Как в вба открыть книгу excel

Открытие книги Excel из кода VBA. Проверка существования книги. Создание новой книги, обращение к открытой книге и ее закрытие. Методы Open, Add и Close.

Открытие существующей книги

Существующая книга открывается из кода VBA Excel с помощью метода Open:

Workbooks.Open Filename:=«D:test1.xls»

или

Workbooks.Open («D:test1.xls»)

В кавычках указывается полный путь к открываемому файлу Excel. Если такой файл не существует, произойдет ошибка.

Проверка существования файла

Проверить существование файла можно с помощью функции Dir. Проверка существования книги Excel:

If Dir(«D:test1.xls») = «» Then     MsgBox «Файл не существует» Else     MsgBox «Файл существует» End If

Или, если файл (книга Excel) существует, можно сразу его открыть:

If Dir(«D:test1.xls») = «» Then     MsgBox «Файл не существует» Else     Workbooks.Open Filename:=«D:test1.xls» End If

Создание новой книги

Новая рабочая книга Excel создается в VBA с помощью метода Add:

Созданную книгу, если она не будет использоваться как временная, лучше сразу сохранить:

Workbooks.Add ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=«D:test2.xls»

В кавычках указывается полный путь сохраняемого файла Excel, включая присваиваемое имя, в примере — это «test2.xls».

Обращение к открытой книге

Обращение к активной книге:

Обращение к книге с выполняемым кодом:

Обращение к книге по имени:

Workbooks(«test1.xls») Workbooks(«test2.xls»)

Обратиться по имени можно только к уже открытой книге, а чтобы из кода VBA Excel книгу открыть, необходимо указать полный путь к файлу.

Открытая рабочая книга закрывается из кода VBA Excel с помощью метода Close:

Workbooks(«test1.xlsx»).Close

Если закрываемая книга редактировалась, а внесенные изменения не были сохранены, тогда при ее закрытии Excel отобразит диалоговое окно с вопросом: Вы хотите сохранить изменения в файле test1.xlsx? Чтобы файл был закрыт без сохранения изменений и вывода диалогового окна, можно воспользоваться параметром метода Close — SaveChanges:

Workbooks(«test1.xlsx»).Close  SaveChanges:=False

или

Workbooks(«test1.xlsx»).Close  (False)

Закрыть книгу Excel из кода VBA с сохранением внесенных изменений можно также с помощью параметра SaveChanges:

Workbooks(«test1.xlsx»).Close  SaveChanges:=True

или

Workbooks(«test1.xlsx»).Close (True)

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Фразы для контекстного поиска: открыть книгу, открытие книги, создать книгу, создание книги, закрыть книгу, закрытие книги, открыть файл Excel, открытие файла Excel, существование книги, обратиться к открытой книге.

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to use VBA to open and close Excel Workbooks and other types of Files in several ways.

VBA allows you to open or close files using the standard methods .Open and .Close.

If you want to learn how to check if a file exists before attempting to open the file, you can click on this link: VBA File Exists

Open a Workbook in VBA

Open Workbook From Path

If you know which file you want to open, you can specify its full path name in the function. Here is the code:

Workbooks.Open "C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx"

This line of the code opens “Sample file 1” file from the “VBA Folder”.

Open Workbook – ActiveWorkbook

When you open a workbook, it automatically becomes the ActiveWorkbook.  You can reference the newly opened workbook like so:

ActiveWorkbook.Save

When you reference a sheet or range and omit the workbook name, VBA will assume you are referring to the ActiveWorkbook:

Sheets("Sheet1").Name = "Input"

Open Workbook and Assign to a Variable

You can also open a workbook and assign it directly to an object variable. This procedure will open a workbook to the wb variable and then save the workbook.

Sub OpenWorkbookToVariable()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Set wb = Workbooks.Open("C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx")

    wb.Save
End Sub

Assigning workbooks to variables when they open is the best way to keep track of your workbooks

Workbook Open File Dialog

You can also trigger the workbook Open File Dialog box. This allows the user to navigate to a file and open it:

Sub OpenWorkbook ()

    Dim strFile As String

    strFile = Application.GetOpenFilename()
    Workbooks.Open (strFile)

End Sub

As you can see in Image 1, with this approach users can choose which file to open. The Open File Dialog Box can be heavily customized. You can default to a certain folder, choose which types of files are visible (ex. .xlsx only), and more. Read our tutorial on the Open File Dialog Box for detailed examples.

