Excel Doesn't Complete Macro after Opening Another Workbook

Question

I'm trying to get VBA to fire the commands

sImportFilePath = Application.GetOpenFilename(FileFilter:= _
"Excel Files (*.xls), *.xls", Title:="Choose The Source File")
Application.Workbooks.Open (sImportFilePath)
sImportFileName = FunctionGetFileName(sImportFilePath)

And they work when I step through the function, but when I use the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+F or any other hotkey, the Application.Workbooks.Open command works but it navigates the the new Excel document, then doesn't do anything. However, when I open "Macros" in the developer tab, select my macro, and click "Run" everything is runs fine.

Answer 1

I actually ran into this exact problem myself and finally found a solution to my problem.

It is the Shift button in the keyboard shortcut you are using to call your code.

Apparently there a feature in Excel specifically designed to prevent code from running when a workbook is opened and the Shift key is pressed, but unfortunately this also impacts opening workbooks with the Workbook.Open method via VBA. This was mentioned in KB Article 555263, applying to Excel 2000 & 2003, but I encountered the same problem in Excel 2010, so I imagine it is also impacting 2007 as well.

This occurs specifically when you try to open a workbook via code very early in the program. If the Workbook.Open call is reached in code before you have had sufficient time to actually let go of the Shift button, Excel is interpreting that as an attempt to block code from running and aborts the process. And there are no error messages or anything that I have found. It just stops abruptly.

The workaround/fix is to force the code to wait for the Shift key to be released before issuing the Workbook.Open command.

Per the article, just add this code to your macro and that should do it:

'Declare API
Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "User32" (ByVal vKey As Integer) As Integer
Const SHIFT_KEY = 16

Function ShiftPressed() As Boolean
'Returns True if shift key is pressed
    ShiftPressed = GetKeyState(SHIFT_KEY) < 0
End Function

Sub Demo()
    Do While ShiftPressed()
        DoEvents
    Loop
    Workbooks.Open Filename:="C:\MyPath\MyFile.xlsx"
End Sub

(NOTE: This code is for 32-bit versions of Excel. 64-bit versions will need to use the PtrSafe attribute on the Declare statement).

If you don't want to add the extra code, then your only other options are to not use Ctrl+Shift+Some Letter to launch a macro, or to put the Workbook.Open command later in the macro (not right at the beginning) in order to give yourself time to release the Shift button after starting it.

Answer 2

Just adding a single call to "DoEvents" before calling Workbooks.Open will already do the trick. So the folloiwng snippet will work:

DoEvents
Workbooks.Open Filename:="C:\MyPath\MyFile.xlsx"

Answer 3

Question did you have a line of code selecting multiple tabs anytime before this line of code? I have found that this is sort of like holding in the shift key the entire time they're selected. To resolve this I had the macro ungroup (single select) a tab and the macro began working then.