XL97: Error When Invalid Characters in Drawing Object Name

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro in Microsoft Excel 97, you may receive the following error message:

   Run-time error '1004':
   Unable to get the DrawingObjects property of the Worksheet class

CAUSE

This will occur if you attempt to reference a drawing object such as a rectangle or an ellipse, or an AutoShape whose name contains non-valid characters.

Valid characters for drawing object names include the following:

• Alphanumerics (A-Z, a-z, 0-9)
• Spaces ( )
• Underscores (_)

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

The following line of code will fail:

   ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects("Hello!").Select

For example, if you know that the drawing object in question is the first drawing object in the worksheet, you can reference it as follows:

   ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects(1).Select

   Sub Test()
       For X = 1 To ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects.Count
           If ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects(X).Name = "Hello!" Then
               ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects(X).Select
               Exit For
           End If
       Next X
   End Sub

STATUS

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel 97.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 97, you can create drawing objects and AutoShapes by using the tools on the Drawing toolbar. Once you have created a drawing object, you can change its name by selecting it, clicking the Name box to the left of the Formula Bar, typing a new name, and pressing the ENTER key.

If you rename a drawing object so that its name includes invalid characters, you cannot use a Visual Basic macro to directly reference the drawing object by its name. If your drawing objects' names include such characters, use the workaround shown above to reference the drawing objects.