Open New Workbook

This line of code will open a new workbook:

Workbooks.Add

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Open New Workbook To Variable

This procedure will open a new workbook, assigning it to variable wb:

Sub OpenNewWorkbook()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Set wb = Workbooks.Add
End Sub

Open Workbook Syntax

When you use Workbooks.Open you might notice that there are many options available when opening the workbook:

The Filename is required. All other arguments are optional – and you probably won’t need to know most of the other arguments.  Here are the two most common:

Open Workbook Read-Only

When workbook is opened read-only, you can’t save over the original file. This prevents the file from being edited by the user.

Workbooks.Open "C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx", , True

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Open Password Protected Workbook

A workbook might be password-protected. Use this code to open the password-protected workbook:

Workbooks.Open "C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx", , , "password"

Open Workbook Syntax Notes

Notice that in the image above, we included a parenthesis “(” to show the syntax.  If you use parenthesis when working with Workbooks.Open, you must assign the workbook to a variable:

Sub OpenWB()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Set wb = Workbooks.Open("C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx", True, True)
End Sub

Close a Workbook in VBA

Close Specific Workbook

Similarly to opening a workbook, there are several ways to close a file. If you know which file you want to close, you can use the following code:

Workbooks.Close ("C:VBA FolderSample file 1.xlsx")

This line of code closes the file “Sample file 1” if it’s opened. If not, it will return an error, so you should take care of error handling.

Close Active Workbook

If you want to close the Workbook which is currently active, this line of code will enable you to do that:

ActiveWorkbook.Close

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Close All Open Workbooks

To close all open Workbooks, you can simply use this code:

Workbooks.Close

Close First Opened Workbook

This will close the first opened/created workbook:

Workbooks(1).Close

Replace 1 with 2 to close the second opened / created workbook and so on.

Close Without Saving

This will close a Workbook without saving and without showing the save prompt:

ActiveWorkbook.Close savechanges:=False

Save and Close Without Prompt

Similarly this will save and close a Workbook without showing the save prompt:

ActiveWorkbook.Close savechanges:=True

Note: There are several other ways to indicate whether to save or not save a Workbook and also whether to show prompts or not. This is discussed in more detail here.

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Other Workbook Open Examples

Open Multiple New Workbooks

This procedure will open multiple new workbooks, assigning the new workbooks to an array:

Sub OpenMultipleNewWorkbooks()
    Dim arrWb(3) As Workbook
    Dim i As Integer
    
    For i = 1 To 3
        Set arrWb(i) = Workbooks.Add
    Next i
End Sub

Open All Excel Workbooks in a Folder

This procedure will open all Excel Workbooks in a folder, using the Open File Dialog picker.

Sub OpenMultipleWorkbooksInFolder()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Dim dlgFD As FileDialog
    Dim strFolder As String
    Dim strFileName As String
    Set dlgFD = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
    If dlgFD.Show = -1 Then
        strFolder = dlgFD.SelectedItems(1) & Application.PathSeparator
        strFileName = Dir(strFolder & "*.xls*")
        Do While strFileName <> ""
            Set wb = Workbooks.Open(strFolder & strFileName)
            
            strFileName = Dir
        Loop
    End If
End Sub

Check if a Workbook is Open

This procedure will test if a workbook is open:

Sub TestByWorkbookName()
Dim wb As Workbook
 
    For Each wb In Workbooks
        If wb.Name = "New Microsoft Excel Worksheet.xls" Then
            MsgBox "Found it"
            Exit Sub 'call code here, we'll just exit for now
        End If
    Next
 
End Sub

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Workbook_Open Event

VBA Events are “triggers” that tell VBA to run certain code. You can set up workbook events for open, close, before save, after save and more.

Read our Workbook_Open Event tutorial to learn more about automatically running macros when a workbook is opened.

Open Other Types of Files in VBA

You can use the VBA to open other types of files with VBA – such as txt or Word files.

Open a Text file and Read its Contents

The VBA open method allows you to read or write to the file once you have opened it. To read the contents of a file, we  can open the file for INPUT.

Sub OpenTextFile()
   Dim strFile As String
   Dim strBody As String
   Dim intFile As Integer

   strFile = "C:datatest.txt"
   intFile = FreeFile
   Open strFile For Input As intFile
   strBody = Input(LOF(intFile), intFile)
   'loop here through your text body and extract what you need
   ''some vba code here
   Debug.Print strBody
   Close intFile
End Sub

The code above will open the text file “test.txt” and then it will read the entire contents of the file to the strBody variable.  Once you have extracted the file data into the strBody variable, you can use it for what you require. Using the Debug.Print command above enables us to see the contents of the strBody variable in the Immediate window in the VBE.

Open a Text File and Append to it

We can also open a text file in VBA, and then append to the bottom of the file using the Append method.

Sub AppendToTextFile()
Dim strFile As String
Dim strBody As String
Dim intFile As Integer

   strFile = "C:datatest.txt"
   intFile = FreeFile
   Open strFile For Append As intFile
'add two lines to the bottom
   Print #intFile, "This is an extra line of text at the bottom"
   Print #intFile, "and this is another one"
'close the file
   Close intFile
End Sub

The above code will open the text file and then append 2 lines of text to the bottom of the file using the #intFile variable (the # sign is the key!).  The code then closes the file.

Opening a Word File and Writing to it

We can also use VBA in Excel to open a Word file.

Sub OpenWordFile()
   Dim wApp As Object
   Dim wDoc As Object
   Set wApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
   Set wd = wApp.documents.Open("c:datatest.docx")
   wApp.Visible = True
End Sub

This code will open a copy of Word, and then open the document test.docx.

title	keywords	f1_keywords	ms.prod	api_name	ms.assetid	ms.date	ms.localizationpriority
Workbooks.Open method (Excel)	vbaxl10.chm203082	vbaxl10.chm203082	excel	Excel.Workbooks.Open	1d1c3fca-ae1a-0a91-65a2-6f3f0fb308a0	08/14/2019	medium

Workbooks.Open method (Excel)

Opens a workbook.

[!includeAdd-ins note]

Syntax

expression.Open (FileName, UpdateLinks, ReadOnly, Format, Password, WriteResPassword, IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended, Origin, Delimiter, Editable, Notify, Converter, AddToMru, Local, CorruptLoad)

expression A variable that represents a Workbooks object.

Parameters

Name	Required/Optional	Data type	Description
FileName	Optional	Variant	String. The file name of the workbook to be opened.
UpdateLinks	Optional	Variant	Specifies the way external references (links) in the file, such as the reference to a range in the Budget.xls workbook in the following formula =SUM([Budget.xls]Annual!C10:C25), are updated. If this argument is omitted, the user is prompted to specify how links will be updated. For more information about the values used by this parameter, see the Remarks section. If Microsoft Excel is opening a file in the WKS, WK1, or WK3 format and the UpdateLinks argument is 0, no charts are created; otherwise, Microsoft Excel generates charts from the graphs attached to the file.
ReadOnly	Optional	Variant	True to open the workbook in read-only mode.
Format	Optional	Variant	If Microsoft Excel opens a text file, this argument specifies the delimiter character. If this argument is omitted, the current delimiter is used. For more information about the values used by this parameter, see the Remarks section.
Password	Optional	Variant	A string that contains the password required to open a protected workbook. If this argument is omitted and the workbook requires a password, the user is prompted for the password.
WriteResPassword	Optional	Variant	A string that contains the password required to write to a write-reserved workbook. If this argument is omitted and the workbook requires a password, the user will be prompted for the password.
IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended	Optional	Variant	True to have Microsoft Excel not display the read-only recommended message (if the workbook was saved with the Read-Only Recommended option).
Origin	Optional	Variant	If the file is a text file, this argument indicates where it originated, so that code pages and Carriage Return/Line Feed (CR/LF) can be mapped correctly. Can be one of the following XlPlatform constants: xlMacintosh, xlWindows, or xlMSDOS. If this argument is omitted, the current operating system is used.
Delimiter	Optional	Variant	If the file is a text file and the Format argument is 6, this argument is a string that specifies the character to be used as the delimiter. For example, use Chr(9) for tabs, use «,» for commas, use «;» for semicolons, or use a custom character. Only the first character of the string is used.
Editable	Optional	Variant	If the file is a Microsoft Excel 4.0 add-in, this argument is True to open the add-in so that it is a visible window. If this argument is False or omitted, the add-in is opened as hidden, and it cannot be unhidden. This option does not apply to add-ins created in Microsoft Excel 5.0 or later. If the file is an Excel template, True to open the specified template for editing. False to open a new workbook based on the specified template. The default value is False.
Notify	Optional	Variant	If the file cannot be opened in read/write mode, this argument is True to add the file to the file notification list. Microsoft Excel will open the file as read-only, poll the file notification list, and then notify the user when the file becomes available. If this argument is False or omitted, no notification is requested, and any attempts to open an unavailable file will fail.
Converter	Optional	Variant	The index of the first file converter to try when opening the file. The specified file converter is tried first; if this converter does not recognize the file, all other converters are tried. The converter index consists of the row numbers of the converters returned by the FileConverters property.
AddToMru	Optional	Variant	True to add this workbook to the list of recently used files. The default value is False.
Local	Optional	Variant	True saves files against the language of Microsoft Excel (including control panel settings). False (default) saves files against the language of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) (which is typically United States English unless the VBA project where Workbooks.Open is run from is an old internationalized XL5/95 VBA project).
CorruptLoad	Optional	XlCorruptLoad	Can be one of the following constants: xlNormalLoad, xlRepairFile and xlExtractData. The default behavior if no value is specified is xlNormalLoad, and does not attempt recovery when initiated through the OM.

