Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 18, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
As you are programming your macros, you may have a need to determine if a particular file exists on disk. For instance, the purpose of your macro may be to open and read from a text file. Before doing so, you will want to check to see if the file exists, in order to avoid an error.
The following function can be used to check for the existence of a file. All you need to do is pass it the full filename as a string, and the macro returns either True (if the file exists) or False (if it doesn't).
Function FileThere(FileName As String) As Boolean FileThere = (Dir(FileName) > "") End Function
You can also use the function similar to the following:
If FileThere("c:\myfile.txt") Then ' ' Do stuff here ' Else MsgBox "File Not There!" End If
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11831) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Determining if a File Exists.
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