Word crashes on removing a Shape with VBA from a header - vba

Question

(disclaimer: i'm not a VBA programmer by occupation)
Attached to buttons in the Ribbon I have code to toggle the company logo in a Word Document.
One button for the logo type A, a second button for logo type B and a third for no logo (logo is preprintend on paper)
First I remove the logo with removeLogo and then i add it the requested logo with setLogoAt.
The first button click is fine (e.g. for Logo Type A), a logo is added to the header of the document. When i click an other button (e.g for Logo Type B) Word crashes (probably on removing the current logo)
What is wrong with my code (or less probably: with Word?)
Sub setLogoAt(left As Integer, path As String)
Dim logoShape As Shape
Dim anchorLocation As Range
Dim headerShapes As Shapes
Set logoShape = ActiveDocument. 'linebreks for readability
.Sections(1)
.Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary)
.Shapes
.AddPicture(FileName:=path, LinkToFile:=False,
SaveWithDocument:=True, left:=0,
Top:=0, Width:=100, Height:=80)
logoShape.name = "CompanyLogo"
logoShape.RelativeHorizontalPosition = wdRelativeHorizontalPositionPage
logoShape.RelativeVerticalPosition = wdRelativeVerticalPositionPage
logoShape.Top = CentimetersToPoints(0.1)
logoShape.left = CentimetersToPoints(left)
End Sub
Sub removeLogo()
Dim headerShapes As Shapes
Set headerShapes = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes
Dim shapeToDelete As Shape
If (headerShapes.Count > 0) Then
If Not IsNull(headerShapes("CompanyLogo")) Then
Set shapeToDelete = headerShapes("CompanyLogo")
End If
End If
If Not (shapeToDelete Is Nothing) Then
shapeToDelete.Delete
End If
End Sub
edit
I steped trough my code. All is fine until I reach the line shapteToDelete.Delete in removeLogo. Here Word crashes hard, even while debugging. I'm using Word 2007 (and that is a requirement)
edit2
I cleared all macros, all normals.dot, all autoloading templates, then created a new document with the two routines above and this test method:
Sub test()
setLogoAt 5, "C:\path\to\logo.jpg"
removeLogo
setLogoAt 6, "C:\path\to\logo.jpg"
End Sub
When I run test it crashes in removeLogo at shapeToDelete.Delete.
Edit 3
I 'solved' the problem by first making the headers/footers view the active view in Word, then deleting the Shape and then returning to normal view. Very strange. It works but as a programmer I'm not happy.

Answer 1

Another potential solution is to try and select the shape first and then delete the selection:
shapeToDelete.Select
Selection.Delete
You would probably want to switch off screen updating if this works, else you'll get flickering as Word moves around the document.

Answer 2

I've experienced this problem before and normally with an automation error: "The object invoked has disconnected from its clients". I haven't yet found a solution.
However a good workaround is to hide the shape rather than delete it.
So:
shapeToDelete.Visible = False

Answer 3

This works:
I only have 2 boxes to hide so this isn't generic
Private Sub btnPrint_Click()
Dim hdrShapes As Shapes
Dim S As Shape
Dim aTohide(2) As String
Dim iNdx, i As Integer
iNdx = 0
' Hide buttons and print
Set hdrShapes = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Shapes
' GET BUTTON NAMES (ACTUALLY TEXT BOXES
For Each S In hdrShapes
If S.Type = msoTextBox Then
aTohide(iNdx) = S.Name
iNdx = iNdx + 1
End If
Next
' now hide , use the arrays as the for each statement crashes
For i = 0 To 1
hdrShapes(aTohide(i)).Visible = msoFalse
Next
' print it
With ActiveDocument
.PrintOut
End With
' and unhide the buttons
For i = 0 To 1
hdrShapes(aTohide(i)).Visible = msoTrue
Next
Set hdrShapes = Nothing
End Sub