In response to the post:
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:54:42 -0400, "Greg Maxey"
<gmaxey@mvps.OscarRomeoGolf> stated...and I replied:

Hahaha, yes Greg, the .text does add a bit of bulk to a line of code.
Here's a bit of standards for you regarding the use of the .text
property.

First, most (maybe all) controls that use .text or .value have those
properties set as the "default" property.  What this means is, if you
reference the control without including a property name (such as
.text) you'll be given the .text property.

So, here's how that is used by standard...when setting a value into a
control with a default property, you do not need to include the .text
property name (i.e.  Me.txtBox = "My value").  When getting the value
from a control (i.e.  txtValue = Me.txtBox.Text) use the property
name...always, regardless of the existance of a default property.

With this in mind, your code above can be shrunk some by removing the
".text" from those 3 "If InStr" segments.

From this:
Me.TextBox1.Text = Left(Me.TextBox1.Text, Len(Me.TextBox1.Text) - 1)
to this:
Me.TextBox1 = Left(Me.TextBox1.Text, Len(Me.TextBox1.Text) - 1)

Hope this helps, even if only a little,
Shell

Hi Greg,

The biggest gain in both space and speed comes from using the With ...
End With construction to minimize the use of "dots" (membership
operators). In this case, put 'With Me.Textbox1' at the beginning of
the routine and 'End With' at the end, and remove all occurrences of
Me.Textbox1 in between. Not only does it shorten the code, but the
interpreter doesn't have to "dereference" the object over and over so
it runs faster.

You can also use the Like operator to do pattern matching on the
strings instead of If Instr(). I'm not sure about the comparative
speeds, but the patterns are shorter and less confusing than lists of
characters.

Also, you have a bit of a logic problem when you test for invalid
characters. The valid characters are just upper/lower case letters,
numbers, and underscores. Your list of invalid characters is massively
incomplete -- for example, ¶ isn't valid but it isn't in your list.
It's better to use the Like operator with the ! qualifier that says
"if testChar is *not* like this list of *valid* characters..."

Finally, let me whack you upside the head for not declaring your
variable. <g>

So here's my version:

Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
Dim testChar As String

With Me.TextBox1
   testChar = Right(.Text, 1)
   If Len(.Text) = 1 Then
     If (testChar Like "[ 0-9_]") Then
       .Text = ""
       MsgBox "Bookmark name must begin with a letter.", _
           vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Invalid Character"
     End If
   End If
   On Error Resume Next
   If (" " = testChar) Then
     .Text = Left(.Text, Len(.Text) - 1) & "_"
     testChar = "_"
   End If
   On Error GoTo 0
   On Error Resume Next
   If (testChar Like "[!A-Za-z0-9_]") Then
     .Text = Left(.Text, Len(.Text) - 1)
   End If
   On Error GoTo 0
   If Len(.Text) > 40 Then
     MsgBox "Bookmark name is limited to 40 characters.", _
             vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Limit"
     .Text = Left(.Text, 40)
   End If
End With
End Sub

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP        FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

Greg Maxey was telling us:
Greg Maxey nous racontait que :

I guess it boils down to personal taste, but I prefer to code against a
finite list of what I want as opposed to coding against an infinite list of
what I do not want. I mean, in this case, all I want is "_", letters or
numbers, that's it. Anything else I do not want. I think this solves the On
Error Resume Next problem, no?

Also, in your code, as soon as you change the content of the textbox, the
Change event is recursively called. Since you are making the change, you
know the change is good, so you do not have to let the code run twice to
test this new change. Also, you can run into problems. For example, in your
code, the block:
   If InStr(Chr$(32), testChar) > 0 Then
changes " " for "_", but since there is a change if the user types a " ", it
called the Change event again, and somehow, this second run removed the "_"
(because of
   If InStr(Chr$(44) & " `~!@#$%^&*()-+={}[]|?/><:;""", testChar) > 0 Then
I think). I could not get the code to replace the " " with a "_" until I
removed the second Change even pass. and exited the Sub (The other If blocks
are not needed if a pattern is found).

Finally, I prefer starting the code with a "With" block to avoid typing
"Me.TextBox1" over and over.

