Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. 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 and Deleting Rows.

Finding and Deleting Rows

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 16, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365

Sam has a document that contains some tables in which he wants to delete some rows. The rows contain specific text, which he can certainly delete by using Find and Replace, but he wants to delete the entire rows that contain that text.

There is no way to do this (delete rows) using the normal Find and Replace features of Word. Instead, you need to use a macro that will find the text and then delete the entire row. Here is a relatively simple macro that will do the job:

Sub DeleteRowWithSpecifiedText()
    Dim sText As String

    sText = InputBox("Enter text for row to be deleted")
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    With Selection.Find
        .Text = sText
        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    End With
    Do While Selection.Find.Execute
        If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) Then
            Selection.Rows.Delete
        End If
    Loop
End Sub

This macro first displays an input box that asks the user to specify the text to be searched for. It then starts searching for all instances of that text. If an instance is found, then the selection is checked to make sure it is within a table. If it is, then the entire row is deleted, and the macro moves on to the next occurrence.

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 (13148) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Finding and Deleting Rows.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Getting Rid of Automatic Page-Break Lines

A little trick to get rid of pagination marks when you have background pagination turned off.

Discover More

Repaginating in a Macro

When creating a macro that extensively processes a document, you may need to periodically force Word to repaginate the ...

Discover More

Creating a New Toolbar

Excel's interface can be easily modified to reflect the way you want to do your work. This tip explains how you can ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Keyboard Control of the Find and Replace Dialog Box

Hate to take your hands off the keyboard? This tip explains how you can use the keyboard to work with the Find and ...

Discover More

Using Find and Replace to Change Text Case

Can you really use Find and Replace to change the case of text in your document? Not really, but that shouldn't stop you ...

Discover More

Replacing the Space between the Last Two Words of Each Paragraph

Some replacement tasks can seem daunting, but Word provides some great tools for making just about any replacement you ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 7?

2022-10-20 09:12:08

Arya

Thank you. The macro saved my day

2022-04-01 10:31:59

Ariel <3

this is a KING post
thanks to you i learned what macros are, and how to achieve my desired outcome. thank you very much :)

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.