The thing that's surprising here, is that you can't do that with VBA user code. At least the type ambiguities and ignored-by-compiler statements are all gone :) and explains how the late-bound code off ActiveSheet would work at run-time to resolve the member call, and now the compiler needs a completely other strategy to compile the VBA code: maybe that could shake things up enough to get it to work, maybe it won't. If the entire With block is early-bound, everything makes much more sense: With If we want to invoke the members of Rectangle, we can - and since we're now showing hidden members in the object browser, intellisense displays the hidden types and members too. but then Shape.ShapeRange doesn't look quite right, since the Shape class doesn't define that member and that's the interface we explicitly said we were going to be working with. And since that works, it means a Rectangle 'is a' Shape: the two interfaces simply describe the same object through different lens, so either works. So your code says 'let's use the Shape interface', but works with a Rectangle object. So we press F2, then right-click somewhere and tick the 'Show hidden members' option - and sure enough, there it is: the VBE doesn't seem to figure it out ('identifier under cursor is not recognized'). Dim myRectangle As Excel.Rectangle '<~ here If you press Shift+F2 on the word Rectangle. If you break execution (F9 to set a breakpoint) after the MyShape.Select call, and then bring up the immediate pane (Ctrl+G), the answer appears: ?typename(selection) where does MyShape.ShapeRange come from then?

What happens next is interesting: you declared MyShape as a Shape, but it's not a Shape you're looking at - the Shape class doesn't have a ShapeRange property, so. You even get parameter tooltips as you type up the argument list! Now sheet.Shapes gets intellisense and compile-time validation, along with subsequent the. Let's fix that first: Dim sheet As Worksheet The entire expression is evaluated at run-time. The problem is that ActiveSheet is an Object, wich means the compiler is helpless: ActiveSheet.Shapes compiles, but so will ActiveSheet.Shapess - even with Option Explicit specified.

I like that you're explicitly referring to ActiveSheet, kudos!

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