OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide - OpenOffice.org wiki

Editing Text Documents
Retrieving and Modifying Text Contents
If a TextCursor contains a highlighted area, then this text is available by means of the String property of the
TextCursor object. The following example uses the String property to display the first words of a sentence in a
message box:
Dim Doc As Object
Dim Cursor As Object
Dim Proceed As Boolean
Doc = ThisComponent
Cursor = Doc.Text.createTextCursor
Do
Cursor.gotoEndOfWord(True)
MsgBox Cursor.String
Proceed = Cursor.gotoNextSentence(False)
Cursor.gotoNextWord(False)
Loop While Proceed
The first word of each sentence can be modified in the same way using the String property:
Dim Doc As Object
Dim Cursor As Object
Dim Proceed As Boolean
Doc = ThisComponent
Cursor = Doc.Text.createTextCursor
Do
Cursor.gotoEndOfWord(True)
Cursor.String = "Ups"
Proceed = Cursor.gotoNextSentence(False)
Cursor.gotoNextWord(False)
Loop While Proceed
If the TextCursor contains a highlighted area, an assignment to the String property replaces this with the new
text. If there is no highlighted area, the text is inserted at the present TextCursor position.
Inserting Control Codes
In some situations, it is not the actual text of a document, but rather its structure that needs modifying.
OpenOffice.org provides control codes for this purpose. These are inserted in the text and influence its structure.
The control codes are defined in the com.sun.star.text.ControlCharacter group of constants. The following
control codes are available in OpenOffice.org:
PARAGRAPH_BREAK
paragraph break.
LINE_BREAK
line break within a paragraph.
SOFT_HYPHEN
possible point for syllabification.
HARD_HYPHEN
obligatory point for syllabification.
HARD_SPACE
protected space that is not spread out or compressed in justified text.
To insert the control codes, you need not only the cursor but also the associated text document objects. The
following example inserts a paragraph after the 20th character of a text:
Dim Doc As Object
Dim Cursor As Object
Dim Proceed As Boolean
Doc = ThisComponent
Cursor = Doc.Text.createTextCursor
Cursor.goRight(20, False)
78 OpenOffice.org 3.2 BASIC Guide · March 2010