Creating a multilevel list in Outlook from Excel VBA - excel

Question

I am working with excel to process user input and then output an standardized email based on the input, and then take that formatted text and save it to a variable to later add it to the clipboard for ease of entry into a system we use for internal documentation.
I have a functioning approach using HTML for the email format, but that doesn't resolve my intent to have it copy the code to the clipboard or variable as the HTML tags are copied as well. I'm hoping to get the functionality of Word's bullet lists so I've been trying to adapt the MS Word code in a way that can be called on demand.
I currently have the default excel libraries, form library and object library for Word and Outlook added to the program.
My goal is to pass an array list built on excel tables through the Word list and have it format and write the text to Word editor in an outlook draft. There will be varying number of sections (No more than 6) needed to be written, typically no more than 10 items per section, usually less. So I intend to have other sub/functions call this to format each section as needed.
Attached is an example of output for this section, along with an example of where the data is coming from. Each section will have it's own sheet in Excel. The second level of the list for each section will come from a separate sheet.
I included a portion of the actual code showing the startup of a new outlook draft and entry of text. EmailBody() currently just handles any text outside of these sections, and calls a separate function for each section to parse the tables (currently as unformatted text, and only inputting line breaks).
Output Example
Data source example
Sub Email()
Dim eTo As String
eTo = Range("H4").Value
Dim myItem As Object
Dim myInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim wdDoc As Word.Document
Dim wdRange As Word.Range
Set myItem = Outlook.Application.CreateItem(olMailItem)
With myItem
.To = eTo
.Bcc = "email"
.Subject = CNum("pt 1") & " | " & CNum("pt 2")
'displays message prior to send to ensure no errors in email. Autosend is possible, but not recommended.
.Display
Set myInspector = .GetInspector
'Obtain the Word.Document for the Inspector
Set wdDoc = myInspector.WordEditor
If Not (wdDoc Is Nothing) Then
Set wdRange = wdDoc.Range(0, wdDoc.Characters.Count)
wdRange.InsertAfter (EmailBody(CNum("pt 1"), CNum("pt 2")))
End If
'[...]
end with
end sub
Multilevel list code I am struggling to adapt. I keep getting an error on the commented out section of code, and unsure of how to properly correct it so that it both functions and can be called on demand:
Run-time error '450': Wrong number of arguments or invalid property
assignment
Sub testList()
Dim arr1 As Object
Set arr1 = CreateObject("System.Collections.ArrayList")
With arr1
.Add "test" & " $100"
.Add "apple"
.Add "four"
End With
Dim i As Long
With ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1).ListLevels(1)
.NumberFormat = ChrW(61623)
.TrailingCharacter = wdTrailingTab
.NumberStyle = wdListNumberStyleBullet
.NumberPosition = InchesToPoints(0.25)
.Alignment = wdListLevelAlignLeft
.TextPosition = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.TabPosition = wdUndefined
.ResetOnHigher = 0
.StartAt = 1
.LinkedStyle = ""
End With
ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1).Name = ""
'Selection.Range.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplateWithLevel ListTemplate:= _
' ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1), ContinuePreviousList:= _
' False, ApplyTo:=wdListApplyToWholeList, DefaultListBehavior:= _
' wdWord10ListBehavior
'writes each item in ArrayList to document
For i = 0 To arr1.Count - 1
Selection.TypeText Text:=arr1(i)
Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i
'writes each item to level 2 list
Selection.Range.SetListLevel Level:=2
For i = 0 To arr1.Count - 1
Selection.TypeText Text:=arr1(i)
Selection.TypeParagraph
Next i
Selection.Range.ListFormat.RemoveNumbers NumberType:=wdNumberParagraph
arr1.Clear
End Sub
Please forgive me if any of this seems inefficient, or an odd approach. I literally pickup up VBA a few weeks ago and only have a few hours of application in between my job responsibilities with what I've learned so far. Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

The reason why you are getting that error is because, it is not able to resolve the object Selection. You need to fully qualify the Selection object else Excel will refer to the current selection from Excel.
You may have referenced the Word Object library from Excel but that is not enough. The simplest way to reproduce this error is by running this from Excel
Sub Sample()
Selection.Range.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplateWithLevel ListTemplate:= _
ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1), ContinuePreviousList:= _
False, ApplyTo:=wdListApplyToWholeList, DefaultListBehavior:= _
wdWord10ListBehavior
End Sub
Here is a sample code which will work. To test this, open a word document and select some text and then run this code from Excel
Sub Sample()
Dim wrd As Object
Set wrd = GetObject(, "word.application")
wrd.Selection.Range.ListFormat.ApplyListTemplateWithLevel ListTemplate:= _
ListGalleries(wdBulletGallery).ListTemplates(1), ContinuePreviousList:= _
False, ApplyTo:=wdListApplyToWholeList, DefaultListBehavior:= wdWord10ListBehavior
End Sub
Applying this to your code. You need to work with the Word objects and fully qualify your objects like Word Application, Word Document, Word Range etc. For example
Dim oWordApp As Object, oWordDoc As Object
Dim FlName As String
FlName = "C:\MyFile.Docx"
'~~> Establish an Word application object
On Error Resume Next
Set oWordApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Set oWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
End If
Err.Clear
On Error GoTo 0
oWordApp.Visible = True
Set oWordDoc = oWordApp.Documents.Open(FlName)
With oWordDoc
'
'~~> Rest of the code here
'
End With

Answer 2

Utilizing Word lists, while functional in this circumstance created a certain tedium in coding due to the need to declare both Word and Outlook objects and resolve their relation to each other.
It appears I was declaring my HTML lists incorrectly in my original code. I shifted the margin of the <li> rather than nesting <ul> to step the list.
By nesting the HTML list tags you can get the same functionality of a word list and the formatting will persist when copied to other text editors. However, copying must be done after it is written to .HTMLBody.
<ul><li>Apple</li><ul><li>Fruit</li></ul></ul>
or for VBA:
.HTMLBody = "<ul><li>" & arg1 & "</li><ul><li>" & arg2 & "</li></ul></ul>"
The above will output this to .HTMLBody:
AppleFruit
To copy the text you only need to select all the text in the Outlook word editor and then assign it to the clipboard if pasting as is, or assign it to a variable if additional changes are needed before putting it in the clipboard.