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: Moving the Insertion Point in a Macro.

Moving the Insertion Point in a Macro

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


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.

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 (12074) 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: Moving the Insertion Point in a Macro.

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

Printing a List of Custom Styles

You can add any number of styles to your document in order to define how you want your text to appear. If you later want ...

Discover More

Matching At the Beginning or End of a Word

The pattern matching capabilities of Word's search engine are quite powerful. You can tailor your search pattern so that ...

Discover More

Cannot View Multiple Pages at Once

What do you do when a ribbon tool you rely upon suddenly disappears? That's the situation addressed in this tip, where ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Adding Smart Quotes through Macro Text

When text is added to your document by a macro, and that text includes quotes or apostrophes, Word won't change the ...

Discover More

Cleaning Up Text in a Macro

Need to remove extraneous characters from a text string? VBA makes it easy through the CleanString method, described in ...

Discover More

Understanding Functions

Do some macro programming in VBA and you'll quickly find out that you can use functions to extend the power and ...

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.

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.

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.

Videos
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.