How to target a specific shape in excel sheet - excel

Question

Program: Excel 2016.
I have a sheet with a lot of shapes. Each of them has its own specific name and most of them are label. I want to change their caption property, but i can't find a way but calling them one by one like this:
LblLabel_1.Caption = ...
LblLabel_2.Caption = ...
LblLabel_3.Caption = ...
Instead i was looking for something like this:
For BytCounter01 = 1 to 255
Shapes("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01).Caption = ...
Next
This one will result in error 438, basically saying Caption is not avaiable for this object. It still target the object, since this code:
Debug.print Shapes("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01).Name
will return me its name.
Looking for a solution:
-i've tried Controls("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01) instead of Shapes("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01) but it won't work since Controls is only for userforms, not for sheets;
-i've tried Shapes("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01).TextFrame.Characters.Text but it returns error 438 again;
-since the label is a part of a group, i've tried both
Shapes("ShpGroupOfShapes01").GroupItems(ShpShapeIndex).Caption
and
Shapes("ShpGroupOfShapes01").GroupItems(ShpShapeIndex).TextFrame.Characters.Text
but got 438 again.
Is there really no way to easily target a specific label on a sheet and change his caption?
Thank you.
EDIT: thanks to Excelosaurus, the problem is solved. Since my labels are ActiveX Controls i have to use something like this:
For BytCounter01 = 1 to 255
Shapes("LblLabel_" & BytCounter01)OLEFormat.Object.Object.Capti‌​on = ...
Next
You can check his response and comments for more details. Thanks again Excelosaurus!

Answer 1

To change the textual content of a shape, use .TextFrame2.TextRange.Text as shown below:
shtShapes.Shapes(sShapeName).TextFrame2.TextRange.Text = sShapeCaption
where shtShapes is the name of your worksheet's object as seen from the Visual Basic Editor in the Project Explorer,
sShapeName is a string variable containing the name of the target shape, and
sShapeCaptionis a string variable containing the desired caption.
A code example follows. I've thrown in a function to check for a shape's existence on a worksheet, by name.
Option Explicit
Public Sub SetLabelCaptions()
Dim bCounter As Byte
Dim sShapeName As String
Dim sShapeCaption As String
For bCounter = 1 To 255
sShapeName = "LblLabel_" & CStr(bCounter)
If ShapeExists(shtMyShapes, sShapeName) Then
sShapeCaption = "Hello World " & CStr(bCounter)
shtMyShapes.Shapes(sShapeName).TextFrame2.TextRange.Text = sShapeCaption
Else
Exit For
End If
Next
End Sub
Public Function ShapeExists(ByVal pshtHost As Excel.Worksheet, ByVal psShapeName As String) As Boolean
Dim boolResult As Boolean
Dim shpTest As Excel.Shape
On Error Resume Next
Set shpTest = pshtHost.Shapes(psShapeName)
boolResult = (Not shpTest Is Nothing)
Set shpTest = Nothing
ShapeExists = boolResult
End Function
The result should look like this:

Answer 2

You can't assign a Caption to a Shape. (Shapes don't have Captions). One approach is to loop over the Shapes and build a little table to tell you what to loop over next:
Sub WhatDoIHave()
Dim kolumn As String, s As Shape
Dim i As Long, r As Range
kolumn = "Z"
i = 1
For Each s In ActiveSheet.Shapes
Set r = Cells(i, kolumn)
r.Value = i
r.Offset(, 1).Value = s.Name
r.Offset(, 2).Value = s.Type
r.Offset(, 3).Value = s.TopLeftCell.Address(0, 0)
i = i + 1
Next s
End Sub
Which for my sample produced:
Seeing that I have both Forms and ActiveX (OLE) Controls, I know what to loop over next. I then refer to the Control by number and assign a Caption if appropriate.