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How to: Programmatically collapse ranges or selections in documents

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

If you are working with a Range or Selection object, you might want to change the selection to an insertion point before inserting text, to avoid overwriting existing text. Both the Range and Selection objects have a Collapse method, which makes use of the WdCollapseDirection enumeration values:

To collapse a range and insert new text

  1. Create a Range object that consists of the first paragraph in the document.

    The following code example can be used in a document-level customization.

    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Paragraphs(1).Range
    
    Word.Range rng = this.Paragraphs[1].Range;
    

    The following code example can be used in a VSTO Add-in. This code uses the active document.

    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Application.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
    
    Word.Range rng = this.Application.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs[1].Range;
    
  2. Use the wdCollapseStart enumeration value to collapse the range.

    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart)
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart);
    
  3. Insert the new text.

    rng.Text = " New Text "
    
    rng.Text = " New Text ";
    
  4. Select the Range.

    rng.Select()
    
    rng.Select();
    

    If you use the wdCollapseEnd enumeration value, the text is inserted at the beginning of the following paragraph.

    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd)
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd);
    

    You might expect that inserting a new sentence would insert it before the paragraph marker, but that is not the case because the original range includes the paragraph marker. For more information, see How to: Programmatically exclude paragraph marks when creating ranges.

Document-level customization example

To collapse a range in a document-level customization

  1. The following example shows the complete method for a document-level customization. To use this code, run it from the ThisDocument class in your project.

    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Paragraphs(1).Range
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart)
    
    rng.Text = " New Text "
    rng.Select()
    
    Word.Range rng = this.Paragraphs[1].Range; 
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart); 
    
    rng.Text = " New Text ";
    rng.Select();
    

VSTO Add-in example

To collapse a range in a VSTO Add-in

  1. The following example shows the complete method for a VSTO Add-in. To use this code, run it from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Application.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart)
    
    rng.Text = " New Text "
    rng.Select()
    
    Word.Range rng = this.Application.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs[1].Range;
    
    rng.Collapse(Word.WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseStart);
    
    rng.Text = " New Text ";
    rng.Select();
    

See also