3 Effective Ways to Find Hidden Text Boxes in Your Word Document

Word Document Recovery, Word Solutions June 28, 2017

In this article, we will focus on demonstrating you 3 effective ways to find hidden text boxes in your Word document.

Sometimes, we prefer to remove outlines of text boxes in document as to make it look more organized. However, if you need to revise document later, you may have difficult in locating where the text box is. Thus, it would be a practical need to find hidden text boxes in your document.Find Hidden Text Boxes in Your Word Document

Method 1: Use “Find” Command

  1. First of all, press “Ctrl+ Home” to go to the beginning of the document.
  2. Then under “Home” tab, click on “Find” command to open the “Navigation” pane.
  3. Next click on the drop-down menu and choose “Graphics” there.  Click the Drop-down Menu->Choose "Graphics"
  4. Note this will bring you to each graph in your document. And now the first graph is in selection. Click the “Previous Search Result” or the “Next Search Result” to go back to the previous or next result.Click "Previous Search Result" or "Next Search Result"
  5. Finally when you have a text box in selection, you can choose to click it to trigger the “Format” tab. Then set a style of outline for the box.

Method 2: Show Gridlines in a Document

  1. To begin with, click “View” tab in the Ribbon.
  2. Then check “Gridlines” option.Click "View"->Check "Gridlines"

Next you can see all text boxes in white squares, such as below:

Method 3: Run VBA Codes to Set Outlines for Text Boxes

  1. First and foremost, open VBA editor pressing “Alt+ F11”.
  2. Next click on the “Normal” at the left column.
  3. Then click “Insert” tab on menu bar.
  4. And choose “Module” on the drop-down menu.Click "Normal"->Click "Insert"->Click "Module"
  5. Next open new module with double click and paste following codes there:
Sub FindInvisibleTextBoxesInDoc()
  Dim objShape As Shape
  Dim objInlineShape As InlineShape
 
  For Each objShape In ActiveDocument.Shapes
    If objShape.Type = msoTextBox Then
      objShape.Line.Visible = msoTrue
    End If
  Next objShape
  For Each objInlineShape In ActiveDocument.InlineShapes
    If objInlineShape.Type = msoTextBox Then
      objInlineShape.Line.Visible = msoTrue
    End If
  Next objInlineShape
End Sub
  1. Last but not the least, click “Run” or hit “F5” to execute codes. Now you have added outlines for all text boxes.Enter Codes->Click "Run"

Comparison of 3 Methods

Methods Advantages Disadvantages
Method 1: Use “Find” Command It brings you to each graph in the document one by one, and you won’t miss a single text box. It finds all graphs in document, so it may take quite a time to go to the text box you need format.
Method 2: Show Gridlines in a Document Easy way and easy to recognize text boxes 1.         You text boxes must have a style of shape fill. If not, this method will fail to recognize hidden text boxes.

2.         Ensure the text boxes are inserted before texts are entered. Or this method will fail to recognize hidden text boxes.
Method 3: Run VBA Codes to Set Outlines for Text Boxes A quick way to add and show outlines for all text boxes in a document. You will have to go to a specific text box through navigating the document manually.

 

Solutions to Damaged Documents

It happens now and then to get a collapsed Word or a broken document, which you are unable to access. Then you will feel it urgent to recover docx. In such scenario, what you need is a sufficient repairing tool. It’s also the very reason that we suggest you getting one in advance.

Author Introduction:

Vera Chen is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including recover xls and pdf repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com

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