Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System

How to: Restore Selections After Searches

Note
Some code examples in this topic use the this or Me keyword or the `Globals` class in a way that is specific to document-level customizations, or they rely on features of document-level customizations such as host controls. These examples can be compiled only if you have the required applications installed. For more information, see Features Available by Product Combination.

If you find and replace text in a document, you might want to restore the user's original selection after the search is completed.

The code in the sample procedure makes use of two Range objects. One stores the current Selection, and one sets the entire document to use as a search range.

To restore the user's original selection after a search

Create the Range objects for the document and the current selection.

Visual Basic

Dim start As Word.Range = Application.Selection.Range
Dim searchArea As Word.Range = Application.ActiveDocument.Range

Word.Range start = Application.Selection.Range; 
Word.Range searchArea = Application.ActiveDocument.Range(ref missing, ref missing);

Perform the search and replace operation.

Visual Basic

searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting()
searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"

searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting()
searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"

searchArea.Find.Execute(Replace:=Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll)

searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"; 

searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting(); 
searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"; 

object replaceAll = Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll; 

searchArea.Find.Execute(
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref replaceAll, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

Select the start range to restore the user's original selection.
Visual Basic
```
start.Select()
```
C#
```
start.Select(); 
```

The following example shows the complete method.

Example

Visual Basic

Friend Sub ReplaceRestoreSelection()
    Dim start As Word.Range = Application.Selection.Range
    Dim searchArea As Word.Range = Application.ActiveDocument.Range

    searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting()
    searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"

    searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting()
    searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"

    searchArea.Find.Execute(Replace:=Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll)

    start.Select()
End Sub

internal void ReplaceRestoreSelection() 
{ 
    Word.Range start = Application.Selection.Range; 
    Word.Range searchArea = Application.ActiveDocument.Range(ref missing, ref missing); 

    searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
    searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"; 

    searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting(); 
    searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"; 

    object replaceAll = Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll; 

    searchArea.Find.Execute(
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref replaceAll, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

    start.Select(); 
}

To restore the user's original selection after a search

Example

See Also

Tasks

Concepts

Other Resources