shortcut: Moving words within a text

[zoowalk]

I am trying to create two keyboard shortcuts which allow me to move selected words quickly to the right and left within a text. The selected text should move one word to the left or the right. Here is what I want to do


1) Select words e.g. “this is” in the sentence “this is a tree”

2) Press e.g. ctrl + alt + arrow to the right

3) The sentence reads now as “a this is tree”



4) Press again ctrl alt + arrow to the right

5) The sentence reads now as “a tree this is”


The idea is to replace the cut / paste steps and make the process a bit more efficient and smoother. I have no knowledge in VB, but managed to get close to by using Word’s macro-function.


Sub moveRight() 'moveRight Macro Selection.Cut Selection.moveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=1 Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatOriginalFormatting) End Sub

The problem with this function is that the selected words are no longer selected once they are pasted. Hence, triggering the function again (=moving the text more than one word) results in an error (I would have to select the relevant text again). Is there any way that the selected words remain selected after they are pasted so that I can trigger the function repeatedly?
Many thanks.

[slaycock]

<deleted - my bad>

[zoowalk]

thanks for your reply. Either I didn't understand your reply, or my question was not clear enough.

The count property defines that the selected text 'moves' by one word to the right, once I make use of the keyboard shortcut. This is fine.

The problem is that once I triggered it, the previously selected text is no longer selected and hence can't be 'moved' when I trigger the command for a second time. I have to re-select the words.

I read the help file and I can't see how the count property relates to the selection of the words which I want to move. Am I missing something obvious?

[slaycock]

You need to make several changes

1. Remember the number of words in your original selection
2. after pasting the text move the start of the current selection backward the number of words you remembered.

Sub moveRight()
   'moveRight Macro
   
   Dim myWordsCount As Long
   
   myWordsCount = Selection.Range.Words.count
   Selection.Cut
   Selection.moveRight unit:=wdWord, count:=1
   Selection.PasteAndFormat (wdFormatOriginalFormatting)
   Selection.MoveStart unit:=wdWord, count:=-myWordsCount
   Selection.Select
End Sub

In future posts its helpful to use the Code tags (#)

Note the use of '-' in front of myWordsCount.

[zoowalk]

Excellent. Many thanks. Very helpful and now clear.

[slaycock]

Great. Apologies for the first post. I obviously didn't get to remove until after you'd read it.

The F1 for help on the term where the cursor is located is very useful. It does pay to read the help pages very carefully though.