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The purpose of this Microsoft Word Tips & Microsoft Word Help page is to demonstrate and explain what an underscore " _" is typically used for in a in a VBA code line.

An underscore (always immediately preceded with a single space) in a VBA code line indicates that the current statement continues on the next line.  Because VBA doesn't word-wrap, it is used to split a single line of code over two lines, in order to make the code more readable.

So instead of this:

Sub Macro1()
  Msgbox "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 
End Sub  

We could write this:

Sub Macro1()
  Msgbox "Four score and seven years ago our fathers " _
         & "brought forth on this continent, a new nation, " _
         & "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition " _
         & "that all men are created equal." 
End Sub

Or rewrite:

Sub Macro2()
Dim oRng As Range
  Set oRng = ActiveDocument.SelectContentControlsByTitle("RichText Container").Item(1).Range.Paragraphs(3).Range
End Sub

As:

Sub Macro2()
Dim oRng As Range
  Set oRng = ActiveDocument.SelectContentControlsByTitle("RichText Container") _
           .Item(1).Range.Paragraphs(3).Range
End Sub

Note: you must insert a space before the underscore. Otherwise the VBA compiler returns an error.

That's it! I hope you have found this tips page useful and informative.

This page was last updated on March 09, 2021

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