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: Finding Text Boxes.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 12, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Word has a powerful search and replace capability that lets you search for virtually anything in your document. Word even includes codes you can use to search for special items. (Click the Special button in the Find and Replace dialog to see what codes are available.) One thing you cannot search for, however, is text boxes. There is no special code that allows you to find text boxes, and you can't search for them using the Object Browser.
You can, however, use a macro to look through a document and stop when it finds a text box. The following macro stops on each text box it finds and asks the user if that is the text box wanted.
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:
Sub SearchTextBox()
Dim shp As Shape
Dim sTemp As String
Dim iAnswer As Integer
For Each shp In ActiveDocument.Shapes
If shp.Type = msoTextBox Then
shp.Select
Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select
sTemp = Selection.Text
sTemp = Left(sTemp,20)
iAnswer = MsgBox("Box contains text beginning with:" & vbCrLf _
& sTemp & vbCrLf & "Stop here?", vbYesNo, "Located Text Box")
If iAnswer = vbYes Then Exit For
End If
Next
End Sub
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12249) 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: Finding Text Boxes.
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!
Want to divide a text box into columns? Word doesn't allow you to do this, but there are ways to work around the limitation.
Discover MoreIf your document has quite a few text boxes within it, you may want to extract the contents of those text boxes to a new ...
Discover MoreMany people use text boxes to help organize and layout information on the page. Here's how you can add text boxes to your ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-12-26 06:54:49
Ken Endacott
The macro finds textboxes in the order that they were inserted which is not necessarily the order that they appear in the document. To correct this:
replace the line:
For Each shp In ActiveDocument.Shapes
with:
For Each shp In ActiveDocument.Range.ShapeRange
2018-12-25 11:48:42
Phil Reinemann
It might be worth adding a variable before the For Each loop that stores the last found text box, so you can continue the search from the last one found instead of starting from the beginning of the document again.
A question to ask continue from last found or from the beginning is of course needed too.
I rarely use text boxes so I won't attempt the code, but it's just a thought.
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.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments