Applying Formatting to Text

This topic includes Microsoft Visual Basic examples related to the following tasks:

• Applying formatting to the selection
• Applying formatting to a range
• Inserting text and applying character and paragraph formatting
• Switching the space before a paragraph between 12 points and none
• Switching bold formatting on and off
• Increasing the left margin by 0.5 inch

Applying formatting to the selection

The following example uses the Selection property to apply character and paragraph formatting to the selected text. Use the Font property to access character formatting properties and methods and the ParagraphFormat property to access paragraph formatting properties and methods.

  Sub FormatSelection()
    With Selection.Font
        .Name = "Times New Roman"
        .Size = 14
        .AllCaps = True
    End With
    With Selection.ParagraphFormat
        .LeftIndent = InchesToPoints(0.5)
        .Space1
    End With
End Sub

Applying formatting to a range

The following example defines a Range object that refers to the first three paragraphs in the active document. The Range is formatted by applying properties of the Font object and the ParagraphFormat object.

  Sub FormatRange()
    Dim rngFormat As Range
    Set rngFormat = ActiveDocument.Range( _
        Start:=ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range.Start, _
        End:=ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(3).Range.End)
    With rngFormat
        .Font.Name = "Arial"
        .ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphJustify
    End With
End Sub

Inserting text and applying character and paragraph formatting

The following example adds the word "Title" at the top of the current document. The first paragraph is center-aligned and one half-inch space is added after the paragraph. The word "Title" is formatted with 24-point Arial font.

  Sub InsertFormatText()
    Dim rngFormat As Range
    Set rngFormat = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=0, End:=0)
    With rngFormat
        .InsertAfter Text:="Title"
        .InsertParagraphAfter
        With .Font
            .Name = "Tahoma"
            .Size = 24
            .Bold = True
        End With
    End With
    With ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1)
        .Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
        .SpaceAfter = InchesToPoints(0.5)
    End With
End Sub

Switching the space before a paragraph between 12 points and none

The following example toggles the space-before formatting of the first paragraph in the selection. The macro retrieves the current space before value, and if the value is 12 points, the space-before formatting is removed (the SpaceBefore property is set to zero). If the space-before value is anything other than 12, the SpaceBefore property is set to 12 points.

  Sub ToggleParagraphSpace()
    With Selection.Paragraphs(1)
        If .SpaceBefore <> 0 Then
            .SpaceBefore = 0
        Else
            .SpaceBefore = 6
        End If
    End With
End Sub

Switching bold formatting on and off

The following example toggles bold formatting of the selected text.

  Sub ToggleBold()
    Selection.Font.Bold = wdToggle
End Sub

Increasing the left margin by 0.5 inch

The following example increases the left and right margins by 0.5 inch. The PageSetup object contains all the page setup attributes of a document (such as left margin, bottom margin, and paper size) as properties. The LeftMargin property is used to return and set the left margin setting. The RightMargin property is used to return and set the right margin setting.

  Sub FormatMargins()
    With ActiveDocument.PageSetup
        .LeftMargin = .LeftMargin + InchesToPoints(0.5)
        .RightMargin = .RightMargin + InchesToPoints(0.5)
    End With
End Sub