3

Using the VSTO Word Interop libraries, how can you get the screen coordinates / rectangle of the main "Working Area"? That is Left, Top, Width and Height.

This image quite nicely shows the area I am looking for highlighted as "DISPLAY" - that is the panel/scroll-viewer containing the document.

Working Area Visualisation

I came across this answer which shows a nice approach pertaining to Ranges and the Window itself, but having dug into Window / ActiveWindow, View and ActivePane, I was not able to find any properties that get me closer to the "Working Area" I am looking for.

A solution / approach in either C# or VBA would be great.

JDR
  • 1,094
  • 1
  • 11
  • 31

3 Answers3

4

Cindy's kind pointer to the Windows API got me on the right track.

Using the System.Windows.Automation namespace and the excellent inspect.exe tool, I was able to isolate the ControlType containing the document/working area.

In practice, the Rect can be obtained as follows:

        var window = AutomationElement.FromHandle(new IntPtr(Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveWindow.Hwnd));
        var panel = window.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty, ControlType.Document));
        var docRect = (Rect) panel.GetCurrentPropertyValue(AutomationElement.BoundingRectangleProperty, true);
JDR
  • 1,094
  • 1
  • 11
  • 31
3

The Word object library provides only information for the height and width:

Window.UsableHeight
Window.UsableWidth

It provides nothing for the screen co-ordinates of the "editing" section of the Word application, only for the entire application window. For that, I think it will be necessary to work with the Windows API.

Cindy Meister
  • 25,071
  • 21
  • 34
  • 43
0

If you do now want to use automation System.Windows.Automation because for me it is heavy you can use user32 approach.

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool GetWindowRect(IntPtr hWnd, out RECT lpRect);

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct RECT
{
    public int Left;        // x position of upper-left corner
    public int Top;         // y position of upper-left corner
    public int Right;       // x position of lower-right corner
    public int Bottom;      // y position of lower-right corner
}
    
var wwFWindowHandle = FindWindowEx(parentWindowHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "_WwF", null);
if (wwFWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero)
{
    var wwBWindowHandle = FindWindowEx(wwFWindowHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "_WwB", null);
    if (wwBWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero)
    {
        var wwGWindowHandle = FindWindowEx(wwBWindowHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "_WwG", null);
        if (wwGWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero)
        {
            GetWindowRect(wwGWindowHandle, out var newRect)
        }
    }
}

Using this code you will get pages area. Using Spy++ you can find other elements from word office.

oyashchyshyn
  • 13
  • 5