Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Determining an ANSI Value.

Determining an ANSI Value

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 26, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

When writing macros, you can use the Asc function to determine the ANSI value of the first letter of a string. In early versions of BASIC, Asc returned the ASCII value, but Word uses only ANSI values. The function uses the following format:

x = Asc(sMyString)

where x is the variable that the ANSI value should be assigned to, and sMyString is the string to be analyzed.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (737) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Determining an ANSI Value.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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