Word Macro

Examples & VBA

Tutorial
https://www.automateexcel.com/vba/word/macro-examples
 IN THIS ARTICLE
WORD VBA EXAMPLES “CHEATSHEET”
• SELECT / GO TO
• BOOKMARKS
• DOCUMENT
• COLUMNS
• FONT
• INSERT
• LOOPS
• PARAGRAPH

WORD VBA MACRO TUTORIAL

SIMPLE WORD MACRO EXAMPLE

• WORD MACRO BASICS

WORD DOCUMENT OBJECT

• APPLICATION

DOCUMENTS
• ACTIVEDOCUMENT
• THISDOCUMENT
• DOCUMENT VARIABLES

• DOCUMENT METHODS

• OPEN DOCUMENT
• CREATE NEW DOCUMENT
• SAVE DOCUMENT
• CLOSE DOCUMENT
• PRINT DOCUMENT

RANGE, SELECTION, PARAGRAPHS

• RANGE

• SET RANGE TEXT

• SELECTION

• MOVE SELECTION

• PARAGRAPHS
• WORD VBA TUTORIAL CONCLUSION

WORD MACRO EXAMPLES

 SELECT / GO TO BOOKMARKS DOCUMENT
Description VBA Code Description VBA Code Description VBA Code
Backspace Selection.TypeBackspace With ActiveDocument.Bookmarks Activate Documents(“Example.doc”).Activate
.Add Range:=Selection.Range,
Select Entire Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory Name:=”Name” Add to Dim doc As Document
Document Selection.Extend Add Variable Set doc = Documents.Add
.DefaultSorting = wdSortByName
.ShowHidden = False
Copy Selection.Copy Add Documents.Add
End With
Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Documents.Add Template:=”C:\Forms\
Delete Dim n as Integer Add (From
Count:=1 Count FormDoc.doc”, _
n = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Count Another Doc)
NewTemplate:=False
Insert After Selection.InsertAfter “text”
ActiveDocument.
Delete Close Documents(“Example.doc”).Close
Beginning of Line Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine Bookmarks(“BookmarkName”).Delete
Close – Save Documents(“Example.doc”).Close
End of Line Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.
Changes SaveChanges:=wdSaveChanges
Exists(“BookmarkName”) = True then
Exists?
Paste Selection.Paste ‘Do something Close – Do Not Documents(“Example.doc”).Close
End If Save SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
Select All Selection.WholeStory
Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Close – Prompt Documents(“Example.doc”).Close
Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdLine, Go To
Select Entire Line Name:=”BookmarkName” to Save SaveChanges:=wdPromptToSaveChanges
Extend:=wdExtend
ActiveDocument.
Move Up Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdParagraph, Select
Bookmarks(“BookmarkName”).Select
Paragraph Count:=1

Move Right One Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter,

Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark,
Name:=”BookmarkName”
FONT
Character Count:=1 Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter,
Count:=1
Description VBA Code
Move Right One Replace Text
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCell Selection.InsertAfter “New Text” Size Selection.Font.Size = 12
Cell in Table ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add
Range:=Selection.Range, _ Bold Selection.Font.Bold = True
Go To Start of
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory Name:=”BookmarkName”
Doc Italics Selection.Font.Italic = True
Go To End of Doc Selection.EndKey Unit:=wdStory Selection.Font.Underline =
Underline
Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToPage, wdUnderlineSingle
Go To Page 1
Which:=wdGoToNext, Name:=”1″ All Caps Selection.Font.AllCaps = True
Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Color Selection.Font.TextColor = vbRed
Name:=”\Page”
Go To Top of Page
Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Subscript Selection.Font.Subscript = True
Count:=1
Selection.Font.Superscript = True
SuperScript

COLUMNS PARAGRAPH Highlight Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex =

Color wdYellow
Description VBA Code Description VBA Code Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.
Style
Documents(“Example.doc”).SaveAs (“C:\ KeepLines Selection.ParagraphFormat.KeepTogether Styles(“Normal”)
Save As
Example\Example.doc”) Together = True

Save Documents(“Example.doc”).Save Selection.ParagraphFormat.

