Checking for a Text Selection Length

There are numerous times when you are writing macros when you will need to determine if the user has made a selection. There are numerous ways you can do this in a macro. The following code illustrates one possible method for accomplishing this in VBA. It sets the value of a flag, bInSelection, to True if there is currently a selection. Otherwise bInSelection is set to False.

Dim bInSelection As Boolean

bInSelection = False
If Selection.Type<>wdNoSelection Then
    bInselection=True
End If

You might wonder if you could use an approach of checking if the length of the selection is greater than zero, as in this method:

Dim bInSelection As Boolean

bInSelection = False
If Len(Selection) > 0 Then
    bInselection=True
End If

This approach won't work. The reason is because when there is no selection made (the insertion point is collapsed and just blinking), Word still returns a selection length of 1. This is a bit aggravating as it makes no logical sense. Thus, you need to check the Type property of the Selection object, as in the first example above. If you want to shorten it even further, you could use the following:

Dim bInSelection As Boolean

bInSelection=(Selection.Type<>wdNoSelection)

The approach used in this tip sets bInSelection to True if any selection of anything is made at all. You can further refine the selection status by understanding that the .Type property could be set to any of the following:

These options mean that you can easily adjust your code to check for the presence or absence of a particular type of selection.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12175) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Checking for a Text Selection Length.