Delete boxes in word

You can add, copy, or delete text boxes in your Microsoft Office applications. A text box lets you add text anywhere in your file. For example, you can create pull quotes or sidebars that call attention to important information. For Word, see Add, copy, or remove a text box in Word.

Add a text box

To learn how to add a text box, select an application from the drop-down list.

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    Text Box button in the Text group

  2. In the worksheet, click and drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text, click inside the box and type or paste your text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      Options in the Font group

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes crossed arrows (Four-headed arrow), drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can also change or remove a border from a text box or shape.

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  1. Click in the body of an open email message.

  2. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box, and then click Draw Text Box.

    Text Box menu in the Text group

  3. Click and drag in the message body to draw a text box the size that you want.

  4. To add text, click inside the box and type or paste your text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Basic Text group on the Message tab.

      Options in the Basic Text group

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • To control how text wraps around the box, click Layout Options Layout Options button, and then select an option from the list.

      Text box layout options

    • You can also change or remove a border from a text box or shape.

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  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    Text Box button in the Text group

  2. Click in the presentation, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text, click inside the box and type or your paste text.

If you aren’t using a mouse

  1. Press Alt+N to go to the Insert tab.

  2. Use the arrow keys to move to the Text Box button.

  3. Press Ctrl+Enter to add the text box to your slide, then type your text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      Options in the Font group

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can also change or remove a border from a text box or shape.

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  1. In a project with a Gantt chart, click the Format tab and click Drawing.

  2. Click Text Box, and then drag in the Gantt chart to draw the text box to the size you want.

  3. To add text, click inside the box and type or paste your text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, click the Task tab, and use the formatting options in the Font group.

    • You can also change or remove a border from a text box or shape.

Copy a text box

  1. Click the border of the text box that you want to copy.

  2. Press Ctrl+C.

    Note: Make sure the pointer is on the border of the text box, not inside it. If the pointer is inside, pressing Ctrl+C will copy the text, not the text box.

  3. Select a location and press Ctrl+V to paste the text box.

Delete a text box

  • Click the border of the text box that you want to delete, and then press Delete.

    Note: Make sure the pointer is on the border of the text box and not inside it. If the pointer is inside the box, pressing Delete will delete the text inside the text box, not the box.

Add a text box

To learn how to add a text box, select an application from the drop-down list.

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    The Text group on the Insert tab in the Excel 2010 ribbon.

  2. Click in the worksheet, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text to a text box, click inside the text box, and then type or paste text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      The Font group on the Home tab in the Excel 2010 ribbon.

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can also change or remove a text box or shape border.

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  1. Click in the body of an open email message.

  2. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box, and then click Draw Text Box.

    Text Box menu in the Text group

  3. Click and drag in the message body to draw a text box the size that you want.

  4. To add text, click inside the box and type or paste your text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Basic Text group on the Message tab.

      Options in the Basic Text group

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • To control how text wraps around the box, click Layout Options Layout Options button, and then select an option from the list.

      Text box layout options

    • You can also change or remove a border from a text box or shape.

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  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    The Text group on the Insert tab in the PowerPoint 2010 ribbon.

  2. Click in the presentation, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text to a text box, click inside the text box, and then type or paste text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, select the text, and then use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      The Font group on the Home tab in the PowerPoint 2010 ribbon.

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can also change or remove a text box or shape border.

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Copy a text box

  1. Click the border of the text box that you want to copy.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy The Copy button..

    Make sure that the pointer is not inside the text box, but rather on the border of the text box. If the pointer is not on the border, pressing Copy will copy the text inside the text box and not the text box.

  3. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste.

    The Clipboard group on the Home tab.

Delete a text box

  • Click the border of the text box that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

    Make sure that the pointer is not inside the text box, but rather on the border of the text box. If the pointer is not on the border, pressing DELETE will delete the text inside the text box and not the text box.

Add a text box

To learn how to add a text box, select an application from the drop-down list.

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    Excel Ribbon Image

  2. Click in the worksheet, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text to a text box, click inside the text box, and then type or paste text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      Excel Ribbon Image

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can change or remove a border from a text box or shape or add a fill or effect to a shape or text box.

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  1. In an e-mail message, on the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box, and then click Draw Text Box.

    Outlook Ribbon Image

  2. Click in the e-mail message, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text to a text box, click inside the text box, and then type or paste text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, use the formatting options in the Font group on the Format Text tab.

      Outlook Ribbon Image

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can change or remove a border from a text box or shape or add a fill or effect to a shape or text box.

    • If you have drawn multiple text boxes, you can link them together so that text will flow from one box to another. Click one of the text boxes and then under Text Box Tools, on the Format tab, in the Text group, click Create Link.

      Text Box Tools Format tab image

Top of page

  1. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

    PowerPoint Ribbon Image

  2. Click in the presentation, and then drag to draw the text box the size that you want.

  3. To add text to a text box, click inside the text box, and then type or paste text.

    Notes: 

    • To format text in the text box, use the formatting options in the Font group on the Home tab.

