Some of my favorite Word macros work with sentences like the standard keyboard shortcuts manipulate words or paragraphs.
I can't imagine why Microsoft didn't include more tools like this. There are some hidden commands, but we take them a step farther.
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How it’s usually done …
How do we usually delete sentences in Word documents?
And how can we do this better with a VBA macro?
Create the empty macro
See a previous blog post where I went over the steps to create an empty macro. When you’re done, you’ll have something like:
Now it’s just patiently waiting for your amazing commands on the blank line.
Don’t forget the single quote on the second line tells Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) the rest of the text on that line is a comment meant for human readers.
Delete the current sentence
How do we delete the current sentence using a macro?
Set the Selection
In past newsletters, we’ve been working with the Selection (see this article for more details) which is just VBAs representation of the same thing that we see when using Word. Specifically, we want to expand the selection to include the entire current sentence, so we can delete it.
Lucky for us, the command is almost exactly what we would think:
The only catch is the default for the expansion command is to expand the selection around the current word. We want the current sentence, so we need to tell the command the desired unit.
Here is where Word macros can feel a tad like programming. Not too bad though. The resemblance is there, but don’t worry. I’m guiding you the whole way, and you’re going to be editing faster when we’re done.
Specify the Unit
How do we tell the command the correct unit to use?
We literally give it a sentence Unit like so
The main units we’ll use in upcoming macros are: wdCharacter, wdWord, wdSentence, and wdParagraph; but there are more if you want to take a look at the list.
The unit constants all start with “wd” short for “Word” to distinguish them from other types of constants.
We had to use a := symbol to specify the Unit since it is technically assigning the sentence constant’s value to the parameter. If that doesn’t make much sense, it doesn’t really matter much. Just put the := when you are setting a value for a parameter in a command like this.
Finish the macro
Once we have the sentence selected, we just need to delete it.
Now put the two commands together, so the final macro is
I assigned this macro to Option+Shift+Delete on a Mac (or Alt+Shift+Backspace on Windows).
That’s it.
I think you’ll like these. I sure do. I use them often, and I can’t imagine why Word does not include them by default.
Now, go forth and edit faster!
Variations
Of course, you could cut or copy the selection if you prefer. I’ve included all three in my macros just to have the flexibility.
I assigned this to Option+Shift+X on a Mac (or Alt+Shift+X on Windows).
Copying the current sentence uses
which I assigned to Option+Shift+C on a Mac (or Alt+Shift+C on Windows).
Enhancements
Other things you could do improve the macro include handling parentheses or double quotes naturally, depending on the details of how you want it to work.
Personally, I remove any parentheses or double quotes from the initial expanded selection if the punctuation only occurs on one side of the sentence.
This may sound strange when you first read it, but it seems to provide an intuitive behavior when I’m working in a novel. That is, don’t delete the dialog quotes, for example, unless the entire sentence is dialog.
These changes are a little more involved, so they are relegated to a separate blog article for members.
