Check for an empty Text Box in Word 2016 using VBA

I have a text box in a Word 2016 document. This is not a TextBox form object but a normal Text Box that you insert from the Insert tab here:

I am trying to check if it is empty when the document is opened. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to do this. I have tried all of the following:

If (Len(ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2").TextFrame.TextRange.Text & vbNullString) = 0) Then
If (IsNull(ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2").TextFrame.TextRange.Text)) Then
If (LTrim(RTrim(ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2").TextFrame.TextRange.Text)) = "") Then
If (ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2").TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "") Then


None of these return true when the text box is empty? This is the text box:

It seems that the text box always contains a paragraph marker (which I can't delete). This is what the VBA watch shows:

Watch : : ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2").TextFrame.TextRange.Text : "
" : String : ThisDocument.Document_Open


Note that the watch is two separate lines which makes me think that there's CRLF or something in there?

1 Answer
1

There is always a paragraph break in an otherwise empty textbox. Accordingly, you could use something along the lines of:

Private Sub Document_Open()
With ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes("Text Box 2")
If Not .TextFrame Is Nothing Then
If Trim(.TextFrame.TextRange.Text) = vbCr Then
MsgBox "Empty Text Range"
End If
Else
MsgBox "No Text Range"
End If
End With
End Sub


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