Visio VBA Block Interval formatting

[rg20]

Ok all,  I have gotten a lot of good advice in solving problems from this site, but I have one that has not been addressed much on the web.

Currently I am getting information from excel and generating a line timeline.  From the rest of the fields in the excel file, I am getting data to populate the Block Intervals.
But depending on where they are on the page, I need to change their color programatically.

Currently I can use - Interval.fillstyle = "Timeline Divided" and ti will change the background color of the shape.  But the current fillstyles don't have the color I need and would like to change the background color programatically.  I have tried interval.cellsSRC(visSecetionObject,visRowFill,visFillForegnd).formulaU = "RGB(100,100,100)" and substituted visfillbkgnd for visfillforegnd, no luck.
******* I just figured out the background coloring you need use interval.shapes(2).cellsSRC(visSectionObject, visRowFill, visFillBkgnd).FormulaU = "RGB(100,100,100)"  for the bkgnd and foregnd ********

I know that there are several shapes embeded in the block interval, and would like to remove the dates as they are on the timeline.

So first, How can I change the background? (SOLVED  See above)
Second How can I remove the protection to delete the dates from the blocks?
Many thanks in advance

[Paul Herber]

Ensure you have the drawing explorer window open, then select the block interval shape with in the page, within that shape you will see a list of all the sub-shapes, select each one in turn until you find the part that gets the date text highlighted, right-click and select Show Shapesheet, scroll down to the Miscellaneous section and set HideText to true.