In this article I will explain how you can get a pictures position using VBA for Word.

Step 1, Getting reference to the Image

As explained in the article below, pictures can either be inline or floating:

• Word VBA, Loop Through Images

The first thing to do is to get a reference to the image.

Example:

In this example the reference of the first image will be stored in the object objPicture:

Dim objPicture As Shape
Set objPicture = Shapes.Item(1)


Note: The previous code will give reference to the first floating shape in the document. In order to get reference to the first inline shape we would have to use something like this:

Dim objPicture As InlineShape
Set objPicture = InlineShape.Item(1)


For more information about floating and inline shapes, and the Shape and InlineShape collections please see the article below:

• Word VBA, Loop Through Images

Position:

Using the code below you can get the position of the image:

objShape.Left


For example for the document below:

The code below will return the second images position:

Sub Example1()
Dim objShape As Shape
Set objShape = Shapes.Item(2)
MsgBox (objShape.Left)
End Sub


Result:

Probable Errors #1:

You can download the word document and try this yourself:

• Image Position.docm

Step 1: Run the code and you will get the result in the previous section.

Step 2: Manually insert a caption for the first figure:

Step 3: As you can see this has cause the second image to move right. But if you run the code again you will get the same result:

It can be seen that the method explained in the previous section for getting the position of floating pictures isn’t reliable. If you right-click a picture in the word document and click on the size and position button, on the position tab you can see the position is displayed relative to the column:

This can be overcome by changing the position property from column to page. This can be done using the code below:

objShape.RelativeHorizontalPosition = wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage


The benefits of making this change is twofold:

• The position function will always display the correct value
• The image will not move.

The complete code can be seen below:

Sub Example2()
Dim objShape As Shape
Set objShape = Shapes.Item(2)
objShape.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
    wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage
MsgBox (objShape.Left)
End Sub


Probable Error #2:

By changing the relative position from column to page, some of the floating pictures might get displaced. For example in the document below:

• Image Position.docm

If you run the code below, the third image will get displaced:

Sub Example3()
Dim objShape As Shape
Set objShape = Shapes.Item(3)
objShape.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
    wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage
End Sub


This can be prevented by saving the relative position of the image before making the changes, and adjusting the images position after the changes.

Example:

The code below stores the 3rd pictures original position relative to the column (before the changes) and adjusts the position of the image after the changes:

Sub Example4()
Dim objShape As Shape
'position before making the changes
Dim intPrevPosition As Integer
Set objShape = Shapes.Item(3)
intPrevPosition = objShape.Left
objShape.RelativeHorizontalPosition = _
    wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage
'moves the shape back to where it was
objShape.Left = intPrevPosition + _
    PageSetup.LeftMargin
End Sub


The line below gets the position of the picture relative to the column before making the changes:

intPrevPosition = objShape.Left


The line below sets the position of the image back to its original position:

objShape.Left = intPrevPosition + _
    PageSetup.LeftMargin


Pagesetup.leftmargin is the distance of the column with the page.

You can download all the files and code related to this article from the link below:

• Image Position.docm

See also:

• Word VBA, Adding Caption to Images
• Word VBA, Loop Through Images
• Word VBA, Removing Picture Captions
• Word VBA, Re-Adjust Caption

If you need assistance with your code, or you are looking for a VBA programmer to hire feel free to contact me. Also please visit my website  www.software-solutions-online.com