      PowerPoint Ribbon Image

    • To position the text box, click it, and then when the pointer becomes a Four-headed arrow, drag the text box to a new location.

    • You can change or remove a border from a text box or shape or add a fill or effect to a shape or text box.

Top of page

Copy a text box

  1. Click the border of the text box that you want to copy.

  2. Right-click and select Copy from the menu.

    Make sure that the pointer is not inside the text box, but rather on the border of the text box. If the pointer is not on the border, pressing Copy will copy the text inside the text box and not the text box.

  3. Place your cursor where you want the copied text box to be, right-click, and then click Paste.

    The Clipboard group on the Home tab.

Delete a text box

  • Click the border of the text box that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

    Make sure that the pointer is not inside the text box, but rather on the border of the text box. If the pointer is not on the border, pressing DELETE will delete the text inside the text box and not the text box.

  • To delete multiple check boxes at the same time, hold down CTRL, and click the border of each text box in turn, and then press DELETE.

  • To delete a text box but save the text inside it, select the text inside the text box, and then press CTRL+C to copy the text onto the clipboard before you delete the text box.

Text boxes offers users an easy way to manager blocks of text in document. But how to remove them when you formatting a document. This tutorial will show you several ways to get rid of all text boxes from Word document.

Manually remove all text boxes one by one
Remove all text boxes with VBA code
Easily remove all text boxes without removing text with Kutools for Word


Manually remove all text boxes one by one

If there are just one or two text boxes you want to remove, you can do as follows:

Step 1: Click inside the text box and press Ctrl+C to copy the text (skip this step if you don’t want to keep the text).

Step 2: Click the border of the text box, press Delete.

Step 3: Repeat step 1 and step 2 until all the undesired text boxes are removed.


Remove all text boxes with VBA code

While there are too many text boxes you want to remove, and you don’t want to keep the text inside either, VBA code will be great helpful. Please use VBA code to remove all text boxes in document as follows:

1. Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA window in Word;

2. Click Module in Insert tab, and insert the VBA code into Module window;

3. Click Rundoc-reverse-sign-6 button to apply the VBA code (or press F5);

The VBA code to remove all text boxes without keeping text:

Sub Test()
Dim oShp As Word.Shape
Dim i As Long
For i = ActiveDocument.Shapes.Count To 1 Step -1
Set oShp = ActiveDocument.Shapes(i)
If oShp.Type = msoTextBox Then
oShp.Delete
End If
Next i
End Sub

Note: This VBA code can only remove the drawing text boxes.


Easily remove all text boxes with Kutools for Word

You can remove all text boxes but keep their contents or remove both text boxes and their contents in document with Kutools for Word.

Kutools for Word : With more than 100 handy Word add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 60 days.

1. Please apply this utility by clicking Kutools > Remove > Remove All Text Boxes. See screenshot:

2. If you just want to remove the text boxes and keep the text, please check Just remove text box, and keep the text option in Remove All Text Boxes dialog, then click OK. If you want to remove both the text box and the text, please uncheck it.

3. Then a dialog box is popping up to tell you how many text boxes are removed successfully, please click the OK button.

Then you can see all text boxes with or without contents are removed from the document. See screenshots:

Tip: After removing text boxes from document, blank rows may show up. Then the Remove Empty Paragraph Marks utility of Kutools for Word can help you remove all empty rows from document at the same time. Please click Kutools > Emty Paras > Remove Empty Paragraph Marks. See screenshot:

Then all empty rows are removed from current documemt automatically at the same time:

If you want to have a free trial of this utility, please go to free download the software first, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.


Demo: Easily remove all text boxes without removing text with Kutools for Word



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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Removing All Text Boxes In a Document.

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 4, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you do a lot of work with documents from other people, you may have a need to remove text boxes in those documents. If there are only one or two text boxes in the document, it is not that difficult to select them and delete them. What if there are 30, 40, or more text boxes, though? Deleting them individually can quickly get tedious.

One potential solution is a «brute force» method. Follow these steps:

  1. In your document, press Ctrl+A. The entire document is selected.
  2. Press Ctrl+C. The document is now on the Clipboard.
  3. Open a new, blank document.
  4. Choose Paste Special from the Edit menu. Word displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  5. Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

  6. In the list of formats, choose Unformatted Text.
  7. Click on OK.

The document text, minus the text boxes, is now in the new document. The obvious drawback to this approach is that the other formatting of the original document is also lost, and you must reformat the entire document. (I told you this was a brute force method.)

If you want to get rid of only the text boxes, then the quickest solution is to use a macro. The following macro will quickly remove all text boxes in your document:

Sub RemoveTextBox1()
    Dim shp As Shape
    For Each shp In ActiveDocument.Shapes
        If shp.Type = msoTextBox Then shp.Delete
    Next shp
End Sub

You should realize that this macro removes all of the text boxes and their contents. In other words, if a text box is used for placement of text, then the text in that text box is deleted along with the text box itself.

