[Catherine]

When i add a new custom field E.g {DOCPROPERTY "Transaction Comments" }to
my document (Type: Text) there is a restriction to 255 characters.
Is there any way to increase this? Or is this a M/S word restriction that
cannot be changed?

[Jay Freedman]

Catherine wrote:
When i add a new custom field E.g {DOCPROPERTY "Transaction
Comments" }to my document (Type: Text) there is a restriction to 255
characters.
Is there any way to increase this? Or is this a M/S word restriction
that cannot be changed?

It is a restriction that can't be changed. I didn't find any official
documentation of this, but the result of the following macro makes it clear
that Word truncates the input to 255 characters:

Sub x()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myCP As DocumentProperty
mystr = String(260, "A")
ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="test1", LinkToContent:=False, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString, _
Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties("test1 ").Value)
End Sub

However, there is no such restriction on document *variables*, as the result
of this similar macro shows:

Sub y()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myVar As Variable
mystr = String(500, "A")
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add _
Name:="test1", Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.Variables("test1").Value)
End Sub

In the document, you can display the value of the variable with a field
{DOCVARIABLE test1}.

The two main differences between custom document properties and document
variables are (a) all document variables are strings, and (b) there is no
dialog for setting document variables, so they must be set through a
macro -- this may be a drawback or a benefit, depending on whether you want
to allow users to change the value.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Jay Freedman]

Catherine wrote:
When i add a new custom field E.g {DOCPROPERTY "Transaction
Comments" }to my document (Type: Text) there is a restriction to 255
characters.
Is there any way to increase this? Or is this a M/S word restriction
that cannot be changed?

It is a restriction that can't be changed. I didn't find any official
documentation of this, but the result of the following macro makes it clear
that Word truncates the input to 255 characters:

Sub x()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myCP As DocumentProperty
mystr = String(260, "A")
ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="test1", LinkToContent:=False, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString, _
Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties("test1 ").Value)
End Sub

However, there is no such restriction on document *variables*, as the result
of this similar macro shows:

Sub y()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myVar As Variable
mystr = String(500, "A")
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add _
Name:="test1", Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.Variables("test1").Value)
End Sub

In the document, you can display the value of the variable with a field
{DOCVARIABLE test1}.

The two main differences between custom document properties and document
variables are (a) all document variables are strings, and (b) there is no
dialog for setting document variables, so they must be set through a
macro -- this may be a drawback or a benefit, depending on whether you want
to allow users to change the value.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Catherine]

Jay,

Many thanks for your prompt help.

Catherine

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Catherine wrote:
When i add a new custom field E.g {DOCPROPERTY "Transaction
Comments" }to my document (Type: Text) there is a restriction to 255
characters.
Is there any way to increase this? Or is this a M/S word restriction
that cannot be changed?

It is a restriction that can't be changed. I didn't find any official
documentation of this, but the result of the following macro makes it clear
that Word truncates the input to 255 characters:

Sub x()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myCP As DocumentProperty
mystr = String(260, "A")
ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="test1", LinkToContent:=False, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString, _
Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties("test1 ").Value)
End Sub

However, there is no such restriction on document *variables*, as the result
of this similar macro shows:

Sub y()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myVar As Variable
mystr = String(500, "A")
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add _
Name:="test1", Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.Variables("test1").Value)
End Sub

In the document, you can display the value of the variable with a field
{DOCVARIABLE test1}.

The two main differences between custom document properties and document
variables are (a) all document variables are strings, and (b) there is no
dialog for setting document variables, so they must be set through a
macro -- this may be a drawback or a benefit, depending on whether you want
to allow users to change the value.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.


.

[Catherine]

Jay,

Many thanks for your prompt help.

Catherine

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Catherine wrote:
When i add a new custom field E.g {DOCPROPERTY "Transaction
Comments" }to my document (Type: Text) there is a restriction to 255
characters.
Is there any way to increase this? Or is this a M/S word restriction
that cannot be changed?

It is a restriction that can't be changed. I didn't find any official
documentation of this, but the result of the following macro makes it clear
that Word truncates the input to 255 characters:

Sub x()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myCP As DocumentProperty
mystr = String(260, "A")
ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties.Add _
Name:="test1", LinkToContent:=False, _
Type:=msoPropertyTypeString, _
Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.CustomDocumentProperties("test1 ").Value)
End Sub

However, there is no such restriction on document *variables*, as the result
of this similar macro shows:

Sub y()
Dim mystr As String
Dim myVar As Variable
mystr = String(500, "A")
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add _
Name:="test1", Value:=mystr

MsgBox Len(ActiveDocument.Variables("test1").Value)
End Sub

In the document, you can display the value of the variable with a field
{DOCVARIABLE test1}.

The two main differences between custom document properties and document
variables are (a) all document variables are strings, and (b) there is no
dialog for setting document variables, so they must be set through a
macro -- this may be a drawback or a benefit, depending on whether you want
to allow users to change the value.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.


.