WD: WordBasic Scrolling Commands Fail If Scroll Bars Inactive

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.1a, 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows NT, version 6.0
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1

SUMMARY

The WordBasic commands to scroll through a document require the scroll bars to be active in Word. For example, if the horizontal scroll bar is not active when HScroll is called from a WordBasic macro, you may receive the following error message.

Word 6.x, 7.x

   WordBasic Err=544
   Unable to execute the scroll command; the scroll bar is not active.

Word 2.x

   WordBasic Err=509
   Command is unavailable.

WORKAROUND

Use the appropriate macro below to activate the horizontal scroll bar in the ToolsOptionsView dialog box, before using the HScroll() command.

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Word 2.x, 6.x, 7.x

   Sub MAIN
      ToolsOptionsView .HScroll = 1
      n = HScroll()
      HScroll n + 20   'increases the horizontal scroll percentage by 20%
   End Sub

Word 1.x

   Sub MAIN
      ViewPreferences .HScroll = 1
      n = HScroll()
      HScroll n + 20   'increases the horizontal scroll percentage by 20%
   End Sub

MORE INFORMATION

The following list describes some of the functions and statements used in the above macros:

   HScroll <percentage> - Scrolls the file contents horizontally the
   specified percentage of the document width.

   n = HScroll() - Returns the current horizontal scroll position as a
   percentage of the document width.

   VScroll <percentage> - Scrolls vertically to the place in the
   document that is the specified percentage of the document's length.

   n = VScroll() - Returns the current vertical scroll position as a
   percentage of the document's size.

REFERENCES

"Using WordBasic," by WexTech Systems and Microsoft, pages 333 and 233