WD97: Use Textbox Form Control to WorkAround 255 Character Limit

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

The Word FILLIN field prompts you for text that is used as the FILLIN field result. The maximum number of characters that can be entered in a FILLIN field is 255. In addition, the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications InputBox statement is restricted to this 255 character limitation.

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications allows you to construct a dialog box using the UserForm command. The form can contain text box controls into which you can type more than 255 characters. This article describes how to create and display the form.

MORE INFORMATION

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   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/default.asp

Creating the user form

Create the form using the following steps:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.

2. In the Visual Basic project window, click Normal.

   The form will be available to all documents.

3. On the Insert menu, click UserForm.

4. Click the TextBox control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form.

   The text box control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location.

5. Click the CommandButton control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form.

   The command button control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location.

   Repeat this step to add a second CommandButton control.

6. Select the first command button control and then click Code on the View menu.

7. In the Code window, type "Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

   Private Sub CommandButton1_Click ()

             Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text
             'When you click this button on the form, the contents of the text
             'box is inserted into the active document at the location of the
             'insertion point.
          End sub
   
   

8. On the View menu, click Object to return to the form.

9. Select the second command button control and then click Code on the View menu.

10. In the Code window, type "End" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

    Private Sub CommandButton2_Click ()

              End
              'When you click this button after you click the first command
              'button, the form is closed. If you click this button instead of
              'the first command button, the form is canceled.
           End sub
    
    

11. On the File menu, click Save Normal.

Displaying the form

To display the form, switch to Word, and then do the following:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.

2. In the Macro Name box, type FillInForm and then click Create.

3. In the Code window, type "UserForm1.Show" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

         Sub FillInForm()
            UserForm1.Show
         End Sub
   
   

4. Save and close the macro.

5. Close the Visual Basic Editor.

6. You can now run the macro from Word to display the form.

1. Double-click the form.

2. From the Object drop-down list, select UserForm.

3. From the Procedure drop-down list, select Initialize.

4. In the Code window, type the following code

         Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
            TextBox1.Text = "<default text>"
         End Sub
   
      where <default text> is the text you want to appear in the text box when
      the form appears.
   
   

   ARTICLE-ID: Q93706
   TITLE     : Word: FILLIN Field Is Limited to 255 Characters

   ARTICLE-ID: Q173707
   TITLE     : OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for 
               Applications