Return value

A Workbook object that represents the opened workbook.

Remarks

By default, macros are enabled when opening files programmatically. Use the AutomationSecurity property to set the macro security mode used when opening files programmatically.

You can specify one of the following values in the UpdateLinks parameter to determine whether external references (links) are updated when the workbook is opened.

Value	Description
0	External references (links) will not be updated when the workbook is opened.
3	External references (links) will be updated when the workbook is opened.

You can specify one of the following values in the Format parameter to determine the delimiter character for the file.

Value	Delimiter
1	Tabs
2	Commas
3	Spaces
4	Semicolons
5	Nothing
6	Custom character (see the Delimiter argument)

Example

The following code example opens the workbook Analysis.xls and then runs its Auto_Open macro.

Workbooks.Open "ANALYSIS.XLS" 
ActiveWorkbook.RunAutoMacros xlAutoOpen

The following code example imports a sheet from another workbook onto a new sheet in the current workbook. Sheet1 in the current workbook must contain the path name of the workbook to import in cell D3, the file name in cell D4, and the worksheet name in cell D5. The imported worksheet is inserted after Sheet1 in the current workbook.

Sub ImportWorksheet() 
    ' This macro will import a file into this workbook 
    Sheets("Sheet1").Select 
    PathName = Range("D3").Value 
    Filename = Range("D4").Value 
    TabName = Range("D5").Value 
    ControlFile = ActiveWorkbook.Name 
    Workbooks.Open Filename:=PathName & Filename 
    ActiveSheet.Name = TabName 
    Sheets(TabName).Copy After:=Workbooks(ControlFile).Sheets(1) 
    Windows(Filename).Activate 
    ActiveWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False 
    Windows(ControlFile).Activate 
End Sub

[!includeSupport and feedback]

To open a workbook using VBA, you need to use the “Workbook.Open” method and specify the path of the file (make sure to specify the full path to the workbook with name and extension file type). This method has a total of fifteen optional arguments which you can use to deal with different kinds of files.

In this tutorial, we will explore it in detail and look at an alternative method that you can use.

Steps to Open a Workbook using VBA

1. To start the code, use the “Workbooks” object.
2. Type a dot (.) after that and select the Open method from the list.
3. Specify the file path in the first argument and make sure to enclose it in double quotation marks.
4. In the end, run the code to open the workbook.

Sub vba_open_workbook()
Workbooks.Open "C:UsersDellDesktopmyFile.xlsx"
End Sub

Helpful Links: Run a Macro – Macro Recorder – Visual Basic Editor – Personal Macro Workbook

Workbook.Open Syntax

Now it’s time to look at the syntax of the method that you just have used in the above example. As I mentioned, there are fifteen arguments that you can use:

expression.Open (FileName, UpdateLinks, _
ReadOnly, Format, Password, WriteResPassword, IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended, Origin, _
Delimiter, Editable, Notify, Converter, AddToMru, Local, CorruptLoad)

You won’t be using all these arguments. But a few of them are quite important and could be useful for you in the real world.

Opening a Password Protected Workbook

If you want to open a workbook that is password-protected, in that case, you can specify the password with the password argument.

Here I have a workbook on the desktop that has the password “test123” and now I want to open it and unprotect it at the same time. Following is the code that I need to use.

Workbooks.Open "C:UsersDellDesktopmyFile.xlsx", , , Password:="test123"

Opening a Workbook as Read Only

When you open a workbook as read-only you can’t make changes to the same workbook, but you need to save a copy of it.

Workbooks.Open "C:UsersDellDesktopFolder1.xlsx", , True

Open All the Workbooks from a Folder

Sub vba_open_multiple_workbooks_folder()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Dim strFolder As String
    Dim strFile As String
        strFolder = "C:UsersDellDesktopFolder"
        strFile = Dir(strFolder & "*.xls*")
        Do While strFile <> ""
            Set wb = Workbooks.Open(strFolder & strFile)
            strFile = Dir
        Loop
End Sub

To use it as per your needs, make sure to change the folder path.

