Deleting All Text in Linked Text Boxes

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated August 20, 2016)

1

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:

  1. Select any text box in your document. You can do this by pressing Alt+Up Arrow or Alt+Down Arrow.
  2. 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.)
  3. 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, and 2016.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Changing an Existing Style

Excel allows you to create styles that define how your data looks. At some point you may want to change a style you ...

Discover More

Different Table Captions on Multiple Pages

If you have a table that spans multiple pages, you may want to add a caption to the table and have that caption use ...

Discover More

Viewing Comments

There are three different ways that Excel allows you to display any comments that are in your worksheet. Here's how you ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Text Doesn't Wrap at Margin in Draft View

If you are using Word in Draft view, and the text on the screen doesn't wrap at the right margin like it should, the ...

Discover More

Adding Quotes

Adding quote marks is normally as simple as typing them from the keyboard. However, if you want to add quote marks around ...

Discover More

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
Subscribe

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

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

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}] 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.

What is 9 - 8?

2016-08-20 23:47:48

Mary Lu Strange

I read the information about the text boxes above. What if one wants to delete the text boxes, but keep the text, is it possible?

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.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2020 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.