Full Path to Workbook

Update on my 2021 comment: The "Copy as Path" option in the context menu has disappeared, so I couldn't replicate the method there. However, the "Save As" dialogue opened today with the file name selected, so Ctrl-C put it in the clipboard. A left click in the path at the top of the dialogue selected that and Ctrl-C put it in the clipboard, so both can be easily copied and pasted, particularly if a clipboard history tool like Ditto is used.

As I understand this site, Comments are meant for questions or useful hints, not for rants.

Left clicking (or even right clicking) on the file path does nothing. It's not even clickable.

This article just exemplifies the ridiculousness of Windows. Microsoft wants to split the atoms when all is required is File>Save As.

Don't waste your time trying to learn Windows. it won't be around for much longer.

In Excel 365 I found that Save As, then a right-click on the file name and choosing "Copy as Path" puts the full path in the clipboard without any quote marks. My QAT is full and MS keeps on whittling away at the available space with all sorts of unnecessary (IMHO) stuff, so I baulked at adding another button to my QAT, but "Save As" is already there, so it takes two clicks to get the file path into the clipboard.

Background:
I tried RE Harrison's comment of 2016-12-18, but a right click on the file name brought no "Copy as Path" option in my Excel 365, so I looked around a bit more.

Update #2 of my previous comment:

Hallelujah, I've got it! Finally I found a place with warning about this issue - an old post from 2013, but still saving my days. Many thanks to Barry Houdini for this rare and valuable post.

https://superuser.com/questions/606048/how-do-you-insert-the-current-file-name-in-excel#:~:text=Try%20%3DCELL(%22filename%22,in%20a%20new%20unsaved%20workbook.

OK, I only have to conclude that it was meant as a "feature" in Excel, but ... as my local byword would say: it's not a sin, but ain't nice either.

Update of my previous comment:

At the same time it seems that workbook path obtained by Page Layout > Header correctly reflects the real workbook location as expected, so the previously mentioned "feature" smells probably more to a bug.

Hi Alen,

I just tried a solution with CALL("Filename") you mentioned here above and I discovered that, as it seems, it DOES NOT function fully in compliance with widely published descriptions I found. Therefore, I suppose you might be interested in checking up and revise these descriptions, as well as spread the word if justified.

When I applied the function =cell("filename") on Windows 10 - Office 2016 - HP notebook, I expected to ensure the file path of where the currently used xslx file consisting that function actually is located. Unfortunately, by opening (within the same Excel instance) more xlsx documents stored in different directories, I encountered very disappointing and confusing fact: after opening a new document in some different directory, the paths in previously correctly opened documents were automatically "updated" to point now also to the same file path as the last opened document! However, such a behaviour makes that function to me useless, even dangerous, because the user could think is working on one document, while actually is working on another one! Anyway, if this is a "feature" rather than a bug in Excel, I wonder where this function can be securely used at all.

I would be really glad to learn that in fact I missed something here and I made a mistake by myself, but so far I couldn't find anything like that.

Thanks for your attention.

Kind regards,
ZA

@Thomas Barc
Press F12 instead of File > Save As, but if you use File > Save As, then click the "current file path" at the top of the screen.

In Excel 2010, the "Save As" button was a simple way to re-name a file OR to place a copy into another directory. In Excel 2010, the default action of "Save As" automatically suggested not only the current filename but also the current file path as the "new" name & location for saving -- making "Save As" act like "Save" but with special powers for the user to decide whether (or not) to edit the file name and/or the filepath for the currently open (and often newly edited copy of the) original file -- before actually "saving" the file "as" something else or somewhere else. This was also a quick & easy way to verify the location of an open file I was working on; I sometimes used "Save As" (when I only wanted to "Save") just to see the prompt of both the filename and location of the workbook I was working in.

In Excel2019, "Save AS" makes me hunt for the original path among an often long list of recent directories I've opened.

How do I modify my setting so Excel2019 suggests (defaults to) the current file path when using the "Save AS" command (like it did in Excel 2010)?

Thank you for this tip. It's helped me immensely.

Hello,

Until this week, every time I used F12 in order to "save as" file name was completely the same but from this week, it always returns "copy of (file name)". Earlier, I saved the file with ____(1) if the file type is the same or with the same name if the type is different (xlsx/csv).
But now I can't run off "copy of ___"....
Do you have an idea what I need to do in order to change default file name (copy of__ ) during F12 keystroke in excel process?

@John Finley

The question mark is an alias for debug.print. So in the immediate window
"? activeworkbook.fullname" or
"debug.print activeworkbook.fullname"
are exactly the same.

You can use the first only in the Immediate window while the second is used in Subs or Functions for evaluation purposes.

Last tip is a great idea, but it works better if you preface the object with Debug.Print

I have found it much easier by adding the 'Document Location' selection to the QAT. It is right there in front of you, all the time. Just click in it, and since the file path and name are already highlighted, just hit 'Ctrl+C' and it is in the ClipBoard.

If you only need the file name, not the path, just copy the name at the end of the string. Or if just the path, only copy it from the start of the string.

To extend MW's comment, one can right click on the file name and choose "Copy as Path" which copies the whole path and filename to the clipboard, which can then be pasted in emails, hyperlinks etc. (although some (non Microsoft?) programs balk at the quotation marks that are put at the beginning and end of the path|filename). I use this all the time and it's very handy.

This is an outstanding summary of the many ways to coax the file name from Microsoft Excel. Except for the QAT text box, I have used every one of these methods at one time or another.

Another variation of the worksheet formula that I have used from time to time involves extracting either the sheet name or the file name from the string returned by cell("Filename"). With a little more effort, and a helping of VBA, you can even extract the path for use in other formulas. Perhaps the must immediately useful such formula makes it possible to create hyperlinks to related documents that live in the same folder as the workbook. Getting the path from a formula makes these links almost unbreakable.

This frustrated me until I discovered that on the Info Tab, under the Properties column at the bottom you see:

Related Documents
Open File Location

Clicking on Open File Location, quickly opens the folder location in an Explorer window.

On the Home Tab of the Explorer ribbon click "Copy Path" -- it is copied to the clipboard

Or, clicking AFTER the last folder name in the navigation bar highlights the entire path, copy it and it is also on your clipboard.

No editing of a URL required either.