So, with these in mind, my version is as follows:

'_______________________________________
Option Explicit

Public SkipChangeBool As Boolean

'_______________________________________
Private Sub TextBox1_Change()

If SkipChangeBool Then Exit Sub
CheckData

End Sub
'_______________________________________

'_______________________________________
Private Sub CheckData()

Dim TestChar As String

With Me.TextBox1
   TestChar = Right(.Text, 1)
   If TestChar = "" Then Exit Sub 'In case user backspaces back to the
beginning
   If Len(.Text) = 1 Then
     If Not .Text Like "[A-z]" Then 'And Not .Text Like "_" Then
       SkipChangeBool = True
       .Text = Left(.Text, Len(.Text) - 1)
       SkipChangeBool = False
       MsgBox "Bookmark name must begin with a" _
          & " letter.", vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Invalid Character"
       Exit Sub
     End If
   End If
   If TestChar Like " " Then
       SkipChangeBool = True
       .Text = Left(.Text, Len(.Text) - 1) & "_"
       SkipChangeBool = False
       Exit Sub
   End If
   If Not TestChar Like "[A-z]" And Not TestChar Like "_" _
       And Not TestChar Like "[0-9]" Then
       SkipChangeBool = True
       .Text = Left(.Text, Len(.Text) - 1)
       SkipChangeBool = False
       Exit Sub
   End If
   If Len(.Text) > 40 Then
       SkipChangeBool = True
       MsgBox "Bookmark name is limited to 40 characters.", _
           vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Limit"
       .Text = Left(.Text, 40)
       SkipChangeBool = False
       Exit Sub
   End If
End With

End Sub
'_______________________________________

Longish, but easy to manage, no?

Hi Greg,

1. Reading and writing the Me.TextBox1.Text property is relatively slow.
Manipulating external objects usually is. I would suggest you load the value
into a string variable, do all the manipulation you want on the variable,
and write it back to the textbox at the end.

2. It is quicker and easier to use a literal for a quote mark rather than
Chr$(32). putting a pair of double quotes in a string literal places a
double quote character in the string. You can do the same for Chr(95) and
Chr(44). if you can't find them, then you can print the character into the
immediate window and copy & paste it to the relevant place in the code.

Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
Dim strIn as String
Dim testChar as String

strIn = Me.TextBox1.Text
testChar = Right(strIn, 1)
If Len(strIn) = 1 Then
 If InStr(" 0123456789", testChar) > 0 Then
   strIn = Left(strIn, Len(strIn) - 1)
   MsgBox "Bookmark name must begin with a" _
      & " letter.", vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Invalid Character"
 End If
End If
On Error Resume Next
If InStr("""", testChar) > 0 Then
 strIn = Left(strIn, Len(strIn) - 1) & "_"
End If
On Error GoTo 0
On Error Resume Next
If InStr(", `~!@#$%^&*()-+={}[]|?/><:;""", testChar) > 0 Then
 strIn = Left(strIn, Len(strIn) - 1)
End If
On Error GoTo 0
If Len(strIn) > 40 Then
 MsgBox "Bookmark name is limited to 40 characters.", _
         vbInformation & vbOKOnly, "Limit"
 strIn = Left(strIn, 40)
End If
Me.TextBox1.Text = strIn
End Sub

Can I suggest a completely different approach?

I don't know about the performance of this compared to yours but it ought to
be totally reliable even if the rules change (like, say, a new release
allowing longer names). Rather than trying to make sure you use the same
rules as Word, let Word do the validation for you - try and create a
bookmark using the contents of the textbox.

There are a couple of points to watch out for:

   - The bookmark might already exist - but if it does it's a valid name

   - Word truncates supplied names to 40 characters before doing anything
else

There is also a problem with your original logic (which I have tried to
address in the code below) in that a change is not necessarily a single
character change. I have also included Jean-Guy's suggestion and added a
reset of the global switch which would otherwise remain True once set.

I've probably made some silly mistake somewhere

Option Explicit

Dim TextboxOldText As String
Dim TextboxReset As Boolean

Private Sub TextBox1_Change()

Dim TextboxNewText As String

If TextboxReset = True Then
   TextboxReset = False
   Exit Sub
End If

TextboxNewText = Me.TextBox1.Text

If ValidBookmark(Me.TextBox1.Text) Then
   TextboxOldText = TextboxNewText
Else
   'MsgBox "Invalid Input"
   TextboxReset = True
   Me.TextBox1.Text = TextboxOldText
End If

End Sub

Private Function ValidBookmark(TestName As String) As Boolean

Dim Temp As Variant

If Not ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Exists(TestName) Then
   ValidBookmark = True
Else
   On Error Resume Next
   Temp = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add(TestName)
   Select Case True
       Case IsEmpty(Temp)
           ValidBookmark = False
       Case Temp <> TestName
           ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(TestName).Delete
           ValidBookmark = False
       Case Else
           ActiveDocument.Bookmarks(TestName).Delete
           ValidBookmark = True
   End Select
End If

End Function

--
Enjoy,
Tony