Printing a Macro List

Many Word users rely upon macros to perform all sorts of tasks in the program. Over the years it is possible to accumulate quite a few different macros. At some point you may want a way to print out a list of your macros for reference purposes. Unfortunately, Word doesn't provide a way you easily print out such a macro list.

If you just need a quick list, one way to do it is to use Word's built-in tools to list all the commands available to Word. Since Word considers macros to be "commands," the command list will also include your macros. But since you don't want all the other commands in Word (besides your macros), you will need to do a little editing. Follow these steps:

1. Press Alt+F8. Word displays the Macros dialog box.
2. Using the Macros In drop-down list, choose Word Commands. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Macros dialog box.

3. In the list of Word commands, select the ListCommands option.
4. Click on Run. Word begins to run the macro and displays the List Commands dialog box.
5. Click the All Word Commands radio button.
6. Click OK.

Word then creates a new document that contains a table with all Word commands. Remember that your macros are buried within the table. To find them, search for "normal." (make sure you include the period, but not the quote marks). This finds any "commands" contained in the Normal document template. You can copy the names of these commands—they are your macros—to a different document. If you have macros in any other templates, search for those template names, as well.

Another approach is to follow these general steps:

1. If your macros are not in the Normal template, open the template that contains your macros.
2. Press Alt+F11. Word displays the Visual Basic Editor.
3. Double click a module on the left side, in the Project Explorer, so that the code appears in a Code window on the right side.
4. Click once in the Code window, so you can see the insertion point there.
5. Press Ctrl+A. This selects all the code in the Code window.
6. Press Ctrl+C. This copies the macro code to the Clipboard.
7. Open a new Word document and paste all the macro code into the document.
8. Press Ctrl+End to move to the end of the document.
9. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
10. Click the More button if it is available. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

11. Make sure the Use Wildcards check box is selected.
12. Using the Search drop-down list, choose Up.
13. In the Find What box, type the following: (Sub*\(\))(*)
14. In the Replace box, type the following: \1^p
15. Click Replace All.

What you instructed Word to do was to delete everything except the subroutine names (these are your macro names). What is not included in this process are any functions you may have created in your macros. Those functions are not publicly available macros, so for most people this isn't a big issue.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13041) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Printing a Macro List.