How to extract "Actions Items" from an MS Word file to compile list at end of document

Question

I found an older thread about "Extraction of "Actions items" from the word main body to a table". Unfortunately, the code has errors in it in the current version of MS Word. I was able to get AI to re-code a Macro for this. The macro below will copy any paragraph in a MS Word file that says "Action Item", paste a copy of it at the end of the document under an "Action Item" section.

For those not used to working with Macros:

1. In MS Word, go to the Developer ribbon
2. Click on Record Macro
3. Enter a Macro name in the popup and click OK.
4. Stop the Macro recording.
5. On the Developer ribbon, click on Macro, select the name of the macro you just started, and click Edit.
6. Copy and paste the code below into the Visual Basic popup window.
7. Click Save and close.

To run the Macro:

1. On the Developer ribbon, click on Macro and select the name of the macro from the popup window list.
2. Click Run.

Here is the code to enter:

Sub ActionItemExtraction()
    ' https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/6000943/how-to-extract-actions-items-from-an-ms-word-file
    ' The macro below will copy any paragraph in a MS Word file that says "Action Item",
    '   paste a copy of it at the end of the document under an "Action Item" section.
    '
    Dim doc As Document
    Dim searchRange As range
    Dim sourceRange As range
    Dim targetRange As range
    Dim actionItems As String
    Dim itemText As String
    Dim actionCount As Long
    Set doc = ActiveDocument
    'Search only the original contents of the document.
    Set searchRange = doc.range(0, doc.Content.End - 1)
    With searchRange.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "Action Item:"
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Format = False
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWholeWord = False
        .MatchWildcards = False
        Do While .Execute
            'Capture the entire paragraph containing "Action Item:".
            Set sourceRange = searchRange.Paragraphs(1).range
            'Get the paragraph text.
            itemText = sourceRange.Text
            'Remove the paragraph mark.
            itemText = Replace(itemText, vbCr, "")
            'Remove "Action Item:" from the copied text only.
            itemText = Replace(itemText, "Action Item:", "", _
                               1, -1, vbTextCompare)
            'Remove leading and trailing spaces.
            itemText = Trim(itemText)
            'Add the cleaned item to the list.
            actionItems = actionItems & itemText & vbCr
            actionCount = actionCount + 1
            'Continue searching after this paragraph.
            searchRange.Start = sourceRange.End
            searchRange.End = doc.Content.End - 1
        Loop
    End With
    'If no Action Items were found, stop here.
    If actionCount = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No Action Items were found.", _
               vbInformation, "Action Item Extraction"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    'Add the Action Items section at the end of the document.
    Set targetRange = doc.range(doc.Content.End - 1, doc.Content.End - 1)
    targetRange.InsertAfter vbCr & "Action Items" & vbCr & actionItems
    MsgBox actionCount & " action item(s) added to the end of the document.", _
           vbInformation, "Action Item Extraction"
End Sub

Answer 1

Hi Stephanie,

Thank you for sharing your updated macro and the step-by-step instructions. This will be really helpful for others who ran into errors with the older code.

A couple of quick notes for anyone using it:

• The macro searches for "Action Item:" with the colon, so paragraphs without the colon won't be picked up.
• Running the macro more than once will add another "Action Items" section at the end of the document.
• If the macro is saved inside a specific document rather than Normal.dotm, that file needs to be saved as a macro-enabled .docm file to keep the code.

Thanks again for contributing to the community.