If you prefer to transfer the text from the text boxes to the document, prior to deleting the text box, then a slight modification on the above macro will work:

Sub RemoveTextBox2()
    Dim shp As Shape
    Dim oRngAnchor As Range
    Dim sString As String

    For Each shp In ActiveDocument.Shapes
        If shp.Type = msoTextBox Then
            ' copy text to string, without last paragraph mark
            sString = Left(shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, _
              shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Characters.Count - 1)
            If Len(sString) > 0 Then
                ' set the range to insert the text
                Set oRngAnchor = shp.Anchor.Paragraphs(1).Range
                ' insert the textbox text before the range object
                oRngAnchor.InsertBefore _
                  "Textbox start << " & sString & " >> Textbox end"
            End If
            shp.delete
        End If
    Next shp
End Sub

When this macro is done, you can do a search for «Textbox start» and you will be at the beginning of text that used to be in the text boxes that are now gone from your document. You can then edit the text so that it appears as you want.

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I’ve prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training.
(Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.)
This tip (1690) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Removing All Text Boxes In a Document.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

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Remove a check box from a Microsoft Word document in a few simple steps. Before undertaking this process, you should first understand how to add the check box. Users typically insert check boxes into a Word document when creating a checklist or when attempting to give an ordinary bulleted list a fancier look.

Inserting

  1. To add a check box to your Word document, click on the arrow on the right side of the “Bullets” button located on the “Home” tab of the user interface window. Next, select “Define New Bullet,” then “Symbol” from the resulting window. Locate the check box you want to use from the list of symbols, click “OK,” and then “OK” again on the initial window. This process inserts the check box into your document and will create a new check box each time you press “Enter” to create a new line of text.

Removing Boxes

  1. Remove a check box from your Word document by highlighting the line from which you want to remove the box or by placing the cursor somewhere on the line that contains the box. If you want to remove multiple check boxes, highlight all of the lines you want to change. Click on the arrow on the right side of the “Bullets” button. From the next window, select the “None” option in the “Bullet Library” section. With the check box removed, you can proceed to work on the document with the settings that were in place before you undertook the editing process.

Electronic Checklist

  1. Typically, Word documents that contain check boxes are intended for use in printed form, such as for a questionnaire or test, which is checked off with a pen or pencil. You can also create a checklist that is checked off electronically within a Word document. Because this involves creating table with two columns and however many rows your checklist requires, removing the check box is done by deleting the table’s left column. Removing the check boxes in this type of checklist does not remove the table.

Considerations

  1. Although most check boxes are square or rectangular in shape, you can add check boxes of different shapes and sizes to your Microsoft Word document. Select the shape you want to use from the “Symbol” list to give your checklist a different look. Remove these check boxes using the same method used to delete traditionally-shaped check boxes. As you adjust the text size in your document, the check box sizes are adjusted accordingly.

Achieve more control and flexibility with your documents

Updated on September 11, 2022

What to Know

  • Select Insert > Text Box > choose a text box template. Select and drag box to the position you want.
  • To resize text, select and drag circles around the edge. To rotate text, select and drag the circular arrow.
  • Place the cursor inside the text box and type the information you want to appear.

This article explains how to use text boxes in Microsoft Word. Instructions apply to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013.

How to Insert a Text Box in Word

Start by opening the document you want to add a text box to. Then follow the steps below.

  1. On the ribbon, select Insert.

  2. In the Text group, select Text Box, then choose a text box template.

  3. The new text box appears in the middle of the text, and the Shape Format tab is automatically selected.

  4. Select and drag the box to the position you want. To resize the text box, select and drag the circles around the edge. To rotate the text box, select and drag the circular arrow at the top of the box.

  5. Place the cursor inside the text box and type the information you want to appear there.

Why Use Text Boxes?

When you type text in Microsoft Word, you have options for making it look a particular way on the page (such as changing the page margins), but those options are limited. Text boxes expand your formatting repertoire by offering additional control and flexibility for how your text appears. You can place a text box anywhere within a document and format it with different colors and fonts. This feature is especially helpful for creating a blockquote or a sidebar.

Customize a Text Box

After you create a text box, you can customize it in a number of ways.

  1. To bring up options, place the cursor inside the text box and right-click. Choose an option and follow the screen prompts to add a border, change the style, or adjust the way the text box interacts with the other text on the page.

    Alternatively, use the controls on the Shape Format tab.

  2. To go directly to the Layout Options menu, select the text box, then select the Layout Options icon (it looks like a horseshoe and is located to the right of the text box).

  3. Change the text, make more adjustments, or move the box to another location at any time. To delete a text box, select its border, then press Delete on the keyboard.

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