Deleting All Text in Linked Text Boxes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 18, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

Normally, you cannot delete all the text within text boxes. If you select all the text boxes in a document and press the Del key, the text boxes themselves will be deleted, along with the text inside. If you press Ctrl+A (or choose Select All from the Edit menu) and press Del, everything in your document disappears.

If your text boxes are linked, however, you can delete all the text within all linked text boxes by following these steps:

Select any text box in your document. You can do this by pressing Alt+Up Arrow or Alt+Down Arrow.
Press Ctrl+A. Word selects all the text in all the linked text boxes. (If all the text in your document is selected, then you didn't have a text box selected in step 1.)
Press the Del key. All the text is deleted.

If text boxes are not linked, you will need a macro to delete the text in each text box, one at a time.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1496) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Moving Section Breaks

Section breaks are used to divide a document into two or more sections that can be independently formatting. If you want ...

Discover More

Getting the Expected Space Before a Heading

If your heading styles are designed to add extra space before the heading, you may be surprised when that extra space is ...

Discover More

Saving a Workbook Using Passwords

If you want to protect your workbook so that others cannot open or change the information it contains, an easy way to ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Adding Circles around Letters or Numbers

Want to add some handy circles around text in your document? Believe it or not, Word provides three ways you can ...

Discover More

How Word Handles Abbreviations

Abbreviations appear all over the place in our society. If you want to understand how Word recognizes them (which it has ...

Discover More

Removing Duplicates in Word

If you have information in Word such as e-mail addresses or part numbers, your document might include duplicates. This ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 4 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.