Finding Other Instances of Excel in a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 7, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you run a VBA program from within a particular instance of Excel, you can create other instances of Excel, open and modify workbooks in the newly created instances, and then close those instances. However, you may wonder how you can determine, within a macro, if other instances of Excel are already running, and, if so, take control of those instances.

There are a few ways you can go about doing this. If you simply want to know how many instances of Excel are running, you can use a macro that makes use of the Windows API. The following function implements this approach:

Public Declare Function GetDesktopWindow Lib "user32" () As Long
Public Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias _
  "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hWnd1 As Long, ByVal
hWnd2 As Long, ByVal lpsz1 As String, ByVal lpsz2 As String) As Long

Function ExcelInstances() As Long
    Dim hWndDesk As Long
    Dim hWndXL As Long

    'Get a handle to the desktop
    hWndDesk = GetDesktopWindow

    Do
        'Get the next Excel window
        hWndXL = FindWindowEx(GetDesktopWindow, hWndXL, _
          "XLMAIN", vbNullString)

        'If we got one, increment the count
        If hWndXL > 0 Then
            ExcelInstances = ExcelInstances + 1
        End If

        'Loop until we've found them all
    Loop Until hWndXL = 0
End Function

This code was developed by Excel MVP Stephen Bullen. It obviously won't allow you access to the individual instances of Excel; it only returns a count of the number of instances open. If you want to develop code to use the instances, then you don't need to rely upon the Windows API. You can, instead, use code such as the following to determine if an instance of Excel is open:

Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
Set xlApp = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")

If an instance is running you can access it using the xlApp object. If an instance is not running you will get a run-time error. The GetObject function gets the first instance of Excel that had been loaded. To get to others, you can close that one and then try GetObject again to get the next one, etc.

If you want to set the xlApp to a particular instance of Excel, you can do so if you know the name of an open workbook in that instance:

Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
Set xlApp = GetObject("ExampleBook").Application

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9451) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Setting Up Multi-page Columns

Do you need a page layout that features columns that progress vertically across pages instead of horizontally across a ...

Discover More

Ages in Years and Months

Calculating an age is a common task when working with dates. If you want to figure out the number of years and months ...

Discover More

Discovering Printer Drift

How accurate is your printer when it comes to placing information on the printed page? The simple technique described in ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Creating and Naming a Worksheet Using a Macro

You can use macros to make your common Excel tasks easier and faster. For instance, if you routinely need to create new ...

Discover More

Using Message Boxes

When creating a macro, one of the ways you can communicate with users is through the use of a message box. This tip ...

Discover More

Changing Directories in a Macro

Need to specify which directory on your hard drive should be used by a macro? It's easy to do using the ChDir command.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

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.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.