Selecting only some characters, using "characters property"
 

For years I have used a macro that has worked fine. I recently tried to use
one of its functions and it fails. The code used is,

TaxNumber = .EditBoxes(6).Characters(1, 3).Text

The contents of the edit box is "522L" but now, tax number returns the whole
content of "522L" and not just the required "522".

Is it my coding or has Excel 2003 been changed?