vba Word how to get sentences in a table

Question

I have a Word document, with the first two sentences as normal text and sentences three and four in a table (in one cell):

My first sentence. My second sentence.

My third sentence. My fourth sentence.

My code is the following:

Option Explicit
Sub test()
    Dim sentence As Variant
    Dim i As Long: i = 0
    
    Selection.Expand wdSentence
    Debug.Print "--------->" & ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Selection.Sentences.Count
    Debug.Print "selection: " & ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Selection
    For Each sentence In ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Selection.Sentences
        i = i + 1
        Debug.Print i & " sentence: " & sentence
    Next

End Sub

If I select the first two sentences, the debug output is correct:

--------->2
selection: My first sentence. My second sentence.


1 sentence: My first sentence. 
2 sentence: My second sentence.

If I select the two sentences in the table, the debug output is strange (or wrong?):

--------->2
selection: My third sentence. My fourth sentence.

1 sentence: My third sentence. 

Why is the output of the table content different from normal text? How can I get the same result for the table content as for the normal text?

Answer 1

Tables bring a another whole dimension of complexity to what Word recognizes as a sentence. Paragraph, end of cell marks, and end of row markers all factor into the confusion of what constitutes a sentence to VBA.

Here is some code that should work, but I can’t claim with 100% certainty that it will work in all situations. In other words, I know it can be improved upon, but it should give you a good start for your own debugging sessions.

Sub ParseBySentence()
    Dim doc As Word.Document
    Dim i As Long, s As Long, para As Word.Paragraph
    Dim rng As Word.Range, sRng As Word.Range
    
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    On Error Resume Next
    Set doc = ActiveDocument
    For i = 1 To doc.Paragraphs.Count
        Set para = doc.Paragraphs(i)
        If para.Range.Information(wdWithInTable) Then
            Set rng = para.Range
            Do While Asc(rng.Characters.Last) = 13
                rng.MoveEnd unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
            Loop
            If rng.Text = vbNullString Or _
                Asc(rng.Text) = 13 Then
                'do nothing
            Else
                For s = 1 To rng.Sentences.Count
                    Set sRng = rng.Sentences(s)
                    Do While Asc(sRng.Characters.Last) = 13
                        sRng.MoveEnd unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
                    Loop
                    sRng.Select
                    Debug.Print Selection.Text
                    Selection.Collapse Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd
                Next
            End If
        End If
    Next
    Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdStory
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    MsgBox "Action Complete"
End Sub