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Characters Collection Object

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Word Developer Reference

A collection of characters in a selection, range, or document. There is no Character object; instead, each item in the Characters collection is a Range object that represents one character.

Remarks

Use the Characters property of a Document, Range, or Selection object to return the Characters collection. The following example displays how many characters are selected.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  MsgBox Selection.Characters.Count & " characters are selected"

Use Characters(Index), where Index is the index number, to return a Range object that represents one character. The index number represents the position of a character in the Characters collection. The following example formats the first letter in the selection as 24-point bold.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  With Selection.Characters(1)
    .Bold = True
    .Font.Size = 24
End With

Remarks

The Count property for this collection in a document returns the number of items in the main story only. To count items in other stories use the collection with the Range object.

There is no Add method for the Characters collection. Instead, use the InsertAfter or InsertBefore method to add characters to a Range object. The following example inserts a new paragraph after the first paragraph in the active document.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  With ActiveDocument
    .Paragraphs(1).Range.InsertParagraphAfter
    .Paragraphs(2).Range.InsertBefore "New Text"
End With

See Also