Microsoft KB Archive/212172

= XL2000: "Unable to Record" Message When Recording a Macro =

Article ID: 212172

Article Last Modified on 9/25/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q212172





SYMPTOMS
When you attempt to enter information into a cell, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to Record



CAUSE
This problem may occur when the following conditions are true:
 * You enter more than 255 characters into a cell

-and-
 * You record a macro.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do not enter more than 255 characters per cell while recording a macro.



MORE INFORMATION
In Excel 2000, you can use more than 255 characters in a cell; however, when you pass strings that are greater than 255 characters in length from a Visual Basic for Applications procedure, Excel retains the same design features that earlier versions of Excel use.

This limit applies to all strings that you pass from a Visual Basic procedure to an Excel sheet. The limit does not apply exclusively to information that you pass to cells. For example, if you pass a text string that is longer than 255 characters to a text box on a worksheet or a dialog sheet, Excel truncates the text even though a text box can hold up to 10,240 characters.

For more information about string limits in Visual Basic for Applications, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

213841 XL2000: Passed Strings Longer Than 255 Characters Are Truncated

Additional query words: XL2000 string limits limitations

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprogramming kbprb KB212172

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