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: Grabbing a User's Name from Excel.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 25, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Mark has a worksheet where he wants to record the name of a user, but rather than asking the user to fill in a form, he wants to automatically grab their username from Excel.
The username that a person sets in Excel when first installing the software or when changing the general options for the program cannot be accessed via formula. Instead, you need to use a macro to access the information and then make it available to your worksheet. This is possible through the use of a user-defined function. Consider the following simple example:
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 GetUserName()
GetUserName = Application.UserName
End Function
Note that the macro does nothing more than to access the UserName property of the Application object. You use this function in your worksheet in the following manner:
=GetUserName()
With this simple formula in a cell, the username is displayed in the cell.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3289) 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: Grabbing a User's Name from Excel.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Excel displays, by default, a row label or heading at the left side of each row on the screen. As you scroll down the ...
Discover MoreDefined names can be a great boon when working in a worksheet. Usually names are available throughout an entire workbook, ...
Discover MoreExcel allows you to associate names with cells or ranges of cells. If you ever want to delete those names, you'll need ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2024-02-29 09:04:41
Jerry
nm, I inserted the function in a module and it's working fine.
2024-02-28 10:36:54
Jerry
For some reason, this isn't working for me. I get a #NAME? error message in the cell. I posted:
Function GetUserName()
GetUserName = Application.UserName
End Function
in the ThisWorkbook object and =GetUserName() in the target cell. The workbook is macro-enabled (.xlsm). Even stranger, it worked yesterday. Today it doesn't.
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