Sub vba_open_dialog()
    Dim strFile As String
    strFile = Application.GetOpenFilename()
    Workbooks.Open (strFile)
End Sub

More on VBA Workbooks

VBA Save Workbook | VBA Close Workbook | VBA Delete Workbook | VBA ThisWorkbook | VBA Rename Workbook | VBA Activate Workbook | VBA Combine Workbook | VBA Protect Workbook (Unprotect) | VBA Check IF a Workbook is Open | VBA Check IF an Excel Workbook Exists in a Folder| VBA Create New Workbook (Excel File)

• VBA Workbook

In this tutorial, I will cover the how to work with workbooks in Excel using VBA.

In Excel, a ‘Workbook’ is an object that is a part of the ‘Workbooks’ collection. Within a workbook, you have different objects such as worksheets, chart sheets, cells and ranges, chart objects, shapes, etc.

With VBA, you can do a lot of stuff with a workbook object – such as open a specific workbook, save and close workbooks, create new workbooks, change the workbook properties, etc.

So let’s get started.

If you’re interested in learning VBA the easy way, check out my Online Excel VBA Training.

Referencing a Workbook using VBA

There are different ways to refer to a Workbook object in VBA.

The method you choose would depend on what you want to get done.

In this section, I will cover the different ways to refer to a workbook along with some example codes.

Using Workbook Names

If you have the exact name of the workbook that you want to refer to, you can use the name in the code.

Let’s begin with a simple example.

If you have two workbooks open, and you want to activate the workbook with the name – Examples.xlsx, you can use the below code:

Sub ActivateWorkbook()
Workbooks("Examples.xlsx").Activate
End Sub

Note that you need to use the file name along with the extension if the file has been saved. If it hasn’t been saved, then you can use the name without the file extension.

If you’re not sure what name to use, take help from the Project Explorer.

If you want to activate a workbook and select a specific cell in a worksheet in that workbook, you need to give the entire address of the cell (including the Workbook and the Worksheet name).

Sub ActivateWorkbook()
Workbooks("Examples.xlsx").Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
Range("A1").Select
End Sub

The above code first activates Sheet1 in the Examples.xlsx workbook and then selects cell A1 in the sheet.

You will often see a code where a reference to a worksheet or a cell/range is made without referring to the workbook. This happens when you’re referring to the worksheet/ranges in the same workbook that has the code in it and is also the active workbook. However, in some cases, you do need to specify the workbook to make sure the code works (more on this in the ThisWorkbook section).

Using Index Numbers

You can also refer to the workbooks based on their index number.

For example, if you have three workbooks open, the following code would show you the names of the three workbooks in a message box (one at a time).

Sub WorkbookName()
MsgBox Workbooks(1).Name
MsgBox Workbooks(2).Name
MsgBox Workbooks(3).Name
End Sub

The above code uses MsgBox – which is a function that shows a message box with the specified text/value (which is the workbook name in this case).

One of the troubles I often have with using index numbers with Workbooks is that you never know which one is the first workbook and which one is the second and so on. To be sure, you would have to run the code as shown above or something similar to loop through the open workbooks and know their index number.

Excel treats the workbook opened first to have the index number as 1, and the next one as 2 and so on.

Despite this drawback, using index numbers can come in handy.

For example, if you want to loop through all the open workbooks and save all, you can use the index numbers.

In this case, since you want this to happen to all the workbooks, you’re not concerned about their individual index numbers.

The below code would loop through all the open workbooks and close all except the workbook that has this VBA code.

Sub CloseWorkbooks()
Dim WbCount As Integer
WbCount = Workbooks.Count
For i = WbCount To 1 Step -1
If Workbooks(i).Name <> ThisWorkbook.Name Then
Workbooks(i).Close
End If
Next i
End Sub

The above code counts the number of open workbooks and then goes through all the workbooks using the For Each loop.

It uses the IF condition to check if the name of the workbook is the same as that of the workbook where the code is being run.

If it’s not a match, it closes the workbook and moves to the next one.

Note that we have run the loop from WbCount to 1 with a Step of -1. This is done as with each loop, the number of open workbooks is decreasing.

ThisWorkbook is covered in detail in the later section.

Also read: How to Open Excel Files Using VBA (Examples)

Using ActiveWorkbook

ActiveWorkbook, as the name suggests, refers to the workbook that is active.

The below code would show you the name of the active workbook.

Sub ActiveWorkbookName()
MsgBox ActiveWorkbook.Name
End Sub

When you use VBA to activate another workbook, the ActiveWorkbook part in the VBA after that would start referring to the activated workbook.

Here is an example of this.

If you have a workbook active and you insert the following code into it and run it, it would first show the name of the workbook that has the code and then the name of Examples.xlsx (which gets activated by the code).

Sub ActiveWorkbookName()
MsgBox ActiveWorkbook.Name
Workbooks("Examples.xlsx").Activate
MsgBox ActiveWorkbook.Name
End Sub

Note that when you create a new workbook using VBA, that newly created workbook automatically becomes the active workbook.

