How to Alternate Sentence Font Colors in Word Using VBA

Learn how to write a VBA macro that changes the font color of each sentence in a Word document, alternating through a set of predefined colors without using highlights.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/79511399/ asked by the user 'Two Cents' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/29922356/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/79511848/ provided by the user 'braX' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/8422953/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Introduction

Changing the color of text in a Word document can be a useful way to emphasize or visually separate sentences. Instead of using text highlights, altering the font color for each sentence provides a colorful and non-invasive way to improve readability or style.

The Challenge

Most existing VBA macros for Word focus on highlighting sentences or words rather than changing the font color directly. Here, we want to apply different font colors to every sentence, cycling through a small palette of colors, without any background highlighting.

Solution Overview

By iterating through the sentences in an active Word document, we can assign each sentence a font color from a set of predefined colors. The colors will rotate, creating an alternating pattern. This is done by leveraging Word VBA's .Sentences collection and .Font.Color property.

VBA Macro to Alternate Sentence Font Colors

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

How to Use

Open Word and press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor.

Insert a new module and paste the code above.

Run the macro ColorSentences.

Each sentence in the active document will be colored in sequence using red, blue, green, dark yellow, and violet.

Customizing Colors

You can replace the colors in the colors array with any of Word's predefined colors (wdColor* constants) or RGB values converted to Long. For example:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Make sure to adjust the modulo calculation accordingly.

Summary

Iterate through each sentence in the Word document.

Assign font colors from a fixed palette, alternating them.

Use the .Font.Color property instead of text highlight.

This VBA macro is a straightforward and effective way to visually distinguish sentences by color without affecting the background, enhancing both readability and presentation.