How To Insert Code at Cursor or Selection Position from an Add-In (299848)

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the AddFromString method of the CodeModule object in an Add-In to insert text on the line that precedes the first procedure in a module. The AddFromString method does not offer functionality to insert text at a specific line in a code module. However, the InsertLines method of the CodeModule object does offer this functionality.

The sample code in this article uses the GetSelection method of the CodePane object to obtain the current selection position in the active code module. It then uses the InsertLines method to add text at the position that the GetSelection call obtains.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Create a new Addin project in Visual Basic. A form, frmAddIn, and an AddInDesigner class, Connect, are created by default.
2. In Project Explorer, click frmAddIn to select the form.
3. On the Project menu, click Remove frmAddIn to remove the form from the project.
4. In Project Explorer, click Connect to select the AddInDesigner.
5. On the View menu, click Code to display the code pane for the Connect class.
6. On the Edit menu, click Select All to highlight the contents of the Connect class.
7. On the Edit menu, click Delete to remove the contents of the Connect class.
8. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Connect:

   Option Explicit
   
   Dim VBInstance As VBIDE.VBE
   Dim cbAddIns As CommandBar
   Dim cbcInsertLine As CommandBarControl
   Private WithEvents cbeInsertLine As CommandBarEvents
   
   Private Sub AddinInstance_OnConnection(ByVal Application As Object, _
               ByVal ConnectMode As AddInDesignerObjects.ext_ConnectMode, _
               ByVal AddInInst As Object, custom() As Variant)
       Set VBInstance = Application
       ' Find the Add-Ins menu.
       Set cbAddIns = VBInstance.CommandBars("Add-Ins")
       ' Add a button to the Add-Ins menu.
       Set cbcInsertLine = cbAddIns.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton)
       ' Assign the Caption and Style of the new button.
       cbcInsertLine.Caption = "Insert Line at Cursor"
       cbcInsertLine.Style = msoButtonCaption
       ' Associate an event object with the new button.
       Set cbeInsertLine = VBInstance.Events.CommandBarEvents(cbcInsertLine)
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub AddinInstance_OnDisconnection( _
               ByVal RemoveMode As AddInDesignerObjects.ext_DisconnectMode, _
               custom() As Variant)
       ' Remove the button from the Add-Ins menu.
       cbAddIns.Controls(cbcInsertLine.Caption).Delete
       ' Free the object variables.
       Set cbcInsertLine = Nothing
       Set cbAddIns = Nothing
       Set cbeInsertLine = Nothing
       Set VBInstance = Nothing
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub cbeInsertLine_Click(ByVal CommandBarControl As Object, _
               handled As Boolean, CancelDefault As Boolean)
       Dim lngStartLine As Long
       Dim lngStartColumn As Long
       Dim lngEndLine As Long
       Dim lngEndColumn As Long
       ' Only add a new line if a code pane is present.
       If VBInstance.CodePanes.Count > 0 Then
           ' Retrieve the starting line of the
           ' selection in active code pane.
           VBInstance.ActiveCodePane.GetSelection lngStartLine, _
              lngStartColumn, lngEndLine, lngEndColumn
           ' Add a line at the location that is
           ' retrieved in the GetSelection statement.
           VBInstance.ActiveCodePane.CodeModule.InsertLines lngStartLine, _
              "'Line inserted from Add-In"
       End If
   End Sub
   					

9. Run the project.
10. Start another instance of Visual Basic, and create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
11. Double-click on the Form1 designer to display the code window of Form1. Notice that the cursor appears in the Form_Load event procedure.
12. On the Add-Ins menu, click Insert Line at Cursor. Notice that a line of text is added to the Form_Load event procedure.

If all the code windows in the project are closed, text is not added to any module.