in the textboxes Change event, check to see the length of the text. When I want to do this, I generally assign a label (lbl_CharRemaining) to the textbox and use code that looks something like:
Private Sub txt_TextBoxName_Change
Static strPrevious as String
if Len(me.txt_TextBoxName.text & "") > 50000 Then
me.txt_TextBoxName.text = strPrevious
Else
strPrevious = me.txt_TextboxName.text
End if
me.lblCharRemaining = 50000 - Len(me.txt_TextBoxName.text & "")
End Sub