Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Changing Directories in a Macro.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 7, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
VBA provides a very rich programming environment. You can do many things with macro code that you cannot necessarily do using the menus of Excel. For instance, you may want to change the current directory in the middle of a macro. This may be necessary in order to find a particular file or to do some other file-oriented task. VBA provides the ChDir command to change directories. The syntax is as follows:
ChDir DirName
where DirName is the full pathname of the directory to which you want to change. If you do not use a string variable to specify the directory name, then DirName must be enclosed in quotes. If the directory name you supply does not exist, the command fails with an error.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2472) 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: Changing Directories in a Macro.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
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