I am trying open non-excel files that are not .exe files from Excel VBA

When I use the Shell command it doesn't work, I believe that this is because
Shell only opens files that are .exe.

Is there a method that can open other files from Excel VBA?

Generally opening any file requires an executable to do it wether its a .doc,
..xls or anything else

Try this

myfile = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & "c:\lastrow.txt", vbNormalFocus)

This would open lastrow.txt from the root of C with Notepad

Mike

"S Taylor" wrote:

I am trying open non-excel files that are not .exe files from Excel VBA

When I use the Shell command it doesn't work, I believe that this is because
Shell only opens files that are .exe.

Is there a method that can open other files from Excel VBA?

Thanks Mike,
The problem is that the .exe application is already open, and if I shell
the executable file will create another instance of it. However if I call the
file that I am trying to open it opens it from within the existing instance
of the .exe file. Thanks anyway. (Hope that makes sense!)

Regards

Steven

"Mike H" wrote:

Generally opening any file requires an executable to do it wether its a .doc,
.xls or anything else

Try this

myfile = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & "c:\lastrow.txt", vbNormalFocus)

This would open lastrow.txt from the root of C with Notepad

Mike

"S Taylor" wrote:

I am trying open non-excel files that are not .exe files from Excel VBA

When I use the Shell command it doesn't work, I believe that this is because
Shell only opens files that are .exe.

Is there a method that can open other files from Excel VBA?

'Put this in a module

Option Explicit

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

Function openanyfile(FileToOpen As String)
Call ShellExecute(0, "Open", FileToOpen & vbNullString, _
vbNullString, vbNullString, 1)
End Function

'To open a file, in this case a pdf

Sub Open_file
Call openanyfile("C:\My Documents\FileToOpen.pdf")
end sub



"S Taylor" wrote:

Thanks Mike,
The problem is that the .exe application is already open, and if I shell
the executable file will create another instance of it. However if I call the
file that I am trying to open it opens it from within the existing instance
of the .exe file. Thanks anyway. (Hope that makes sense!)

Regards

Steven

"Mike H" wrote:

Generally opening any file requires an executable to do it wether its a .doc,
.xls or anything else

Try this

myfile = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & "c:\lastrow.txt", vbNormalFocus)

This would open lastrow.txt from the root of C with Notepad

Mike

"S Taylor" wrote:

I am trying open non-excel files that are not .exe files from Excel VBA

When I use the Shell command it doesn't work, I believe that this is because
Shell only opens files that are .exe.

Is there a method that can open other files from Excel VBA?

Thank you Libby. That worked and was a great help.

Regards

Steven

"Libby" wrote:

'Put this in a module

Option Explicit

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

Function openanyfile(FileToOpen As String)
Call ShellExecute(0, "Open", FileToOpen & vbNullString, _
vbNullString, vbNullString, 1)
End Function

'To open a file, in this case a pdf

Sub Open_file
Call openanyfile("C:\My Documents\FileToOpen.pdf")
end sub



"S Taylor" wrote:

Thanks Mike,
The problem is that the .exe application is already open, and if I shell
the executable file will create another instance of it. However if I call the
file that I am trying to open it opens it from within the existing instance
of the .exe file. Thanks anyway. (Hope that makes sense!)

Regards

Steven

"Mike H" wrote:

Generally opening any file requires an executable to do it wether its a .doc,
.xls or anything else

Try this

myfile = Shell("NOTEPAD.EXE " & "c:\lastrow.txt", vbNormalFocus)

This would open lastrow.txt from the root of C with Notepad

Mike

"S Taylor" wrote:

I am trying open non-excel files that are not .exe files from Excel VBA

When I use the Shell command it doesn't work, I believe that this is because
Shell only opens files that are .exe.

Is there a method that can open other files from Excel VBA?