Use the Name command. Format:
Name oldpathname As newpathname

This assumes none of the New names will conflict with existing names.

Sub RenameFiles()
Dim OldName() As String
Dim NewName() As String
Dim bk As Workbook
Dim sPath As String, sName As String
Dim i As Long, j As Long

' change to reflect your directory
sPath = "C:\Myfolder\Myfiles\"

sName = Dir(sPath & "*.xls")
ReDim OldName(1 To 1)
ReDim NewName(1 To 1)
i = 1
Do While sName < ""
OldName(i) = sName
Set bk = Workbooks.Open(sPath & sName)
NewName(i) = "lbif08" & bk.Worksheets( _
1).Range("A1").Text & ".xls"
bk.Close SaveChanges:=False
i = i + 1
ReDim Preserve OldName(1 To i)
ReDim Preserve NewName(1 To i)
Loop
For j = 1 To i - 1
Name sPath & OldName(i) As sPath & NewName(i)
Next
End Sub

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy



"Filo" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to do the following:

500 excel files are in a folder. I need to rename each one as:
"lbif08" & first 5 digits of Cell A1 of each file &".xls"

Note: I don't need to keep the original file name.

Please help!!! Thank you!