Duplicating a range?

[Bob S]

VBA is like Freudian analysis; if you aren't crazy when you start, you
will be when you finish...

rngWork.Select
' rngWork is several characters in the middle of a line/paragraph

Set rngKillChar = rngWork.Duplicate
rngKillChar.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
rngKillChar.Select
Selection.TypeBackspace
' deletes the desired character just to the left of the original range

rngWork.Select

At this point rngWork starts at the beginning of the line! How did the
start of rngWork get moved?

Bob S

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Bob,

Yes, it will drive you 'round the bend eventually. Before then,
though, let me beat on you some more about not using the Selection
except when absolutely necessary, and especially about not mixing the
Selection and Ranges in odd ways.

The code you showed does indeed misbehave badly. However, this version
is quite docile:

Set rngKillChar = rngWork.Duplicate
rngKillChar.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
rngKillChar.MoveStart unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
rngKillChar.Delete
' deletes the desired character just to the left
' of the original range
rngWork.Select

 

[Bob S]

Hi Bob,

Yes, it will drive you 'round the bend eventually. Before then,
though, let me beat on you some more about not using the Selection
except when absolutely necessary, and especially about not mixing the
Selection and Ranges in odd ways.

The code you showed does indeed misbehave badly. However, this version
is quite docile:

Set rngKillChar = rngWork.Duplicate
rngKillChar.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
rngKillChar.MoveStart unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
rngKillChar.Delete
' deletes the desired character just to the left
' of the original range
rngWork.Select

Yes, I had been trying to avoid using Delete because that was what had
failed terribly in the previous case, whereas Selection.TypeBackspace
had worked...

Bob S