Hide Selected Shape Highlighting

**Brown207** · 04-27-2011, 11:20 AM

I know of ways to hide excels title bar, menu bar, windows start menu and taskbar, etc. from vba.
How would go about hiding the box/outline/frame/adjusters that surround a selected shape in excel using vba?

also posted question here:
http://www.xtremevbtalk.com/showthread.php?t=321047

**barryleajo** · 04-27-2011, 12:16 PM

Hi Brown207
Welcome to the forum.
There are probably a number of ways to do some of these things.

Have a look at the attached and in the macro edit the line

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to

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Then re-run the macro
This will illustrate the idea.

After that I suggest you look in the IDE Object Browser (press F2)
put "Excel" as the Library in the top box
put "Shape" in the search box
then select "Shape" in the Classes list to see the various properties you can control
barry

**Brown207** · 04-27-2011, 12:30 PM

Thanks for the reply but not at all what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking to simply hide a shape's line by adjusting its transparency... That's why I equated this question originally to the ability of vba to hide Excel toolbars, Windows start menu, etc.

Here's more detail:
When you select a shape, Excel outlines the shape with a box with corner and side adjusters and sometimes with the yellow diamond attribute adjuster and/or a green circle attached perpendicular to the shape to adjust its angle.
That is what I'm talking about wanting to hide/disable/whatever here.

**Andy Pope** · 04-28-2011, 08:39 AM

You can not get rid of the selection box if you select the shape.
Why would you want to hide it? If these is for other users of your workbook and the shape is part of the interface then maybe you need to look at protection of the workbook and objects on it.

**Brown207** · 04-28-2011, 10:35 AM

This is a solution I have sought for over a year and seems to be the only plausible way to effectively work with moving graphics in Excel. Excel requires that a shape is selected in order to change much of its properties, such as graphically dragging it across the screen.

I'm aware of all the basic coding I keep getting referred to. I'm even aware of how to change Windows user settings and display options from vba, so it seems possible to hide this selection box.

**Andy Pope** · 04-28-2011, 10:40 AM

You are not really explaining why you would want to select a shape and NOT see the selection handle and be able to access it properties.

At a guess I would assume your shapes are acting as an interface and all you want is movable objects. If that the case excel is probably not the tool to be using or at least not directly via the worksheet. You could use a userform which would allow you to move shapes around via click and drag. Of course this would require some coding.

**Brown207** · 04-28-2011, 11:00 AM

Nevermind, I'll figure it out... Almost have btw

**Andy Pope** · 04-28-2011, 11:42 AM

Over at your other post you say, "The macro is modifying the shape and moving it graphically across the page. As it does this it needs to have the shape selected".

Having to have the shape selected in order to move it with code is not necessary. Is your code using the selection object?
Perhaps you should post an example of your code.

**Brown207** · 04-28-2011, 02:43 PM

You're right, not for 2003 or 2010. But it is necessary in Excel 2007 when modifying certain shape attributes.

For now my fix is to just use 2010 and forget about 2007 compatibility.