WD97: VBA Function to Check If File or Document Is Open

ID: Q184982

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

When writing Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macros or routines, you may need to test if another process already has opened a file before performing any operations on the file. This article contains a sample macro and function to test the current access status of a file or document.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

The following sample Visual Basic for Applications macro calls the function FileLocked and passes the full path and name of the file for testing. If the function returns True, error number 70 "Permission Denied" has most likely occurred, and the file is currently open and locked by another process. If the function returns False, the file is not open, and the macro opens the document.

   Sub YourMacro()
      Dim strFileName As String

      ' Full path and name of file.
      strFileName = "C:\test.doc"

      ' Call function to test file lock.
      If Not FileLocked(strFileName) Then
         ' If the function returns False, open the document.
         Documents.Open strFileName
      End If
   End Sub

   Function FileLocked(strFileName As String) As Boolean
      On Error Resume Next

      ' If the file is already opened by another process,
      ' and the specified type of access is not allowed,
      ' the Open operation fails and an error occurs.
      Open strFileName For Binary Access Read Lock Read As #1
      Close #1

      ' If an error occurs, the document is currently open.
      If Err.Number <> 0 Then
         ' Display the error number and description.
         MsgBox "Error #" & Str(Err.Number) & " - " & Err.Description
         FileLocked = True
         Err.Clear
      End If
   End Function

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q173707
   TITLE     : OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

   ARTICLE-ID: Q159345
   TITLE     : WD97: Macro to Determine If File Is Already Open

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
               Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vb vba vbe

Keywords          : kbdta kbdtacode OffVBA word8 word97 
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: April 7, 1999