Selecting a file using the FileDialog

In a Macro or Add-in there may be times when you require the user to select a file.  It is possible to use the standard FileDialog box for this purpose.  The following code is intended to provide the most common settings which you can amend to meet your needs.

Open the file DialogBox for selecting a file

Sub selectFile()

Dim dialogBox As FileDialog
Set dialogBox = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen)

'Set the display properties - these are optional
'All the settings must be applied before the .Show command

'Do not allow multiple files to be selected
dialogBox.AllowMultiSelect = False

'Set the title of of the DialogBox
dialogBox.Title = "Select a file"

'Show the dialog box and output full file path and file name
If dialogBox.Show = -1 Then
   MsgBox "You selected: " & dialogBox.SelectedItems(1)
End If

End Sub

Selecting multiple files

If you the user is allowed to select more than one file the following code can be used:

Sub selectFiles()

Dim dialogBox As FileDialog
Set dialogBox = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen)
Dim i As Integer
'Set the display properties - these are optional
'All the settings must be applied before the .Show command

'Allow multiple files to be selected
dialogBox.AllowMultiSelect = True

'Set the title of of the DialogBox
dialogBox.Title = "Select a file"

'Show the dialog box
'Loop through each selected item and output to Immediate Window
For i = 1 To dialogBox.SelectedItems.Count
    Debug.Print dialogBox.SelectedItems(i)
Next i

End Sub

Setting the default folder options

'Set the default folder to open
dialogBox.InitialFileName = "C:\Users\marks\Documents"

'Set filters to show specific files types only - these are optional
'Clear any existing filters first
dialogBox.Filters.Clear
'Add more filters - use ; to separate filters for the same name
dialogBox.Filters.Add "Excel workboooks", "*.xlsx;*.xls;*.xlsm"

File name or full file path

Sometimes you want the full file path of the selected item

'Show the full file path (folder & file name)
MgsBox dialogBox.SelectedItems(i)

Other times, you just want the name of the file (not the folder)

'Just show the file name
MsgBox Dir(dialogBox.SelectedItems(1))

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