Use TextBox form control to work around 255-character limit in Word 97

Creating the user form

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
2. In the Visual Basic project window, click Normal.
   
   The form will be available to all documents.
3. On the Insert menu, click UserForm.
4. Click the TextBox control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form.
   
   The text box 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.
5. Click the CommandButton control on the Toolbox toolbar and then click the form.
   
   The command button 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.
6. Select the first command button control and then click Code on the View menu.
7. In the Code window, type Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text, so that your code looks like this:

          Private Sub CommandButton1_Click ()
             Selection.TypeText TextBox1.Text
             'When you click this button on the form, the contents of the text
             'box is inserted into the active document at the location of the
             'insertion point.
          End sub
   						

8. On the View menu, click Object to return to the form.
9. Select the second command button control and then click Code on the View menu.
10. In the Code window, type End, so that your code looks like this:

           Private Sub CommandButton2_Click ()
              End
              'When you click this button after you click the first command
              'button, the form is closed. If you click this button instead of
              'the first command button, the form is canceled.
           End sub
    						

11. On the File menu, click Save Normal.

Displaying the form

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
2. In the Macro Name box, type FillInForm and then click Create.
3. In the Code window, type UserForm1.Show, so that your code looks like this:

         Sub FillInForm()
            UserForm1.Show
         End Sub
   						

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

1. Double-click the form.
2. From the Object drop-down list, select UserForm.
3. From the Procedure drop-down list, select Initialize.
4. In the Code window, type the following code

         Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
            TextBox1.Text = "<default text>"
         End Sub
   						

   where <default text> is the text you want to appear in the text box when the form appears.