KeepWithNext
KeepWithNext = True
Documents(“Example.doc”).Protect
Protect
Password:=”password” Selection.ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfter
Documents(“Example.doc”).UnProtect Space After
Unprotect = 12
Password:=”password”
Selection.ParagraphFormat.SpaceBefore
INSERT
Dim varNumberPages as Variant Space Before
varNumberPages = _ =0
Number of Pages Description VBA Code
ActiveDocument.Content.Information(w-
Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment =
dActiveEndAdjustedPageNumber) Align Center Selection.TypeText Text:=”a3″
wdAlignParagraphCenter Insert AutoText
Selection.Range.InsertAutoText
Print Documents(“Example.doc”).Print Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment =
Align Right Insert Date Code
wdAlignParagraphRight

Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = Selection.InsertFile (“C:\Docs\Something.

Align Left Insert File
doc”)
LOOPS wdAlignParagraphLeft

Selection.ParagraphFormat.LeftIndent = Selection.InsertBreak
Left Indent Insert Page Break
Description VBA Code InchesToPoints(3.75) Type:=wdPageBreak

Do Until ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(“\ Selection.ParagraphFormat.RightIndent = Insert Paragraph

Right Indent Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr$(182)
Sel”) = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(“\ InchesToPoints(1) Symbol
Do Until End
EndOfDoc”)
of Doc With Selection.ParagraphFormat Insert Tab Selection.TypeText Text:=vbTab
‘Do Something
Sub .LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpaceExactly
Line Spacing Insert Text Selection.TypeText Text:=”Any Text”
.LineSpacing = 12
Dim doc As Document End With Insert Type
For Each Doc in ForEach doc In Documents Selection.TypeParagraph
Paragraph
Docs ‘Do Something
Next doc Sub through Paragraphs Insert Paragraph Selection.InsertParagraph
Dim i As Long, iParCount As Long
Sub through Paragraphs iParCount = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.
Loop Through All
Dim i As Long, iParCount As Long CountFori = 1 To iParCount
Paragraphs
iParCount = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs. ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(i).Alignment
Loop Through
CountFori = 1 To iParCount = wdAlignParagraphLeft
Paragraphs
ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(i).Alignment Next i
= wdAlignParagraphLeft
Next i

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 Word VBA Macro Tutorial
This is a tutorial for using VBA with Microsoft Word. This tutorial will teach you how to write a
simple Macro and interact with Documents, Ranges, Selections, and Paragraphs.

Note: If you’re brand new to Macros / VBA you might also find this article useful: How to write
VBA Macros from Scratch.

VBA is the programming language used to automate Microsoft Office programs including Word,
Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access.

Macros are blocks of VBA code that perform specific tasks.

When you Record a Macro, Word will write VBA code into a Macro, allowing you to repeat your
actions. You can see a list of all available Macros from View > Macros.

After recording a Macro, you will be able to edit the Macro from the Macro List:

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 When you click Edit, you open the VBA Editor. Using the VBA Editor you can edit recorded
Macros or write a Word Macro from scratch. To access the VBA Editor use the shortcut ALT + F11
or click Visual Basic from the Developer Ribbon.

Simple Word Macro Example

This is a simple example of a Word VBA Macro. It performs the following tasks:

• Opens a Word Document

• Writes to Document
• Closes and Saves the Word Document.

Sub WordMacroExample()

‘Open Doc & Assign to Variable

Dim oDoc As Document
Set oDoc = Documents.Open(“c:\Users\someone\NewDocument.docx”)

‘Write To Doc
Selection.TypeText “www.automateexcel.com”
Selection.TypeParagraph

‘Save and Close Doc

oDoc.Save
oDoc.Close

End Sub

Word Macro Basics

All VBA code must be stored within procedures like this. To create a procedure in VBA type “Sub
WordMacroExample” (Where “WordMacroExample” is your desired Macro name) and press
ENTER. VBA will automatically add the parenthesis and End Sub.

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 Word Document Object
When interacting with Microsoft Word in VBA, you will frequently reference Word “Objects”. The
most common objects are:

Application Object – Microsoft Word itself

Document Object – A Word document

Range Object – A part of a Word document

Selection Object – A selected range or cursor location.

Application
Application is the “top-level” object. All other objects in Word can be reached through it.

In addition to accessing other Word objects, there are “application-level” settings that can be
applied:

Application.Options.AllowDragAndDrop = True

This is an example of accessing the “Selection” of “Windows(1)” with in the Application:

Application.Windows(1).Selection.Characters.Count

However, the most common Word objects can be accessed directly, without typing the full
hierarchy. So instead, you can (and should) just type:

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 Documents
ActiveDocument
Often, you will have two or more documents opened in Word and you will need specify which
specific Word Document to interact with. One way to specify which document is to use
ActiveDocument. For example:

ActiveDocument.PrintOut

…would print the ActiveDocument. The ActiveDocument is the document in Word which “has
focus”

To switch the ActiveDocument, use the Activate command:

Documents(“Example.docx”).Activate

ThisDocument
Instead of using ActiveDocument to reference the active document, you can use ThisDocument to
reference the document where the macro is stored. ThisDocument will never change.

ThisDocument.PrintOut

Document Variables
However, for more complicated macros, it can be hard to keep track of the Active Document. It
can also be frustrating to switch back and forth between documents.

Instead, you can use Document variables.

This macro will assign the ActiveDocument to a variable and then print the document using the
variable:

Sub VarExample()
Dim oDoc As Document
Set oDoc = ActiveDocument
oDoc.PrintOut
End Sub

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 Document Methods
Open Document
To Open a Word Document:

Documents.Open “c:\Users\SomeOne\Desktop\Test PM.docx”

We recommend always assigning a Document to a variable upon opening it:

Dim oDoc as Document

Set oDoc = Documents.Open(“c:\Users\SomeOne\Desktop\Test PM.docx”)

Create New Document

To create a new Word Document:

Documents.Add

We can instruct Word to create a new doc based on some template:

Documents.Add Template:=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\MyTemplate.dotx”

As always, it is useful and huge problem saver to assign document to variable upon creating or
opening:

Dim oDoc as Document

Set oDoc = Documents.Add (Template:=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates
MyTemplate.dotx”)

Save Document
To save a document:

ActiveDocument.Save

or SaveAs:

ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:= c:\Users\SomeOne\Desktop\test2.docx”,

FileFormat:=wdFormatDocument

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 Close Document
To close a Document and save changes:

ActiveDocument.Close wdSaveChanges

or without saving changes:

ActiveDocument.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

Print Document
This will print the active Document:

ActiveDocument.PrintOut

Range, Selection, Paragraphs

Range and Selection are probably the most important objects in Word VBA, certainly the most
used.

Range refers to some portion of document, usually, but not necessarily, text.

Selection refers to selected text (or other object like pictures) or, if nothing is selected, an
insertion point.

Paragraphs represent paragraphs in document. Its less important than it sounds, because you
can’t directly access paragraph text (you need to access particular paragraph range to make
modifications).

Range
Range can be any part of document, including entire document:

Dim oRange As Range

Set oRange = ActiveDocument.Content

or it can be small as one character.

Another example, this range would refer to first word in document:

Dim oRange As Range

Set oRange = ActiveDocument.Range.Words(1)

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 Usually, you would want to get range which refers to specific part of document and then modify it.

In the following example we will make the first word of second paragraph bold:

Dim oRange As Range

Set oRange = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(2).Range.Words(1)
oRange.Bold = True

Set Range Text

To set the text value of a Range:

Dim oRange As Range

Set oRange = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(2).Range.Words(1)
oRange.Text = “Hello ”

(Tip: Note the space after “Hello”. Because word object includes space after word, with just “hello”
we would get “Hellonext word”)

There are hundreds of things which you can do with ranges. Just a few examples (these assume
you are already made object variable oRange referring to range of interest):

Change font

oRange.Font.Name = “Arial”

Display in message box number of characters in particular range

MsgBox oRange.Characters.Count

Insert some text before it

oRange.InsertBefore “this is inserted text “

Add a footnote to range

ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Add Range:=oRange, _
Text:=”Read more at automateexcel.com.”

