The 5 minute limit can be a real PITA but it was introduced to stop spammers and it apparently works well for that. It goes away after you have posted 100 times.
The first improvement you should make to the code attached to Reply #2 is convert it to use arrays. That will probably reduce the size by 75% AND reduce the risk of silly typos.
A great way to broaden your knowledge is to read as many Forum Threads as you can. That way you will be exposed to good and bad ideas and almost certainly come across ideas that you had not thought of but which can be adopted and adapted for your own purposes.
...R