Change the background color of a Word file via PowerShell - windows

Question

How can I change the background color of a Word file via PowerShell?
$wd = New-Object -COM 'Word.Application'
$wd.Visible = $true # set to $false for production
Get-ChildItem 'C:\1\*.doc' | % {
$doc = $wd.Documents.Open($_.FullName)
# Here's the problem
$doc.Background.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(192, 192, 192)
# Switch doc view to Online Layout view
$doc.ActiveWindow.View.Type = 6
$doc.Save($true)
$doc.Close()
}
$wd.Quit()
[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($wd)
[GC]::Collect()
[GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()
I'm getting 2 errors :
* RGB : The term 'RGB' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet...
* Cannot find an overload for "Save" and the argument count: "1".

Answer 1

So lets address the couple of issues I know about...
RGB : The term 'RGB' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet...
Of course you know why that is not working since PowerShell does not have a RGB cmdlet. However if you look at the input for $doc.Background.Fill.ForeColor.RGB it is looking for an integer. Referring to this related article you can see how we can make the transition.
$doc.Background.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = [long](192 + (192* 256) + (192 * 65536))
There is a caveat that needs to be addressed. While the above code does not cause an error you are going to notice that the colour is not displayed on the document. That is because backround colour is not displayed by default. You will need to enable it.
$doc.Background.Fill.Visible = $true
Ok, that one is done now how about....
Cannot find an overload for "Save" and the argument count: "1".
We use Get-Member to see exactly why
PS C:\users\Cameron\Downloads> $doc | gm
TypeName: Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.DocumentClass
...
RunLetterWizard Method void RunLetterWizard([ref] System.Object LetterContent, [ref] System.Object WizardMode), void _Document.Ru...
Save Method void Save(), void _Document.Save()
SaveAs Method void SaveAs([ref] System.Object FileName, [ref] System.Object FileFormat, [ref] System.Object LockComments...
...
It does not take any parameters so we simply need to remove $true. The other entries are there just to show some other methods do take parameters.
$doc.Save()
.... so .... for the last one
True : The term 'True' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet...
I did not see that error and will assume it was a typo that didnt get carried over into the code of your question.
Still miss RGB?
A crude PowerShell function that replicates the functionality with a little data validation
Function Get-RGB
{
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[ValidateRange(0,255)]
[Int]
$Red = 0,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[ValidateRange(0,255)]
[Int]
$Green = 0,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
[ValidateRange(0,255)]
[Int]
$Blue = 0
)
Process
{
[long]($Red + ($Green * 256) + ($Blue * 65536))
}
}
Example
PS C:\users\Cameron\Downloads> Get-RGB 129 0 54
3539073

Answer 2

To clarify, I'm posting the final script here.
This script will loop through ALL .doc files in the selected path.
I encountered a problem only when the doc files were read-only, So I changed save() to SaveAs([ref]$name) at another folder, and that fixed the problem.
$wd = New-Object -COM 'Word.Application'
$wd.Visible = $true # set to $false for production
Get-ChildItem 'C:\songs\*.doc' | % {
$doc = $wd.Documents.Open($_.FullName)
$doc.Background.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = [long](249 + (232* 256) + (163 * 65536))
$doc.Background.Fill.Visible = $true
# Switch doc view to Online Layout view, otherwise the changes won't appear in normal view
$doc.ActiveWindow.View.Type = 6
# Replace folder path to solve "read-only" problem
$Name=($doc.Fullname).replace("songs","songs_edited")
$doc.SaveAs([ref]$Name)
$doc.Close()
}
$wd.Quit()
[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($wd)
[GC]::Collect()
[GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()