How to: Programmatically Restore Selections After Searches

If you find and replace text in a document, you might want to restore the user's original selection after the search is completed.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for Word 2013 and Word 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

The code in the sample procedure makes use of two Range objects. One stores the current Selection, and one sets the entire document to use as a search range.

To restore the user's original selection after a search

1. Create the Range objects for the document and the current selection.

   Dim start As Word.Range = Application.Selection.Range
   Dim searchArea As Word.Range = Application.ActiveDocument.Range
   

   Word.Range start = Application.Selection.Range; 
   Word.Range searchArea = Application.ActiveDocument.Range(ref missing, ref missing); 
   

2. Perform the search and replace operation.

   searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting()
   searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"
   
   searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting()
   searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"
   
   searchArea.Find.Execute(Replace:=Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll)
   

   searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
   searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"; 
   
   searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting(); 
   searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"; 
   
   object replaceAll = Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll; 
   
   searchArea.Find.Execute(
       ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
       ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
       ref replaceAll, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
   

3. Select the start range to restore the user's original selection.

   start.Select()
   

   start.Select(); 
   

The following example shows the complete method.

Example

Friend Sub ReplaceRestoreSelection()
    Dim start As Word.Range = Application.Selection.Range
    Dim searchArea As Word.Range = Application.ActiveDocument.Range

    searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting()
    searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"

    searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting()
    searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"

    searchArea.Find.Execute(Replace:=Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll)

    start.Select()
End Sub

internal void ReplaceRestoreSelection() 
{ 
    Word.Range start = Application.Selection.Range; 
    Word.Range searchArea = Application.ActiveDocument.Range(ref missing, ref missing); 

    searchArea.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
    searchArea.Find.Text = "find me"; 

    searchArea.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting(); 
    searchArea.Find.Replacement.Text = "Found"; 

    object replaceAll = Word.WdReplace.wdReplaceAll; 

    searchArea.Find.Execute(
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref replaceAll, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

    start.Select(); 
}

See Also

Tasks

How to: Programmatically Search for and Replace Text in Documents

How to: Programmatically Set Search Options in Word

How to: Programmatically Loop Through Found Items in Documents

Concepts

Optional Parameters in Office Solutions