Word Macro Examples & VBA Tutorial

Welcome to our Word VBA / Macros Mega-Guide!

This page contains:

1. 1. Word VBA Tutorial PDF (Free Download)
   2. Word VBA “Cheat Sheet” containing a list of the most commonly used Word VBA code snippets
   3. Full Word VBA / Macro tutorial.
   4. Searchable list of all of our Word VBA Macro Tutorials

You might also be interested in our Interactive VBA Tutorial for Excel.  While some of the examples / exercises are specific to Excel VBA, much of the content is generic to all VBA and you may find it useful to learn concepts like If Statements, Loops, MessageBoxes, and more.

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VBA PDF (Free Downloads)

Download our free Microsoft Word VBA Tutorial! Or VBA Tutorials for other Office Programs!

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Word VBA Examples “CheatSheet”

Below you will find simple VBA code examples for working with Microsoft Word.

Select / Go To

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Bookmarks

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Document

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Columns

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Font

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Insert

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Loops

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Paragraph

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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:

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.

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:

Selection.Characters.Count

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

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 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

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)

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

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

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"

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

Word Templates

Current Template

This Word VBA macro will display the current template:

Sub DisplayCurrentTemplate()
'displays full path of template active document
    MsgBox ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName, , "Template location"
End Sub

Make New Template

This Word VBA macro will make a new template:

Sub MakeNewTemplate()
'creates a new doc and saves as a template
    Dim strName As String
    Dim strPath As String
    Dim oDoc As Document
    
  strPath = Options.DefaultFilePath(wdUserTemplatesPath) & Application.PathSeparator 'find where templates are stored at user's computer
     strName = "Sample automateexcel.com template.dotm"
    Set oDoc = Documents.Add 'create a new doc and asign it to oDoc variable
    'write some text in the new doc  reffering to it using oDoc variable
    oDoc.Range.InsertBefore "Sample template"
    oDoc.Range.InsertParagraphAfter
    oDoc.Range.InsertAfter "Visit https://www.automateexcel.com/vba-code-library"
    
    oDoc.SaveAs FileName:=strPath & strName, FileFormat:=wdFormatXMLTemplateMacroEnabled, AddToRecentFiles:=False
    oDoc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges 'close doc
End Sub

Bookmarks

Add Bookmark

This Word macro will add a bookmark:

Sub AddBookmark()
    ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "automateexcel_com_01"
End Sub

Delete Bookmark

This VBA macro will delete a bookmark:

Sub DeleteBookmark()
    If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists("automateexcel_com_01") Then    'we need to check if bookmark named "automateexcel_com_01" exists in active doc
        ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(Index:="automateexcel_com_01").Delete
    End If
End Sub

Go To Bookmark

This simple macro will go to a bookmark:

Sub GoToBookmark()
    If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists("automateexcel_com_01") Then    'we need to check if bookmark named "automateexcel_com_01" exists in active doc
        Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="automateexcel_com_01"
    End If
End Sub

Modify Bookmark

This macro will modify a bookmark’s content:

Sub ModifyBookmarkContent()
' change bookmark contents
' more complicated, because changing bookmark range content will delete bookmark
    Dim oRangeBKM As Range

    If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists("automateexcel_com_01") Then    'we need to check if bookmark named "automateexcel_com_01" exists in active doc
        'Identify current Bookmark range and insert text
        Set oRangeBKM = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("automateexcel_com_01").Range
        oRangeBKM.Text = "automateexcel.com"
        'Make again the bookmark
        ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "automateexcel_com_01", oRangeBKM
    End If
End Sub

This is a modify bookmark function:

Sub UpdateBookmarkContent(strBookMarkName As String, strNewText As String)
' "usable' procedure for add in
    Dim oRangeBKM As Range

    If ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists(strBookMarkName) Then    'we need to check if bookmark named "automateexcel_com_01" exists in active doc
        'Identify current Bookmark range and insert text
        Set oRangeBKM = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(strBookMarkName).Range
        oRangeBKM.Text = strNewText
        'Make again the bookmark
        ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add strBookMarkName, oRangeBKM
    End If
End Sub

You can call the function by adding the bookmark name and new text as arguments:

Sub CallBookmarkFunction()

    Call UpdateBookmarkContent("automateexcel_com_01", "automateexcel.com")

End Sub

TextBox

Add TextBox

This macro will add a TextBox to the active Word document:

Sub AddTextBox()
ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextBox Orientation:=msoTextOrientationHorizontal, Left:=1, Top:=1, Width:=300, Height:=100
End Sub

Delete TextBox

This VBA macro will delete the first TextBox in the active document:

Sub DeleteTextBox()
'deletes first text box in activedoc
'not straithforward because its not easy to identify text boxes
    Dim oShape As Shape
    If ActiveDocument.Shapes.Count > 0 Then
        For Each oShape In ActiveDocument.Shapes
            If oShape.AutoShapeType = msoShapeRectangle Then 'we need to check both if oShape is of type msoShapeRectangle and its textframe contains place for writing
                If oShape.TextFrame.HasText = True Then
                    oShape.Delete
                End If
            End If
        Next oShape
    End If
End Sub

Write in TextBox

This Word macro uses similar methodology to write to the first TextBox in the active document:

Sub WriteInTextBox()
'writes into first text box in active doc
Dim oShape As Shape
    If ActiveDocument.Shapes.Count > 0 Then
        For Each oShape In ActiveDocument.Shapes
            If oShape.AutoShapeType = msoShapeRectangle Then 'we need to check both if oShape is of type msoShapeRectangle and its textframe contains place for writing
                If oShape.TextFrame.HasText = True Then
                    oShape.TextFrame.TextRange.InsertAfter "https://www.automateexcel.com/vba-code-library"
                    Exit For 'we just want to write into first textbox
                End If
            End If
        Next oShape
    End If
End Sub

