Word Document Properties

Chapter 9: Working with Arrays and Collections
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You have to use a little-known and somewhat undocumented method of
adding a default property to the example. When you look at the
Persons.cls
file in the source code, you see that the code actually looks
like the code in Listing 9-8:
Listing 9-8
Creating a Default Property Declaration
Public Property Get Item(Index As Variant) As Person
‘ Tell VBA this is the default property.
Attribute Item.VB_UserMemId = 0
‘ Return the requested item.
Set Item = PersonCollection.Item(Index)
End Property
However, the first line of code doesn’t appear in the IDE. VBA forces you to
use a simple but odd procedure to add this line of code. Simply use the fol-
lowing procedure to add this line of code:
1. Right-click the 
Persons
entry in the Project Explorer window, and
then choose Export File from the context menu that appears.
You see the Export File dialog box.
2. Click Save to save the file as 
Persons.cls
.
VBA exports the file.
3. Open the file in any text editor, such as Notepad.
Never use Word for this task because it can add control characters.
4. Type 
Attribute Item.VB_UserMemId = 0
as the first entry for the
Item
property.
5. Save the 
Persons.cls
file and then exit the editor.
Figure 9-3:
Create a
default
Item
property or
method 
to ensure
that your
collection
works
properly.
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Part III: Expanding Your VBA Horizons 
15_046500 ch09.qxp 12/5/06 5:36 PM Page 226

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