Excel VBA: Index = ZOrderPosition in a Shapes collection?

Question

Is the Index of a Shape in a Shapes collection of a Worksheet always the same as its ZOrderPosition? (One cannot in principle inquire directly about the Index of a given Shape).

Answer 1

The rule "ZOrderPosition = index" for the shapes of an excel sheet is ** NOT ** true if you make a group of shapes. For example if you have the shapes "A","B","C","D,"E","F" in Zorder 1 to 6 and then you group shapes "B", "C", "D" together, you will break the "ZOrderPosition = index" rule for the shapes "E" and "F". If you list the shapes(i) you will get the following:

index  ZOrder  Name 
 1       1      "A"        
 2       2      "Group 1"   
 3      *6*     "E"        
 4      *7*     "F"        

Here the code for getting the previous info:

Sub DebugListInfoOfShapes()
    Dim i As Long
    Debug.Print "Index   ZOrder   Name"
    For i = 1 To ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count
        Debug.Print i & "         " _
                      & ActiveSheet.Shapes(i).ZOrderPosition _
                      & "      " _
                      & ActiveSheet.Shapes(i).Name
    Next i
End Sub

Hoping this clarify you question!

Regards, Andres

PD: If you want to see shapes "B", "C", "D" you have to loop inside the group using for example: ActiveSheet.Shapes(2).GroupItems(i) for the case above.