Using ThisWorkbook

ThisWorkbook refers to the workbook where the code is being executed.

Every workbook would have a ThisWorkbook object as a part of it (visible in the Project Explorer).

‘ThisWorkbook’ can store regular macros (similar to the ones that we add-in modules) as well as event procedures. An event procedure is something that is triggered based on an event – such as double-clicking on a cell, or saving a workbook or activating a worksheet.

Any event procedure that you save in this ‘ThisWorkbook’ would be available in the entire workbook, as compared to the sheet level events which are restricted to the specific sheets only.

For example, if you double-click on the ThisWorkbook object in the Project Explorer and copy-paste the below code in it, it will show the cell address whenever you double-click on any of the cells in the entire workbook.

Private Sub Workbook_SheetBeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
MsgBox Target.Address
End Sub

While ThisWorkbook’s main role is to store event procedure, you can also use it to refer to the workbook where the code is being executed.

The below code would return the name of the workbook in which the code is being executed.

Sub ThisWorkbookName()
MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Name
End Sub

The benefit of using ThisWorkbook (over ActiveWorkbook) is that it would refer to the same workbook (the one that has the code in it) in all the cases. So if you use a VBA code to add a new workbook, the ActiveWorkbook would change, but ThisWorkbook would still refer to the one that has the code.

Creating a New Workbook Object

The following code will create a new workbook.

Sub CreateNewWorkbook()
Workbooks.Add
End Sub

When you add a new workbook, it becomes the active workbook.

The following code will add a new workbook and then show you the name of that workbook (which would be the default Book1 type name).

Sub CreateNewWorkbook()
Workbooks.Add
MsgBox ActiveWorkbook.Name
End Sub

Open a Workbook using VBA

You can use VBA to open a specific workbook when you know the file path of the workbook.

The below code will open the workbook – Examples.xlsx which is in the Documents folder on my system.

Sub OpenWorkbook()
Workbooks.Open ("C:UserssumitDocumentsExamples.xlsx")
End Sub

In case the file exists in the default folder, which is the folder where VBA saves new files by default, then you can just specify the workbook name – without the entire path.

Sub OpenWorkbook()
Workbooks.Open ("Examples.xlsx")
End Sub

In case the workbook that you’re trying to open doesn’t exist, you’ll see an error.

To avoid this error, you can add a few lines to your code to first check whether the file exists or not and if it exists then try to open it.

The below code would check the file location and if it doesn’t exist, it will show a custom message (not the error message):

Sub OpenWorkbook()
If Dir("C:UserssumitDocumentsExamples.xlsx") <> "" Then
Workbooks.Open ("C:UserssumitDocumentsExamples.xlsx")
Else
MsgBox "The file doesn't exist"
End If
End Sub

You can also use the Open dialog box to select the file that you want to open.

Sub OpenWorkbook()
If Dir("C:UserssumitDocumentsExamples.xlsx") <> "" Then
Workbooks.Open ("C:UserssumitDocumentsExamples.xlsx")
Else
MsgBox "The file doesn't exist"
End If
End Sub

The above code opens the Open dialog box. When you select a file that you want to open, it assigns the file path to the FilePath variable. Workbooks.Open then uses the file path to open the file.

In case the user doesn’t open a file and clicks on Cancel button, FilePath becomes False. To avoid getting an error in this case, we have used the ‘On Error Resume Next’ statement.

Saving a Workbook

To save the active workbook, use the code below:

Sub SaveWorkbook()
ActiveWorkbook.Save
End Sub

This code works for the workbooks that have already been saved earlier. Also, since the workbook contains the above macro, if it hasn’t been saved as a .xlsm (or .xls) file, you will lose the macro when you open it next.

If you’re saving the workbook for the first time, it will show you a prompt as shown below:

When saving for the first time, it’s better to use the ‘Saveas’ option.

The below code would save the active workbook as a .xlsm file in the default location (which is the document folder in my system).

Sub SaveWorkbook()
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="Test.xlsm", FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled
End Sub

If you want the file to be saved in a specific location, you need to mention that in the Filename value. The below code saves the file on my desktop.

Sub SaveWorkbook()
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="C:UserssumitDesktopTest.xlsm", FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled
End Sub

If you want the user to get the option to select the location to save the file, you can use call the Saveas dialog box. The below code shows the Saveas dialog box and allows the user to select the location where the file should be saved.

Sub SaveWorkbook()
Dim FilePath As String
FilePath = Application.GetSaveAsFilename
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=FilePath & ".xlsm", FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled
End Sub

Note that instead of using FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled, you can also use FileFormat:=52, where 52 is the code xlOpenXMLWorkbookMacroEnabled.

