Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Understanding Document Variables.

Understanding Document Variables

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 17, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Visual Basic for Applications allows you to create persistent variables that are associated with a document. Document variables are typically used to maintain some sort of information from one invocation of a macro to the next. For instance, you may want your macro to remember the defaults that it uses when prompting the user. These defaults can be stored within document variables.

To create a document variable within a macro, you use the Add method with the Variables collection. All you need to do is provide the name for the variable and the value you want assigned to the variable. For instance, the following macro line will create a variable called MyVar and assign it a value of 27:

ActiveDocument.Variables.Add Name:="MyVar", Value:=27

At a later time, you can access the value associated with the variable by using the variable's name, as follows:

DefaultToUse = ActiveDocument.Variables("MyVar")

Typically, users would never see the contents of a document variable; they are intended primarily for use within macros. You can, however, insert the contents of a document variable directly within a document by using the DOCVARIABLE field, as follows:

{ DOCVARIABLE "MyVar" }

When updated, the field returns the value assigned to the MyVar document variable.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11561) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Understanding Document Variables.

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...

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What is two minus 0?

2020-03-31 01:23:15

derek caffrey

Is there a way in VBA to find a specific word using an input box and replace it with new formatting. I was thinking, change the font colour to yellow and the highlight colour to red in the replace text.

I tried to adapt this macro from another source but I couldn't make the replace element format properly:

Sub FindAndReplaceInSelection()
Dim strFindText As String
Dim strReplaceText As String

strFindText = InputBox("Enter finding text here:")
strReplaceText = InputBox("Enter replacing text here:")

With Selection.Find
.Text = strFindText
.Replacement.Text = strReplaceText
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = True
.Highlight = True
.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
.Color = wdColorYellow
.Spacing = 0.6
.Bold = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

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