Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. 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: Displaying a Message in the Status Bar.

Displaying a Message in the Status Bar

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 20, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007 and 2010

When you are creating VBA macros, you can place a message on the status bar by using (oddly enough) the StatusBar property. For instance, the statement

StatusBar = "I'm working as fast as I can..."

will print the message within the quote marks on the status bar. If you use the StatusBar property, you can keep users informed about what your macro is doing. (After all, it's best not to leave them wondering.) If you want to "turn off" what is displayed in the status bar, you can do so by using the following statement:

StatusBar = ""

Microsoft removed support for the StatusBar property from Word 2013, so this tip will only work with Word 2007 and Word 2010.

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 (13040) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Displaying a Message in the Status Bar.

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 1 + 3?

2017-11-14 18:56:20

Stephen

Support for statusbar may have been stopped, but this code still works for me in Word 2016.

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