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Moving the Insertion Point in a Macro

Summary: One of the common things done in macros is to somehow "process" documents, which often means moving the insertion point in some manner. This tip explains how this is most easily done. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

VBA allows you to use commands to move the insertion point up, down, left, and right within your document. You do this by using the MoveUp, MoveDown, MoveLeft, and MoveRight methods. You must then specify the type of units you want to move, as well as how many. The basic syntax is as follows:

Selection.direction Unit:=units, Count:=num, Extend:=extension

where direction is one of the methods (MoveUp, MoveDown, MoveLeft, or MoveRight). If you are using the MoveUp or MoveDown methods, you can use units of wdLine, wdParagraph, wdWindow, or wdScreen. If you are using the MoveLeft or MoveRight methods, you can use units of wdCharacter, wdWord, or wdSentence. The num setting indicates how many of the units you want to move the insertion point. The extension value is either wdMove (if you only want to move the insertion point) or wdExtend (if you want to enlarge the selection by your movement).

As an example, let's say you want to move the insertion point to the right by five characters. The proper command to do this would be the following:

Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=5, Extend:=wdMove

If you instead want to move the insertion point up two paragraphs, and select the text from the current insertion point location to the new one, you would use the following line:

Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2, Extend:=wdExtend

You can similarly construct other movement commands for your macro.

Tip #784 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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