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: Determining the Horizontal Position of the Insertion Point.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 28, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Danny is writing a macro and he needs to discover the horizontal position of the insertion point, relative to the left margin, in inches. This can be done by using a rather simple macro, such as the following:
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 HorPos()
Location = Selection.Information( _
wdHorizontalPositionRelativeToTextBoundary)
MsgBox PointsToInches(Location)
End Sub
The macro uses the Information property to determine the distance from the text boundary in points. This is then converted to inches and displayed. The text boundary is, most often, the left margin in a normally formatted document. In some circumstances it could also be something else, such as the cell boundary in a table or column boundary in a multi-column format.
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 (13095) 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: Determining the Horizontal Position of the Insertion Point.
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