I believe, although I have not found it documented (yet), that the TEXT
property of the range function returns what is actually displayed in a
cell, INCLUDING the limitation of 1024 characters that can be
displayed. (I had not appreciated that 1024 limitation up until now).

This is good to know and be aware of. Thanks for noting it. As for it
being
documented, does a quote from Chip Pearson's website count? See the last
line here...

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/values.htm

Oh yes, I would accept that. I never thought to look there for this piece
of
information.

On the rest, I believe we are in violent agreement.

LOL ... Violent agreement... I like that phrasing.

It is exceedingly rare for me to not specify the property and rely on
the default. But, I did do it when trying to figure out why my routine
was not working on longer strings.
Probably, I should stop doing it even then.

When coding (either compiled VB or Excel VBA), I always specifically add the
default property reference, even in throwaway code (force of habit after all
these years I guess)... most of the time, Intellisense will help me out.

Rick