Hiding Entries in an InputBox

Andrew is writing a macro, and he wants to give users the opportunity to enter their password prior to permitting them to use certain functions provided by the macro. He is using the InputBox function, and wonders if there is a way to "strike out" whatever someone enters, so the password is kept private as it is typed. (This is done in many programs, where whatever is typed is replaced on-screen with asterisks or some other character.)

There is no direct way to do this using the InputBox function; it doesn't include the needed functionality. There are folks who have done it using API calls and the like, but that gets rather involved and--in all likelihood--beyond the scope of ExcelTips. If you are interested in such an approach, however, you can find additional information at this Web site:

http://www.xcelfiles.com/API_09.html

An easier approach, however, is to create your own UserForm in VBA. The form can contain a TextBox, and the control includes a property you can set to function as a masking character when someone enters a password. If you display the property window for the TextBox control, you'll see a property named PasswordChar. Set this to whatever character you want used for the masking. For instance, you could put a single asterisk in the property.

When it comes time to check whether the user entered the correct password, then all you need to do is check the value in the TextBox control; it will be "clear" (unmasked), while the on-screen version remains masked. In other words, if someone enters "MyPass" as their password, then that is the value associated with the control itself. However, what shows on the screen is six asterisks (or whatever masking character you specified), one for each letter typed.