Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 27, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
If you are writing a VBA macro in Excel, you may have a need to allow the user to specify a file they want from the disk. Fortunately, you can access the standard Open dialog box from within VBA and use it to return just a file name. The following example subroutine shows how this is done:
Sub GetFName() Dim FName As Variant Dim Msg As String FName = Application.GetOpenFilename() If FName <> False Then Msg = "You chose " & FName MsgBox Msg Else 'Cancel was pressed End If End Sub
When you run this macro, you will see the standard Open dialog box used in Excel. The user can select a file, and when they click on Open, the file name (including the full path) is assigned to the variable FName. If the user clicks on the Cancel button, then FName is set equal to False. (Thus the test for that in the code.)
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2272) 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: Getting a File Name.
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