have 1 dimensional array, trying to create a 2 dimensional array, runtime 9

It is not clear what you are trying to do, and there may be a better overall solution. For starters, you never assign values to any element of z, yet you are printing it out. So you are always going to print 0.

Note that LBound(t) will be 0, due to what Split returns. So the first value of w in your loop will be 0. If you are using "Option Base 1" at the top of the module, then the first dimension of z will be 1 To UBound(t) and you will get a subscript error.

I recommend you make your lower bounds explicit and try this:

ReDim z(0 To UBound(t), 1 To count)

but I can't say with 100% certainty because I don't know what this code is supposed to do.

(Also I highly recommend using variable names that are meaningful, rather than single letters.)

so ya, i did have option base 1 for my test code, but i removed that and the test procedure works great. but when i implement it in my actual code,it fails on: z(w,y)=t(w)

here is the real code.

Sub showuserform1()

Dim t() As String
Dim x, y
Dim z() As String

Set btn_nm = New Scripting.Dictionary
Set lbl_tx = New Scripting.Dictionary
Set code = New Scripting.Dictionary

repeatx:
x = UCase(InputBox("(H)orizontal or (V)ertical?", "Orientation", "H"))
If x = "H" Then
    orientation = "Horizontal"
ElseIf x = "V" Then
    orientation = "Vertical"
Else
    MsgBox ("Input either 'H' or 'V'")
    GoTo repeatx
End If
repeatcount:
count = InputBox("How many buttons do you want? ", "Button Count", "1")
If count < 1 Then
    MsgBox ("Input Quantity of Buttons, enter at least 1")
    GoTo repeatcount:
End If

For y = 1 To count
    btn_nm(y) = InputBox("What do you want CommandButton" & y + 1 & " to say?", "CommandButton name", "CommandButton" & y)
    lbl_tx(y) = InputBox("What do you want Label" & y + 1 & " to say?", "Label text", "Label" & y)
    btn_Gen_uf2.Label1.Caption = "Enter Code in Window - max 8k characters"
    btn_Gen_uf2.TextBox1.Value = ""
reshow:
    btn_Gen_uf2.TextBox1.SetFocus
    btn_Gen_uf2.Show
    If btn_Gen_uf2.TextBox1.Value = "" Then
        MsgBox "Enter Code in Window before selecting OK"
        GoTo reshow:
    End If
    t = Split(btn_Gen_uf2.TextBox1.Text, vbCrLf)
    ReDim z(LBound(t), count)
    For w = LBound(t) To UBound(t)
        MsgBox t(w)
        Debug.Print "z(" & w & "," & y & ") = " & t(w)
        z(w, y) = t(w)
    Next w
    Exit Sub
    For s = 1 To count
        For r = 0 To UBound(t)
            Debug.Print z(r, s)
        Next r
    Next s
Next

so what should happen is that when the code window opens up (btn_Gen_uf2.show), it parses the text in the textbox and should populate each line into z(w,y). but when i check the local window this time, it shows z(0,0),z(0,1) & z(0,2) and only z(0,1) shows one of the text lines, but the other two are "". i know that sometimes single letters can be confusing so i will try to implement that in the future.

nevermind, your redim code worked for me. sorry that i glossed over it. thanks