. Several TextCursor objects can even be opened for
the same document and used in various positions, which are independent of one another.
A TextCursor object is created using the createTextCursor call:
Dim Doc As Object
Dim Cursor As Object
Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
Cursor = Doc.Text.createTextCursor()
The Cursor object created in this way supports the com.sun.star.text.TextCursor service,
which in turn provides a whole range of methods for navigating within text documents. The
following example first moves the TextCursor ten characters to the left and then three
characters to the right:
Cursor.goLeft(10, False)
Cursor.goRight(3, False)
A TextCursor can highlight a complete area. This can be compared with highlighting a point
in the text using the mouse. The False parameter in the previous function call specifies
whether the area passed over with the cursor movement is highlighted. For example, the
TextCursor in the following example
Cursor.goLeft(10, False)
Cursor.goRight(3, True)
first moves ten characters to the right without highlighting, and then moves back three
characters and highlights this. The area highlighted by the TextCursor therefore begins
after the seventh character in the text and ends after the tenth character.
Here are the central methods that the