Shapes Collection

Multiple objects Shapes
ShapeRange

A collection of all the Shape objects on the specified sheet. Each Shape object represents an object in the drawing layer, such as an AutoShape, freeform, OLE object, or picture.

Note  If you want to work with a subset of the shapes on a document— for example, to do something to only the AutoShapes on the document or to only the selected shapes— you must construct a ShapeRange collection that contains the shapes you want to work with. For an overview of how to work either with a single shape or with more than one shape at a time, see Working with Shapes (Drawing Objects).

Using the Shapes Collection

Use the Shapes property to return the Shapes collection.The following example selects all the shapes on myDocument.

Set myDocument = Worksheets(1)
myDocument.Shapes.SelectAll
		

Note  If you want to do something (like delete or set a property) to all the shapes on a sheet at the same time, select all the shapes and then use the ShapeRange property on the selection to create a ShapeRange object that contains all the shapes on the sheet, and then apply the appropriate property or method to the ShapeRange object.

Use Shapes(index), where index is the shape’s name or index number, to return a single Shape object. The following example sets the fill to a preset shade for shape one on myDocument.

Set myDocument = Worksheets(1)
myDocument.Shapes(1).Fill.PresetGradient _
    msoGradientHorizontal, 1, msoGradientBrass
		

Use Shapes.Range(index), where index is the shape’s name or index number or an array of shape names or index numbers, to return a ShapeRange collection that represents a subset of the Shapes collection. The following example sets the fill pattern for shapes one and three on myDocument.

Set myDocument = Worksheets(1)
myDocument.Shapes.Range(Array(1, 3)).Fill.Patterned _
    msoPatternHorizontalBrick
		

Remarks

An ActiveX control on a sheet has two names: the name of the shape that contains the control, which you can see in the Name box when you view the sheet, and the code name for the control, which you can see in the cell to the right of (Name) in the Properties window. When you first add a control to a sheet, the shape name and code name match. However, if you change either the shape name or code name, the other isn’t automatically changed to match.

You use the code name of a control in the names of its event procedures. However, when you return a control from the Shapes or OLEObjects collection for a sheet, you must use the shape name, not the code name, to refer to the control by name. For example, assume that you add a check box to a sheet and that both the default shape name and the default code name are CheckBox1. If you then change the control code name by typing chkFinished next to (Name) in the Properties window, you must use chkFinished in event procedures names, but you still have to use CheckBox1 to return the control from the Shapes or OLEObject collection, as shown in the following example.

Private Sub chkFinished_Click()
    ActiveSheet.OLEObjects("CheckBox1").Object.Value = 1
End Sub