Referring to the Active Document Element

To refer to the active paragraph, table, field, or other document element, use the Selection property to return a Selection object. From the Selection object, you can access all paragraphs in the selection or the first paragraph in the selection. The following example applies a border around the first paragraph in the selection.

Sub BorderAroundFirstParagraph()
    Selection.Paragraphs(1).Borders.Enable = True
End Sub

The following example applies a border around each paragraph in the selection.

Sub BorderAroundSelection()
    Selection.Paragraphs.Borders.Enable = True
End Sub

The following example applies shading to the first row of the first table in the selection.

Sub ShadeTableRow()
    Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).Shading.Texture = wdTexture10Percent
End Sub

An error occurs if the selection doesn't include a table. Use the Count property to determine if the selection includes a table. The following example applies shading to the first row of the first table in the selection.

Sub ShadeTableRow()
    If Selection.Tables.Count >= 1 Then
        Selection.Tables(1).Rows(1).Shading.Texture = wdTexture25Percent
    Else
        MsgBox "Selection doesn't include a table"
    End If
End Sub

The following example applies shading to the first row of every table in the selection. The For Each...Next loop is used to step through the individual tables in the selection.

Sub ShadeAllFirstRowsInTables()
    Dim tblTable As Table
    If Selection.Tables.Count >= 1 Then
        For Each tblTable In Selection.Tables
            tblTable.Rows(1).Shading.Texture = wdTexture30Percent
        Next tblTable
    End If
End Sub