Forum Discussion

AndyPe's avatar
AndyPe
Copper Contributor
Jul 30, 2025

Progressbar in Excel (VBA)

Maybe I'm trying to do the impossible. Who knows ?

I've made a vba uerform to do several things (too long to explain) but what I would like to do is while the progressbar is running to have a small text appear from under the (now) dark blue progress.

So it runs from left to right, at a certain point I would like some text to appear letter by letter as the bar gets longer.

I tried right clicking on the progress bar and moved it to the back and moved the text to the front. Result is that text stays behing progress bar.

Hope this is clear, and hope to see if anyone comes up with a solution.

Thanks in advance, Andy

excel
Macros and VBA

3 Replies

Sort By
  • AndyPe's avatar
    AndyPe
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 31, 2025

    Thanks Nikolino but I'm using Office For home and students 2021.

    Maybe that is why I cannot find 'progresstext' or 'progresstext.caption' under the progress bar.

    Fyi I created this as a test to see if your suggestion works for me

    The form the progress bar shows is named PB, the progress bar is named PBAR

    Looking at your code I think I should use this for example:

    Sub StartProgress()
        Dim i As Integer
        Dim progress As Integer
        Dim fullText As String
        fullText = "Processing..."
        
        PB1.PBar.Width = 0       ' Initially empty
        PB1.PBar.Caption = ""   ' Initially empty text   STOPS HERE !!!!  <<<<<<

    etc,etc,

    Here you can see what is available for coding PBAR, 'progresstext' or 'progresstext.caption'

    Thanks again, does this help any ?

    Regards, Andy

    • NikolinoDE's avatar
      NikolinoDE
      Gold Contributor
      Aug 01, 2025

      Thanks for the screenshot — it confirms that you're using a standard ProgressBar control (likely from the Microsoft Windows Common Controls library), which doesn't support displaying text directly over or inside the bar.

      To achieve your animation effect, you need to use two separate controls:

      ProgressBar (PBar) – for the visual progress

      Label (ProgressText) – placed above the ProgressBar, to show the text

      Add a Label to your form.

      • Name it ProgressText
      • Make its BackStyle = Transparent (or 0 - fmBackStyleTransparent)
      • Place it over your PBar control in the UserForm

      Update your code to use this ProgressText Label:

      Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
    ' Reset ProgressBar and Label
    Me.PBar.Width = 0
    Me.ProgressText.Caption = ""
End Sub

Sub StartProgress()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim progress As Integer
    Dim fullText As String
    fullText = "Processing..."
    
    For i = 1 To 100
        ' Simulate progress bar width growth
        progress = i * 1.5 ' Adjust as needed
        Me.PBar.Width = progress
        
        ' Show text letter by letter
        If i <= Len(fullText) Then
            Me.ProgressText.Caption = Mid(fullText, 1, i)
        End If

        ' Make sure label stays in front
        Me.ProgressText.ZOrder 0 ' 0 = bring to front

        DoEvents
        Application.Wait Now + TimeValue("00:00:00.03")
    Next i
End Sub

      The .Caption property is only available on controls like Label, CommandButton, etc. Not ProgressBar.

      If your Label disappears behind the progress bar, it might be because ProgressBar is a system control that renders on top of everything. If that's the case:

      • Use a frame and custom drawing instead of the standard progress bar.
      • Or, simulate the progress bar with a shape (another label or image box).

       

      Hope this helps you :-)

  • NikolinoDE's avatar
    NikolinoDE
    Gold Contributor
    Jul 31, 2025

     

    Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
    ' Initial Setup for the Progress Bar and Text
    Me.ProgressBar.Width = 0 ' Initially empty
    Me.ProgressText.Caption = "" ' Initially empty text
End Sub

Sub StartProgress()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim progress As Integer
    Dim fullText As String
    fullText = "Processing..."
    
    ' Start Progress Loop
    For i = 1 To 100
        ' Update Progress Bar width
        progress = i * 2 ' Adjust multiplier to fit your form size
        Me.ProgressBar.Width = progress
        
        ' Reveal text letter by letter
        If i <= Len(fullText) Then
            Me.ProgressText.Caption = Mid(fullText, 1, i)
        End If
        
        ' Bring the text to the front each time it updates (ensures text stays visible)
        Me.ProgressText.ZOrder msoSendToFront
        
        ' Small Delay for Animation Effect
        DoEvents
        Application.Wait Now + TimeValue("00:00:00.05") ' Adjust speed of progress
    Next i
End Sub

    In theory, this should solve your problem of displaying the text letter by letter while animating the progress bar. The key is to ensure the text control is always on top using .ZOrder, and that both the progress bar and the text are dynamically updated within the loop. Otherwise, insert a file into the theme.

     

    Hope this helps.

Resources