Thanks for your help. Here is the final code:

Dim s As String
s = ActiveDocument.Shapes("Text Box 16").TextFrame.TextRange
s = Left(s, Len(s) - 1) ' cut off paragraph mark if you like
If s <> x Then
OptionButton2.Value = True
End If

You also solved another problem I had not begun to address. That was when I
was populating the TextBoxes on my UserForm, I was getting the paragraph
mark:

s = ActiveDocument.Shapes("Text Box 217").TextFrame.TextRange
s = Left(s, Len(s) - 1) ' cut off paragraph mark if you like
TextBox1.Text = s

Is there any way to alter the code so that it can place text into the Text
Box on the document? This would of course be a separate process. The code
you provided was it populate the UserForm during UserForm Initialization,
but it was so clean I am wondering if t would not do better than the code I
came up with to fill in the document. Here is a sample of what I came up
with. As you can see I do not know how to avoid using Select.

If OptionButton2.Value = True Then 'Mrs.
   ActiveDocument.Shapes("Text Box 16").Select
   Selection.Text = "X"
End If