Dunc,
To break a string into substrings of 255 characters you can use the
following formula (assuming your breakdown starts at column E and to
the right, hence first formula in E2, data in A2):

=MID($A2,255*(COLUMNS($E2:E2)-1)+1,255)

Regarding the mouse thing that you are asking, it can be done, but
right now I am not very proficient with the libraries that would be
needed for producing a floating textbox with the
Worksheet_SelectionChange event macro. If you really need this and you
don't get any replies here I suggest you look at .programming.

HTH
Kostis Vezerides

Dunc wrote:
I have an Excel data base that I want to use to create a Publisher
document.... kind of like a catalog

Publisher will only allow the import of 255 characters into a merge field.
This means that I will have to break up text in my Excel database into
chunks of 255 and create multiple merge fields in Publisher (Like
Comments1, Comments2 etc.)

What I am looking for is a way to have my mouse highlight and count the
number of characters as it is highlighting the text.

Is there a way to accomplish this??

Thanks!

Dunc