You receive a “Run-time error '4609': "String too long" error message when you assign a value to a FormField object in Word

Symptoms

When you try to assign the value of a variable containing more than 255 characters to a FormField object, you receive the following error message:

Cause

The following example macro causes the error that is mentioned in the Symptoms section:

   Sub StringTooLongError()
      Dim sMyVar As String
      sMyVar = String(256, "x")
      ActiveDocument.FormFields(1).Result = sMyVar
   End Sub

Workaround

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The following example Visual Basic for Applications code sets text that is greater than 255 characters in length to the form field named Text1:

   Sub WorkAround255Limit()
      ' Set Text1 form field to a unique string.
      ActiveDocument.FormFields("text1").Result = "****"
      If ActiveDocument.ProtectionType <> wdNoProtection Then
          ActiveDocument.Unprotect
      End If
      Selection.GoTo What:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Text1"
      Selection.Collapse
      Selection.MoveRight wdCharacter, 1
      Selection.TypeText (String(256, "W"))
      Selection.GoTo what:=wdGoToBookmark, Name:="Text1"
      ' Remove unique characters from Text1 form field.
      With Selection.Find
         .Execute findtext:="*", replacewith:="", replace:=wdReplaceAll
      End With
      ActiveDocument.Protect Password:="", NoReset:=True, Type:= _
         wdAllowOnlyFormFields
   End Sub

References

For additional informationabout how to obtain help with Visual Basic, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

305326 OFFXP: Programming resources for Visual Basic for Applications

226118 OFF2000: Programming resources for Visual Basic for Applications