Count remaining characters in form field

[GaryatBeowulfs]

Hi all,

I was wondering if it's possible to display the number of characters
remaining in a form field. I have a text field that is limited to 650
characters that a user can enter questions/ comments in. In another field I'd
like to keep a count of remaining characters because I wouldn't want the user
to manually keep track of 650 characters.

Is there a way to do this?

btw I'm using Word 2003 and while I have some programming experience, a
decent understanding of writing formulas in Excel and Access. I've never
tried doing this in Word before.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?R2FyeWF0QmVvd3VsZnM=?=,

I was wondering if it's possible to display the number of characters
remaining in a form field. I have a text field that is limited to 650
characters that a user can enter questions/ comments in. In another field I'd
like to keep a count of remaining characters because I wouldn't want the user
to manually keep track of 650 characters.

Is there a way to do this?

It could only be done with a macro, not with another field. There is no field
function that returns information about text length, or let's you extract (for
example) the first three characters from a field. Almost no provision for string
manipulation.

You'd need to use a macro, but I can't see any way for a macro to return this
information "dynamically", while the user is typing. The user would have to
click a button (or something) to update the information.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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