Fixing up InfoPath exported .mhts in Word
If you export a complex InfoPath view to web archive (.mht) file then edit it in Word, you may notice that Word takes a long time to paginate the document when you switch to print layout for the first time. This is happening because the .mht file has a lot of tall and nested tables spanning across multiple pages and it is hard for Word to layout those tables on pages.
So what can we do about it? Not much from InfoPath side, as most those tables are produced by InfoPath container controls such as repeating sections, lists, etc. However, from Word side, if you think about it, those tables do not serve as containers any more. And if they only have one column, they do not do what tables in Word suppose to do: layout things on pages. So we can just get rid of those (just the grid, we need keep the content of course). And that magic can be performed by the ConvertToText method of Table object, as shown below:
Sub UnNestTables()
Dim tbP As Table
For Each tbP In ActiveDocument.Tables
UnNestTable tbP
Next
End Sub
Sub UnNestTable(tbl As Table)
Dim tblChild As Table
For Each tblChild In tbl.Tables
UnNestTable tblChild
Next
If tbl.Columns.Count = 1 Then
tbl.ConvertToText wdSeparateByParagraphs, False
End If
End Sub |
After running the "UnNestTables" macro above in Word, all one-column tables will be removed. You should no longer experience the performance lag mentioned above. In addition, you'd find the document looks much neater and easier to work with.
