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: Checking if a Workbook is Already Open.
Macros are often used to slice, dice, and otherwise process information contained in workbooks. This presumes, of course, that the workbook that contains the information is actually open. If it is not, then your macro will obviously need to include code to actually open the needed workbook.
Opening a workbook can really slow down a macro; it takes time to access the disk and load the file. Thus, if your macro can check to see if a workbook is open before going through the hassle of actually trying to open it, you could speed up your macros greatly if the workbook is found to already be open.
One very flexible way to approach the task of checking whether a workbook is open is to use a function that does the checking, and then simply returns a TRUE or FALSE value based on whether the workbook is open. The following short macro performs this succinct task:
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: 
Function AlreadyOpen(sFname As String) As Boolean
Dim wkb As Workbook
On Error Resume Next
Set wkb = Workbooks(sFname)
AlreadyOpen = Not wkb Is Nothing
Set wkb = Nothing
End Function
To use the function, just pass it the name of the workbook you want to check, in the following manner:
sFilename = "MyFileName.xls"
sPath = "C:\MyFolder\MySubFolder\"
If AlreadyOpen(sFilename) Then
'Do not have to open
Else
Workbooks.Open sPath & sFilename
End If
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3104) 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: Checking if a Workbook is Already Open.
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