Copy it to clipboard

oRange.Copy
Often you need to change to what is particular range referring. So you can start it’s
start and end
oRange.Start = 5
oRange.End = 50

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 After above code, oRange would refer to text starting with fifth and ending with 50th character in
document.

Selection
Selection is even more widely used than Range, because it is easier to work with Selections than
Ranges, IF your macro ONLY interacts with the ActiveDocument.

First select the desired part of your document. For example select the second paragraph in active
document:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(2).Range.Select

Then you can use the Selection Object to type some text:

Selection.TypeText “Some text”

We can type some paragraphs bellow “Some text”:

Selection.TypeText “Some text”

Selection.TypeParagraph

Often, it’s necessary to know if some text is selected or we have just a insertion point:

If Selection.Type <> wdSelectionIP Then

Selection.Font.Bold = True
Else
MsgBox “You need to select some text.”
End If

When working with Selection object we want to place insertion point to particular place, and
issue commands starting from this point.

Beginning of document:

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory, Extend:=wdMove

Beginning of current line:

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdMove

The Extend parameter wdMove moves the insertion point. Instead, you could use wdExtend
which will select all text between the current insertion point.

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend

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 Move Selection
The most useful method for changing position of insertion point is Move. To move Selection two
characters forward:

Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2

to move it backwards, use negative number for Count parameter:

Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-2

Unit parameter can be wdCharacter, wdWord, wdLine, or more (use Word VBA help to see others).

To move words instead:

Selection.Move unit:=wdWord, Count:=2

Selection is easier to work with (compared to ranges) because it is like a robot using Word,
mimicking human user. Where Insertion point is – some action would take place. But, this means
that you must take care where insertion point is! This is not easy after many steps in code.
Otherwise, Word would change text in not desired place.

In the case you need some property or method not available in Selection object you can always
easily obtain range associated with selection:

Set oRange = Selection.Range

TIP: Using Selection is often easier than using ranges, but also it’s way slower (important when you deal
with big documents)

Paragraphs
You can’t directly use Paragraphs object to change text:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Text = “No, it wouldn’t work”

Above wouldn’t work (actually it will throw an error). You need to first obtain range associated
with particular paragraph:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range.Text = “It works now :)”

But you can directly change its style:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Style = “Normal”

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 or change its paragraph level formatting:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).LeftIndent = 10

or maybe you want to keep this paragraph on the same line with next paragraph:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).KeepWithNext = True

Make paragraph centered:

ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter

It is VERY useful to assign a particular paragraph to object variable. If we assign particular

paragraph to variable we don’t have to worry if the first paragraph becomes the second because
we inserted one paragraph before it:

dim oPara as Paragraph

Set oPara = Selection.Paragraphs(1) ‘here we assign first paragraph of current selection to
variable

Here is an example where we insert a paragraph above the first paragraph, but we can still
reference the old first paragraph because it was assigned to a variable:

Sub ParagraphExample()
Dim oPara As Paragraph
Set oPara = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1)
MsgBox oPara.Range.Text
oPara.Range.InsertParagraphBefore ‘Insert Paragraph
MsgBox oPara.Range.Text
End Sub

Paragraph object is very frequently used in loops:

Sub LoopThroughParagraphs()

Dim oPara As Paragraph

For Each oPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
‘do something with it. We will just display
‘paragraph text if its style is “Heading 4”
If oPara.Style = “Heading 4” Then
MsgBox oPara.Range.Text
End If
Next oPara

End Sub

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 Word VBA Tutorial Conclusion
This tutorial covered the basics of Word VBA. If you’re new to VBA, you should also review our
general VBA Tutorial to learn more about Variables, Loops, MessageBoxes, Settings, Conditional
Logic and much more.

Word Macro Examples

When interacting with Microsoft Word in VBA, you will frequently reference Word “Objects”. The
most common objects are:

Application Object – Microsoft Word itself

Document Object – A Word document

Range Object – A part of a Word document

Selection Object – A selected range or cursor location.

WORD MACRO EXAMPLES

Templates

Add New Documents

Count Words in Selection

TextBoxes

SaveAs PDF

Bookmarks

Tables

Find and Find and Replace

Open Documents

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