How to select the contents of a textbox once it is activated?

Question

I have this simple Userform, where I only have TextBox1 and TextBox2. I enter some text in both of them. Assume the focus is on (the cursor is in)

Answer 1

I know this is well out of date but I'm leaving this here in case it helps someone in my position.

What I want is:

• If I click on the box for the first time: select all the text
• If I click on it a subsequent time: put the cursor where the mouse is and allow me to use the mouse to select a substring

Firstly it is important to know that "Select all the text" is the default behaviour when tabbing into a TextBox and that "Put the cursor here" is the default behaviour when clicking on a TextBox so we only need to worry about what the mouse is doing.

To do this, we can keep track of the Active Control, but only while the mouse is moving over our TextBox (ie. before the Click)

Code:

Private m_ActiveControlName As String

Private Sub Text1_MouseMove(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
    m_ActiveControlName = Me.ActiveControl.Name
End Sub

Private Sub Text1_MouseDown(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
    If m_ActiveControlName <> Me.Text1.Name Then
        Call Text1_Enter   'we don't have to use Text1_Enter for this, any method will do
        Exit Sub           'quit here so that VBA doesn't finish doing its default Click behaviour
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Text1_Enter()
    With Text1
        .SelStart = 0
        .SelLength = Len(.Text)
    End With
End Sub

Answer 2

Can't be more simple than this I guess...

Private Sub TextBox1_MouseDown(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, _
ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
    With TextBox1
        .SelStart = 0
        .SelLength = Len(.Text)
    End With
End Sub

Whether you click on the textbox or you tab into it, it will do what you want. To deselect the text, use the arrow keys.

Explanation

If you debug the code you will see that even though you have said .SetFocus, the focus is not on the Textbox. .SetFocus doesn't work in TextBox1_Enter() and you need to have focus for the rest of the code to work. And hence my alternative...

Alternative

You may also like this version :) This overcomes the limitation of using the mouse in the TextBox

Dim boolEnter As Boolean

Private Sub TextBox1_Enter()
    boolEnter = True
End Sub

Private Sub TextBox1_MouseDown(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, _
ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
    If boolEnter = True Then
        With TextBox1
            .SelStart = 0
            .SelLength = Len(.Text)
        End With
        boolEnter = False
    End If
End Sub

Answer 3

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()                                                                
    TextBox1.SetFocus
    TextBox1.SelStart = 0
    TextBox1.SelLength = Len(TextBox1.Text)
End Sub   

Add this to the form's code

Answer 4

Try the same code with TextBox1_MouseDown. It should work.

Private Sub TextBox1_MouseDown(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
    With TextBox1
        .SetFocus
        .SelStart = 0
        .SelLength = Len(.Text)
    End With
    MsgBox "Text in TextBox1 is selected"
End Sub

Answer 5

This is somewhat an enhancement of what @vacip posted. The benefit you get is that you don't need to add a separate method in the Module for each new textbox.

The following code in your User Form:

'===== User Form Code ========

Option Explicit

Private Sub TextBox1_Enter()
    OnTextBoxEnter
End Sub

Private Sub TextBox2_Enter()
   OnTextBoxEnter
End Sub

Private Sub TextBox3_Enter()
   OnTextBoxEnter
End Sub

The following code goes in a Module:

'===== Module Code ========

Sub SelectAllText()
    SendKeys "{HOME}+{END}", True
End Sub

Sub OnTextBoxEnter()
   Application.OnTime Now + 0.00001, "SelectAllText", Now + 0.00002
End Sub

Answer 6

Pff, took me a while. Actually, your code works, but it highlights the text BEFORE the click event happens. So you clicking in the box instantly overrides the selection created by the code. I have used a delayed selection, and it works, though it is a bit disgusting...

The code for the textboxes:

Private Sub TextBox1_Enter()
  Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"), "module1.SelectText1"
End Sub

Private Sub TextBox2_Enter()
  Application.OnTime Now, "module1.SelectText2"
End Sub

Note that it works even withouth the {+ TimeValue("00:00:01")} part, but it might theoretically stop it from working at times. Hmm, on a second thought, just leave it out. I doubt it would ever cause a problem.

Now the code in module1:

Sub SelectText1()
  UserForm1.TextBox1.SelStart = 0
  UserForm1.TextBox1.SelLength = Len(UserForm1.TextBox1.Text)
End Sub

Sub SelectText2()
  UserForm1.TextBox2.SelStart = 0
  UserForm1.TextBox2.SelLength = Len(UserForm1.TextBox2.Text)
End Sub

Hope this works for you too. Ineresting problem. :) Cheers!