Saving All Open Workbooks

If you have more than one workbook open and you want to save all the workbooks, you can use the code below:

Sub SaveAllWorkbooks()
Dim wb As Workbook
For Each wb In Workbooks
wb.Save
Next wb
End Sub

The above saves all the workbooks, including the ones that have never been saved. The workbooks that have not been saved previously would get saved in the default location.

If you only want to save those workbooks that have previously been saved, you can use the below code:

Sub SaveAllWorkbooks()
Dim wb As Workbook
For Each wb In Workbooks
If wb.Path <> "" Then
wb.Save
End If
Next wb
End Sub

Saving and Closing All Workbooks

If you want to close all the workbooks, except the workbook that has the current code in it, you can use the code below:

Sub CloseandSaveWorkbooks()
Dim wb As Workbook
For Each wb In Workbooks
If wb.Name <> ThisWorkbook.Name Then
wb.Close SaveChanges:=True
End If
Next wb
End Sub

The above code would close all the workbooks (except the workbook that has the code – ThisWorkbook). In case there are changes in these workbooks, the changes would be saved. In case there is a workbook that has never been saved, it will show the save as dialog box.

Save a Copy of the Workbook (with Timestamp)

When I am working with complex data and dashboard in Excel workbooks, I often create different versions of my workbooks. This is helpful in case something goes wrong with my current workbook. I would at least have a copy of it saved with a different name (and I would only lose the work I did after creating a copy).

Here is the VBA code that will create a copy of your workbook and save it in the specified location.

Sub CreateaCopyofWorkbook()
ThisWorkbook.SaveCopyAs Filename:="C:UserssumitDesktopBackupCopy.xlsm"
End Sub

The above code would save a copy of your workbook every time you run this macro.

While this works great, I would feel more comfortable if I had different copies saved whenever I run this code. The reason this is important is that if I make an inadvertent mistake and run this macro, it will save the work with the mistakes. And I wouldn’t have access to the work before I made the mistake.

To handle such situations, you can use the below code that saves a new copy of the work each time you save it. And it also adds a date and timestamp as a part of the workbook name. This can help you track any mistake you did as you never lose any of the previously created backups.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
ThisWorkbook.SaveCopyAs Filename:="C:UserssumitDesktopBackupCopy" & Format(Now(), "dd-mm-yy-hh-mm-ss-AMPM") & ".xlsm"
End Sub

The above code would create a copy every time you run this macro and add a date/time stamp to the workbook name.

Create a New Workbook for Each Worksheet

In some cases, you may have a workbook that has multiple worksheets, and you want to create a workbook for each worksheet.

This could be the case when you have monthly/quarterly reports in a single workbook and you want to split these into one workbook for each worksheet.

Or, if you have department wise reports and you want to split these into individual workbooks so that you can send these individual workbooks to the department heads.

Here is the code that will create a workbook for each worksheet, give it the same name as that of the worksheet, and save it in the specified folder.

Sub CreateWorkbookforWorksheets()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim wb As Workbook
For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
Set wb = Workbooks.Add
ws.Copy Before:=wb.Sheets(1)
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
wb.Sheets(2).Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
wb.SaveAs "C:UserssumitDesktopTest" & ws.Name & ".xlsx"
wb.Close
Next ws
End Sub

In the above code, we have used two variable ‘ws’ and ‘wb’.

The code goes through each worksheet (using the For Each Next loop) and creates a workbook for it. It also uses the copy method of the worksheet object to create a copy of the worksheet in the new workbook.

Note that I have used the SET statement to assign the ‘wb’ variable to any new workbook that is created by the code.

You can use this technique to assign a workbook object to a variable. This is covered in the next section.

Assign Workbook Object to a Variable

In VBA, you can assign an object to a variable, and then use the variable to refer to that object.

For example, in the below code, I use VBA to add a new workbook and then assign that workbook to the variable wb. To do this, I need to use the SET statement.

Once I have assigned the workbook to the variable, all the properties of the workbook are made available to the variable as well.

Sub AssigntoVariable()
Dim wb As Workbook
Set wb = Workbooks.Add
wb.SaveAs Filename:="C:UserssumitDesktopExamples.xlsx"
End Sub

Note that the first step in the code is to declare ‘wb’ as a workbook type variable. This tells VBA that this variable can hold the workbook object.

The next statement uses SET to assign the variable to the new workbook that we are adding. Once this assignment is done, we can use the wb variable to save the workbook (or do anything else with it).

Looping through Open Workbooks

We have already seen a few examples codes above that used looping in the code.

In this section, I will explain different ways to loop through open workbooks using VBA.

Suppose you want to save and close all the open workbooks, except the one with the code in it, then you can use the below code:

Sub CloseandSaveWorkbooks()
Dim wb As Workbook
For Each wb In Workbooks
If wb.Name <> ThisWorkbook.Name Then
wb.Close SaveChanges:=True
End If
Next wb
End Sub

The above code uses the For Each loop to go through each workbook in the Workbooks collection. To do this, we first need to declare ‘wb’ as the workbook type variable.

In every loop cycle, each workbook name is analyzed and if it doesn’t match the name of the workbook that has the code, it’s closed after saving its content.

The same can also be achieved with a different loop as shown below:

Sub CloseWorkbooks()
Dim WbCount As Integer
WbCount = Workbooks.Count
For i = WbCount To 1 Step -1
If Workbooks(i).Name <> ThisWorkbook.Name Then
Workbooks(i).Close SaveChanges:=True
End If
Next i
End Sub

The above code uses the For Next loop to close all the workbooks except the one that has the code in it. In this case, we don’t need to declare a workbook variable, but instead, we need to count the total number of open workbooks. When we have the count, we use the For Next loop to go through each workbook. Also, we use the index number to refer to the workbooks in this case.

Note that in the above code, we are looping from WbCount to 1 with Step -1. This is needed as with each loop, the workbook gets closed and the number of workbooks gets decreased by 1.

Error while Working with the Workbook Object (Run-time error ‘9’)

One of the most common error you may encounter when working with workbooks is – Run-time Error ‘9’ – Subscript out of range.

Generally, VBA errors are not very informative and often leave it to you to figure out what went wrong.

Here are some of the possible reasons that may lead to this error:

•  The workbook that you’re trying to access does not exist. For example, if I am trying to access the fifth workbook using Workbooks(5), and there are only 4 workbooks open, then I will get this error.
• If you’re using a wrong name to refer to the workbook. For example, if your workbook name is Examples.xlsx and you use Example.xlsx. then it will show you this error.
• If you haven’t saved a workbook, and you use the extension, then you get this error. For example, if your workbook name is Book1, and you use the name Book1.xlsx without saving it, you will get this error.
• The workbook you’re trying to access is closed.

Get a List of All Open Workbooks

If you want to get a list of all the open workbooks in the current workbook (the workbook where you’re running the code), you can use the below code:

Sub GetWorkbookNames()
Dim wbcount As Integer
wbcount = Workbooks.Count
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Activate
For i = 1 To wbcount
Range("A1").Offset(i - 1, 0).Value = Workbooks(i).Name
Next i
End Sub

The above code adds a new worksheet and then lists the name of all the open workbooks.

If you want to get their file path as well, you can use the below code:

Sub GetWorkbookNames()
Dim wbcount As Integer
wbcount = Workbooks.Count
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Activate
For i = 1 To wbcount
Range("A1").Offset(i - 1, 0).Value = Workbooks(i).Path & "" & Workbooks(i).Name
Next i
End Sub

Open the Specified Workbook by Double-clicking on the Cell

If you have a list of file paths for Excel workbooks, you can use the below code to simply double-click on the cell with the file path and it will open that workbook.

Private Sub Workbook_SheetBeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
Workbooks.Open Target.Value
End Sub

This code would be placed in the ThisWorkbook code window.

To do this:

• Double click on the ThisWorkbook object in the project explorer. Note that the ThisWorkbook object should be in the workbook where you want this functionality.
• Copy and paste the above code.

Now, if you have the exact path of the files that you want to open, you can do that by simply double-clicking on the file path and VBA would instantly open that workbook.

Where to Put the VBA Code

Wondering where the VBA code goes in your Excel workbook?

Excel has a VBA backend called the VBA editor. You need to copy and paste the code into the VB Editor module code window.

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Go to the Developer tab.
2. Click on the Visual Basic option. This will open the VB editor in the backend.
3. In the Project Explorer pane in the VB Editor, right-click on any object for the workbook in which you want to insert the code. If you don’t see the Project Explorer go to the View tab and click on Project Explorer.
4. Go to Insert and click on Module. This will insert a module object for your workbook.
5. Copy and paste the code in the module window.

You May Also Like the Following Excel VBA Tutorials:

• How to Record a Macro in Excel.
• Creating a User Defined Function in Excel.
• How to Create and Use Add-in in Excel.
• How to Resue Macros by placing it in the Personal Macro Workbook.
• Get the List of File Names from a Folder in Excel (with and without VBA).
• How to Use Excel VBA InStr Function (with practical EXAMPLES).
• How to Sort Data in Excel using VBA (A Step-by-Step Guide).