Tables

Add Table to Word Document

This simple macro will add a table to your Word document:

Sub VerySimpleTableAdd()
    Dim oTable As Table
    Set oTable = ActiveDocument.Tables.Add(Range:=Selection.Range, NumRows:=3, NumColumns:=3)
End Sub

Select Table in Word

This macro will select the first table in the active Word document:

Sub SelectTable()
'selects first table in active doc
    If ActiveDocument.Tables.Count > 0 Then    'to avoid errors we check if any table exists in active doc
        ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Select
    End If
End Sub

Loop Through all Cells in a Table

This VBA macro will loop through all cells in a table, writing the cell count to the cell:

Sub TableCycling()
' loop through all cells in table
    Dim nCounter As Long    ' this will be writen in all table cells
    Dim oTable As Table
    Dim oRow As Row
    Dim oCell As Cell

    ActiveDocument.Range.InsertParagraphAfter    'just makes new para athe end of doc, Table will be created here
    Set oTable = ActiveDocument.Tables.Add(Range:=ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Last.Range, NumRows:=3, NumColumns:=3)    'create table and asign it to variable
    For Each oRow In oTable.Rows    ' outher loop goes through rows
        For Each oCell In oRow.Cells    'inner loop goes
            nCounter = nCounter + 1    'increases the counter
            oCell.Range.Text = nCounter    'writes counter to the cell
        Next oCell
    Next oRow

    'display result from cell from second column in second row
    Dim strTemp As String
    strTemp = oTable.Cell(2, 2).Range.Text
    MsgBox strTemp
End Sub

Create Word Table From Excel File

This VBA example will make a table from an Excel file:

Sub MakeTablefromExcelFile()
'advanced
    Dim oExcelApp, oExcelWorkbook, oExcelWorksheet, oExcelRange
    Dim nNumOfRows As Long
    Dim nNumOfCols As Long
    Dim strFile As String

    Dim oTable As Table    'word table
    Dim oRow As Row    'word row
    Dim oCell As Cell    'word table cell
    Dim x As Long, y As Long    'counter for loops

    strFile = "c:\Users\Nenad\Desktop\BookSample.xlsx"    'change to actual path
    Set oExcelApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
    oExcelApp.Visible = True
    Set oExcelWorkbook = oExcelApp.Workbooks.Open(strFile)    'open workbook and asign it to variable
    Set oExcelWorksheet = oExcelWorkbook.Worksheets(1)    'asign first worksheet to variable
    Set oExcelRange = oExcelWorksheet.Range("A1:C8")
    nNumOfRows = oExcelRange.Rows.Count
    nNumOfCols = oExcelRange.Columns.Count

    ActiveDocument.Range.InsertParagraphAfter    'just makes new para athe end of doc, Table will be created here
    Set oTable = ActiveDocument.Tables.Add(Range:=ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Last.Range, NumRows:=nNumOfRows, NumColumns:=nNumOfCols)    'create table and asign it to variable
    '***real deal, table gets filled here
    For x = 1 To nNumOfRows
        For y = 1 To nNumOfCols
            oTable.Cell(x, y).Range.Text = oExcelRange.Cells(x, y).Value
        Next y
    Next x
    '***
    oExcelWorkbook.Close False
    oExcelApp.Quit
    With oTable.Rows(1).Range    'we can now apply some beautiness to our table :)
        .Shading.Texture = wdTextureNone
        .Shading.ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
        .Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorYellow
    End With
End Sub

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

Word Macro Examples
SaveAs PDF
Find and Find and Replace
Open Documents

Count Words in Selection

This Word VBA Macro will count the number of words in the selection. If no selection is made, it will count the number of words in the entire document.

Sub WordCount()
'counts whole doc, then word Count for selection (if something is selected)
    Dim nWordsCount As Long
    Dim nCharCount As Long



    nWordsCount = ActiveDocument.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticWords)
    nCharCount = ActiveDocument.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticCharacters)
    MsgBox "The entire doc contains: " & vbCrLf & nWordsCount & " words and" & vbCrLf & _
           nCharCount & " characters without spaces", , "Word Count"

    'now show word count for selected text

    If Selection.Words.Count >= 1 And Selection.Type <> wdSelectionIP Then
        nWordsCount = Selection.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticWords)
        nCharCount = Selection.Range.ComputeStatistics(wdStatisticCharacters)

        MsgBox "Selected text contains: " & vbCrLf & nWordsCount & " words and" & vbCrLf & _
               nCharCount & " characters without spaces", , "Word Count (selection)"

    End If
End Sub

 

Word VBA FAQs

What is a Word Macro?

A Macro is a general term that refers to a set of programming instructions that automates tasks. Word Macros automate tasks in Word using the VBA programming language.

Does word have VBA?

Yes, Microsoft Word has the VBA Editor. It can be accessed with by pressing ALT + F11 or by navigating to Developer > Visual Basic.

How do I use VBA in Word?

1. Open the VBA Editor (ALT + F11 or Developer > Visual Basic)
2. Go to Insert > Module to create a Code Module
3. Type ‘Sub HelloWorld’ and press Enter
4. In between the lines ‘Sub HelloWorld’ and ‘End Sub’, type ‘MsgBox “Hello World!’
5. You’ve created a Macro!
6. Now press ‘F5’ to run the Macro