Derrick,

Yes, custom properties can be accessed by name. I don't know C#,
but the following works in VBA:

Debug.Print ThisWorkbook.CustomDocumentProperties("Test").Valu e


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com



"Derrick" wrote in message
...
Hello all;

I'm messing around with Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003,
particularly Excel.

Was wondering if the Worksheet.CustomProperties collection has
to be indexed by an integer, or can you use the name of the
property you are trying to access? Since I don't think I can
guarantee the order in which the properties are added, I don't
want to use integer indexing (though I could loop through and
check the property Name).

Specifically, this code snippet (which I fire from a CommandBar
button) always throws a Type Mismatch exception (hope you don't
mind C#). Note that the CustomProperty.Count is incrementing
as expected; it blows up on the 2nd line within the Try:

private void TestProperties(Excel.Worksheet activeSheet)
{
try
{
int i = activeSheet.CustomProperties.Count; //just
checking if a property was actually added

Excel.CustomProperty prop =
activeSheet.CustomProperties["Test"];

if((bool)prop.Value == true)
{
MessageBox.Show("Test property was true");
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Test property was false");
}
}
catch(System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException e)
//property doesn't exist, add it
{
activeSheet.CustomProperties.Add("Test", true);
//MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
}
}