Empty text boxes left when all text cut

Question

In previous versions of PPT - when you went into a text box and selected all the text, then cut it (to paste elsewhere) the empty box would automatically delete.

This now doesn't happen and you end up with a whole load of invisible boxes lurking on slides.

Is this a bug or a 'feature'?

Answer 1

Bingo.  That's why I couldn't repro it at first.  I wasn't clicking directly into the "target" text box right away.  

I was hoping that saving/reopening the presentation would toss out these blank text boxes but no such luck.  If you have a lot of them and they're causing trouble, here's some VBA you can beat it with.  This'll look at each shape on each slide and if it's one of these duds, should delete it.

Sub TakeOutTheTrash()

    Dim oSl As Slide

    Dim oSh As Shape

    Dim x As Long

    For Each oSl In ActivePresentation.Slides

        For x = oSl.Shapes.Count To 1 Step -1

            Set oSh = oSl.Shapes(x)

            If oSh.HasTextFrame Then

                If oSh.TextFrame.HasText Then

                    Debug.Print oSh.TextFrame.TextRange.Text

                    If Len(oSh.TextFrame.TextRange.Text) = 0 Then

                        oSh.Delete

                    End If

                Else    ' has text frame but no text

                    oSh.Delete

                End If

            End If

        Next    ' Shape

    Next    ' Slide

End Sub

Answer 2

thanks for the workaround!

Answer 3

Hi Nick

It's one of the crazy quirks of office.

Try clicking a blank area (or off slide) either just after CTRL X or just after you paste

Answer 4

Sorry for delay, had some crazy deadlines

PPT 2013/Windows 7/64-bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60Tx54y2xY&feature=youtu.be

Answer 5

Can you give me the step-by-steps to reproduce this?  I can't seem to make it happen here (PPT 2013/Windows 7/64-bit).

I doubt anyone considers it a feature;  it's something PowerPoint used to do all the time several versions back until they fixed it and made empty text boxes go away.

There's still code buried in some of my add-ins to test for and delete these annoying little critters.