Knowledge Base

WD98: "String Too Long" Using Over 255 Characters

Article ID: 181110

Article Last Modified on 7/13/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q181110

SYMPTOMS

When you try to assign the value of a variable containing more than 255 characters to a FormField object, you will receive the following error message:

Run-time error '4609': "String too long"

CAUSE

The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro (Sub procedure) is an example of code that can cause the error:

   Sub StringTooLongError()
 
      Dim sMyVar As String
      sMyVar = String(256, "x")
      ActiveDocument.FormFields(1).Result = sMyVar
 
   End Sub

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. The following example Visual Basic for Applications code sets text greater than 255 characters in length to the form field named Text1:

   Sub WorkAround255Limit()
      ' Set Text1 form field to a unique string.
      ActiveDocument.FormFields("text1").Result = "****"
      If ActiveDocument.ProtectionType <> wdNoProtection Then
          ActiveDocument.Unprotect
      End If
      Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Text1"
      Selection.Collapse
      Selection.MoveRight wdCharacter, 1
      Selection.TypeText (String(256, "W"))
      Selection.GoTo what:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Text1"
      ' Remove unique characters from Text1 form field.
      With Selection.Find
         .Execute findtext:="*", replacewith:="", replace:=wdReplaceAll
      End With
      ActiveDocument.Protect Password:="", NoReset:=True, Type:= _
         wdAllowOnlyFormFields
   End Sub

REFERENCES

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

163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Additional query words: wordcon

Keywords: kbprb kbdtacode kbnofix KB181110

Microsoft KB Archive/181110

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