Knowledge Base

WD98: Creating a Password-Style Macro Dialog Text Box

Article ID: 182171

Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q182171

SUMMARY

You can use Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications to create a dialog box that prompts a user for a password. Using the PasswordChar property, you can display "placeholder" characters, such as asterisks, that appear when a user types the password.

MORE INFORMATION

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

You can use the PasswordChar property of the TextBox control to protect sensitive information, such as passwords or security codes. The value of PasswordChar is the character that appears in a control instead of the actual characters that the user types. If you do not specify a character, the control displays the characters that the user types.

In the following example, the user form contains a TextBox control that uses the PasswordChar property to display asterisks instead of the password that the user types.

Creating the User Form

Create the form using the following steps:

On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
In the Visual Basic project window, click Normal. The form will be available to all documents.
On the Insert menu, click UserForm.
Click the TextBox control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form. The TextBox control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location.
Select the TextBox control and press F4. The Properties window appears.
In the Properties window, type an "*" (without the quotation marks) for the value of the PasswordChar property.
Click the CommandButton control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form. The CommandButton control appears in the default size. Drag a sizing handle to resize the control or drag the control to move it to a new location. Repeat this step to add a second CommandButton control.
Select the first CommandButton control and then click Code on the View menu.

In the Code window, type "MsgBox TextBox1.Text" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click ()
  ' When you click this button on the form, the contents
  ' of the text box appear in a message box.
  MsgBox TextBox1.Text
End sub

On the View menu, click Object to return to the form.
Select the second command button control and then click Code on the View menu.

In the Code window, type "End" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

Private Sub CommandButton2_Click ()
   ' When this button is clicked, the form is closed
   ' and the program ends.
   End
End sub

On the File menu, click Save Normal.

Displaying the User Form

To display the form, switch to Word, and then do the following:

On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
In the Macro Name box, type FillInForm and then click Create.

In the Code window, type "UserForm1.Show" (without the quotation marks), so that your code looks like this:

Sub FillInForm()
'This macro displays the user form.
   UserForm1.Show
End Sub

Save and close the macro.
Close the Visual Basic Editor.
You can now run the macro from Word to display the form.

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

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

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 vb vba vbe

Keywords: kbdtacode kbinfo kbmacroexample KB182171

Microsoft KB Archive/182171

Contents