Microsoft KB Archive/158353

= XL97: Error When Invalid Characters in Drawing Object Name =

Article ID: 158353

Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q158353





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 (_)

All other characters are invalid and should not be used in drawing object names.

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.



WORKAROUND
Microsoft provides programming examples 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. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104

For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

The following line of code will fail: ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects("Hello!").Select The drawing object's name, Hello!, contains an exclamation point (!) character, which is invalid. You can still reference it by using its index.

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 If your worksheet contains a large number of drawing objects, you can use a loop to cycle through the drawing objects, checking each drawing object's name. For example, this sample subroutine will loop through all of the drawing objects in the active worksheet and select the drawing object named "Hello!": 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



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.

Additional query words: XL97 commandbars oval circle shape

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb KB158353

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