Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Switching Windows in a Macro.

Switching Windows in a Macro

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated August 25, 2021)

3

Andrew needs to display a dialog box in his macro that allows a user to switch windows. When someone displays the View tab of the ribbon and clicks the Switch Windows tool, it shows the available workbooks to which the user can switch. Those are what Andrew needs to show up in the dialog box. He wonders if there is a built-in dialog box to do this, or if he needs to create his own.

The short answer is that there is no built-in dialog box to accomplish this task. You can, however, easily create your own. Here is a simple example:

Sub SwitchWindows()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim n As Integer
    Dim s As String
    Dim v As Variant

    n = Windows.Count
    s = "Choose Window from:"
    For i = 1 To n
        s = s & Chr(10) & i & ")  " & Windows(i).Caption
    Next
    s = s & Chr(10) & "Enter a number from 1 to " & n
    v = Application.InputBox(prompt:=s, Type:=2)
    i = Val(v)
    If i >= 1 And i <= n Then
        Windows(i).Activate
    End If
End Sub

All this does is create a list of the names for each window in your system. It presents them in an InputBox, and then switches to whatever window the user selected.

If you are seeking different ways to present the same information, you can refer to this tip.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11911) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Switching Windows in a Macro.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Adding Borders to Cell Contents

Word allows you to quickly add borders to cells in a table, but you may not know that you can also add borders to the ...

Discover More

Remembering Copies to Print

If you routinely need to print more than one copy of a document, you'll love the ideas presented in this tip. There's ...

Discover More

Automatically Adding 20% to an Entry

When you are developing a worksheet for others to use, you may want to have entries in a particular cell (or cells) be ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Quickly Dumping Array Contents

Variable arrays are used quite often in macros. If you use an array once in your macro and then need to reuse it for ...

Discover More

Searching Very Large Strings in a Macro

VBA provides a few different ways you can search for information within strings. This tip looks at the most efficient ...

Discover More

Deriving an Absolute Value in a Macro

Need to figure out an absolute value within your macro code? It's easy to do using the Abs function, described in this tip.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine minus 5?

2021-12-16 15:16:20

J. Woolley

Instead of switching windows with a macro, it might be better to switch workbooks:

Sub SwitchWorkbooks()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim n As Integer
    Dim s As String
    Dim v As Variant

    n = Workbooks.Count
    s = "Choose Workbook from:"
    For i = 1 To n
        s = s & Chr(10) & i & ") " & