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: Determining How Many Styles are Available.

Determining How Many Styles are Available

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 5, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365

You can determine the number of styles available in a document (when creating a VBA macro) by using the Count property with the Styles object. This is done using the following syntax:

x = ActiveDocument.Styles.Count

where x is the variable you can then use in other VBA macro lines. Note that this function indicates how many have been defined, not how many of those are actually in use. This means that built-in styles are also counted. If you want to exclude built-in styles, you can do an actual iterative count of the styles in this manner:

x = 0
For Each objStyle in ActiveDocument.Styles
    If Not objStyle.BuiltIn Then x = x + 1
Next objStyle

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 (13190) 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: Determining How Many Styles are Available.

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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