Editing Text

This topic includes Microsoft Visual Basic examples related to the following tasks:

• Determining whether text is selected
• Collapsing a selection or range
• Extending a selection or range
• Redefining a selection or range
• Changing text

For information about, and examples of, other editing tasks, see the following topics:

Returning text from a document

Selecting text in a document

Inserting text in a document

Manipulating a portion of a document

Determining whether text is selected

The Type property of the Selection object returns information about the type of selection. The following example displays a message if the selection is an insertion point.

  Sub IsTextSelected()
    If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP Then MsgBox "Nothing is selected"
End Sub

Collapsing a selection or range

Use the Collapse method to collapse a Selection object or a Range object to its beginning or ending point. The following example collapses the selection to an insertion point at the beginning of the selection.

  Sub CollapseToBeginning()
    Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
End Sub

The following example cancels the range to its ending point (after the first word) and adds new text.

  Sub CollapseToEnd()
    Dim rngWords As Range
Set rngWords = ActiveDocument.Words(1)
With rngWords
    .Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
    .Text = "(This is a test.) "
End With

End Sub

Extending a selection or range

The following example uses the MoveEnd method of the Selection object to extend the end of the selection to include three additional words. The MoveLeft, MoveRight, MoveUp, and MoveDown methods can also be used to extend a Selection object.

  Sub ExtendSelection()
    Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdWord, Count:=3
End Sub

The following example uses the MoveEnd method of the Range object to extend the range to include the first three paragraphs in the active document.

  Sub ExtendRange()
    Dim rngParagraphs As Range
Set rngParagraphs = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
rngParagraphs.MoveEnd Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2

End Sub

Redefining a selection or range

Use the SetRange method to redefine an existing Selection object or Range object. For more information, see Working with the Selection object or Working with Range objects.

Changing text

You can change existing text by changing the contents of a range. The following instruction changes the first word in the active document by setting the Text property of a Range object to "The ".

  Sub ChangeText()
    ActiveDocument.Words(1).Text = "The "
End Sub

You can also use the Delete method or the Selection object or the Range object to delete existing text, and then insert new text using the InsertAfter method or the InsertBefore method. The following example deletes the first paragraph in the active document and inserts new text.

  Sub DeleteText()
    Dim rngFirstParagraph As Range
Set rngFirstParagraph = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
With rngFirstParagraph
    .Delete
    .InsertAfter Text:="New text"
    .InsertParagraphAfter
End With

End Sub