Microsoft KB Archive/183357

= WD98: Range.Text Length Includes "End Of Cell" for Table Cell =

Article ID: 183357

Article Last Modified on 6/17/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q183357





SYMPTOMS
When your Visual Basic for Applications macro returns the number of characters within a range of a table cell, if that range includes the entire cell, the number of characters returned is one more than expected.



CAUSE
By design, the End of Cell Mark (ASCII character number 7) is returned as part of the text when the cell range is set to include the entire cell. Using the Range.Text property includes the paragraph mark and the end of cell mark (ASCII 13 and ASCII 7) and returns them as a pair.



WORKAROUND
Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers 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 requirements. To return the number of characters within a range of a table cell, excluding the end of cell mark, use one of the following methods.

NOTE: Each method includes an example of a Visual Basic for Applications macro that:


 * 1) Sets a range object to an existing table.
 * 2) Collapses the range to the start of the range (the first cell in the table).
 * 3) Expands the range to equal the first cell of the table and returns the number of characters within the range.

Method 1: Subtract 1 from the Return Value
You can simply subtract 1 from the returned value to exclude the end of cell mark from your character count. This method still includes any paragraph marks within the range of text: Sub RangeExpandCell Dim oTableR As Object ' Set a range equal to the first table in the active document. Set oTableR = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Range ' Collapse the range to the start of the table. oTableR.Collapse wdCollapseStart ' Return the length of text in cell A1 of the table. MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1, 1).Range.Text)-1 End Sub

Method 2: Use the Expand Method
The Expand method excludes the end of cell mark but includes any paragraph marks within the range of text. Sub RangeExpandCell Dim oTableR As Object ' Set a range equal to the first table in the active document. Set oTableR = ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Range ' Collapse the range to the start of the table. oTableR.Collapse wdCollapseStart MsgBox oTableR.Expand(wdCell) End Sub For more information about Expand Method, from the Visual Basic Editor, click the Office Assistant, type Expand Method, click Search, and then click to view "Expand Method."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the Standard toolbar. If the Assistant is not able to answer your query, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176476 OFF: Office Assistant Not Answering Visual Basic Questions



MORE INFORMATION
For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

181058 OFF98: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

