XL97: How to Use the GetOpenFilename Method

This article provide instructions and examples on using the GetOpenFilename method in a Visual Basic for Applications macro.

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For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms) The GetOpenFilename method in Visual Basic for Applications allows you to display the Open dialog in Microsoft Excel and get a file name from a user without actually opening any files. Normally the file name is returned to a variable and used later in the macro. This method has five arguments, all of which are optional: Providing no arguments to the function allows the Open dialog to be displayed using the All Files (*.*) file filter and uses the default dialog box title. Here is an overview of each of the five arguments:

FileFilter

This argument has two parts. The first part is the text that will appear in the List Files of Type dropdown box of the Open dialog. The second part of the argument determines what files are actually shown. The following example will show all text files in the current directory:



You may also use multiple wildcard expressions to filter on two separate wildcard expressions. This example filters on all files ending in TXT and BAS: ("Visual Basic Files (*.txt; *.bas), *.txt, *.bas")

When using the FileFilter argument, the value you specify is the only one that appears on the List Files of Type: dropdown box. You can list other items in the dropdown list as well. This example lists two types of files in the dropdown box with the first one being the default selection: ("Text Files (*.txt), *.txt, Add-in Files (*.xla), *.xla")

FilterIndex

This optional argument specifies which file filter to use by default. If no filter index is specified, or the filter index is greater than the number of filters specified, the first filter is used. This example uses two file filters but selects the second one (*.xla file) by default: ("Text Files (*.txt), *.txt, Add-in Files (*.xla), *.xla", 2)

Title

The title specifies the text that will appear at the top of the displayed dialog box. The text Open My Files will appear on the dialog using this example: ("Text Files (*.txt), *.txt", 1, "Open My Files")

ButtonText

This argument is used only on Macintosh computers and may be ignored, although you must still allocate space for it in your arguments. This argument specifies whether the user may select more than one file from the open box. It can be set to True or False. If True, the variable must be defined as a variant data type, as the return value will always be an array, even if only one file is selected. This example will incorporate all of the arguments above and loop through all selected files and open them: One problem you may encounter is that the macro produces a Type mismatch error if the user clicks the cancel button from the dialog box. The value of the variable will be set to False. Standard error-trapping techniques can be used to trap this problem: For more information on using the GetOpenFilename method, query on the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: