Is it possible from VBA to open a text file in the default text editor
application registered with Windows?

I"ve tried variations of a Start command in a Shell statement, but
can't find anything that works.

The best I've been able to do is open the file directly with
Notepad.Exe, again from a Shell statement.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" _
Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, _
ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

Sub ABCD()
Dim doc As String
doc = "C:\Textfile.txt"
ShellExecute 0&, vbNullString, doc, _
vbNullString, vbNullString, vbNormalFocus
End Sub


--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

wrote in message
ps.com...
Is it possible from VBA to open a text file in the default text editor
application registered with Windows?

I"ve tried variations of a Start command in a Shell statement, but
can't find anything that works.

The best I've been able to do is open the file directly with
Notepad.Exe, again from a Shell statement.

Thanks,

Brian Murphy
Austin, Texas

Thanks bunches, Tom.

That does indeed do the trick.

Now that I've got that working instead of having to use Notepad, I've
found that I need to put a Wait call right after it to keep from
executing too quickly a statement that deletes the text file that is
being opened (a Kill statement). The text file being opened is a
temporary file for the user to view. Two seconds seems to be enough
time for the application to launch and load the file. Perhaps this is
necessary because of differences between VBA's Shell command and the
API's ShellExecute.

Anyway, it works now.

Cheers,

Brian