Editing text

This topic includes 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 Range object
  
  
• 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.

If Selection.Type = wdSelectionIP Then MsgBox "Nothing is selected"

Collapsing a selection or range

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

Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart

The following example cancels the myRange object to it's ending point (after the first word).

Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Words(1)
myRange.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd

Extending a selection or range

The following example uses the MoveEnd method 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.

Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdWord, Count:=3

The following example uses the MoveEnd method to extend oRange to include the first three paragraphs in the active document.

Set oRange = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
oRange.MoveEnd Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2

Redefining a Range object

Use the SetRange method to redefine an existing Range object. For more information, see 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 to "The."

ActiveDocument.Words(1).Text = "The "

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

Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
With myRange
    .Delete
    .InsertAfter Text:="New text"
    .InsertParagraphAfter
End With