Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 18, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
When you open a workbook in Excel, the workbook name is displayed in the title bar. At times, it would be nice to display more than a simple workbook name in the title bar. Many people could profit by a way to display a full path name along with the workbook name in the title bar. Unfortunately, Excel does not provide a way to do this easily.
If you only need to know the full path name once in a while, then you can create a very simple macro and assign it to a toolbar button. When you click on the button, the information in the title bar for the active window is changed to reflect the full path name. This macro, called ChangeCaption, is as follows:
Sub ChangeCaption() ActiveWindow.Caption = ActiveWorkbook.FullName End Sub
The only drawback to this approach is that whenever you rename your workbook by using Save As to save it under a different name, the new file name (and path) are not updated in the title bar unless you rerun the macro.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2238) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Full Path Names in Excel.
Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!
If you use Excel's Open dialog box to search for files and you notice that doing so ends up crashing your system, you may ...
Discover MoreWhen you double-click on a workbook in Windows, the Excel program should be started and the workbook loaded. When this ...
Discover MoreThe VBA programming language provide with Excel allows you to create and modify text files quite easily. Here's how to ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments