Using Names instead of Shape Index Numbers

[paisiello]

I am having a hard time figuring out how to make this work so hopefully someone can assist me.

1) When I try the following code in my macro it works fine:

ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Select
Selection.Delete

But when I substitue a name like this:

ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape_Name").Select
Selection.Delete

I get "The item with the specified name doesn't exist" error message.

2) When I go to the name manager it shows that "Shape_Name" has the Value of "Freeform 1362" and Refers To "=Freeform 1362". When I click on the object it shows as "Freeform 1362" in the name window.

What am I missing? I am writing this as a VBA Module and want to refer to all shapes by the name I give them.

TIA

 

[shg]

Maybe ...

    Dim shp         As Shape

    On Error Resume Next
    Set shp = Worksheets("Directions").Shapes("Picture 1")
    If shp Is Nothing Then
        ' it doesn't exist
    End If

 

[paisiello]

Trying to delete a non-existing object gives a 400 error. What is the syntax for checking if Sheets("Directions").Shapes.Range(Array("Picture 1")) exists, before deleting it? I'm still new to IF statements.

___________________
[WIT] Remarks [/WIT]

There are two ways that I was able to find out. The first method checks the name directly and resumes the code if an error occurs:

On Error Resume Next
If Not IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape_Name").ID) Then ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape_Name").Delete


The second method loops through all the shapes and checks to see if any of them correspond to the specified name or if any portion of them correspond to the specified name:

Dim Shp As Shape
For Each Shp In ActiveSheet.Shapes
If Not InStr(Shp.Name, "Shape_Name") = 0 Then
Shp.Delete
End If
Next Shp

I can't get either of the two methods to work, however, when using a variable name for "Shape_Name". Even using [] doesn't help. Maybe shg has a suggestion here?

 

[Sandcastor]

On Error Resume Next
If Not IsEmpty(ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape_Name").ID) Then ActiveSheet.Shapes("Shape_Name").Delete

Using the "Picture 1" etc. names worked well for me, thanks. And I've since taken some of this and applied it to other conditionals (if a cell is blank on code execution, display messagebox and exit sub)

The problem with renaming shapes, is that you can name multiple pictures with the same name, and I can't find a unique identifier on the similarly named shapes...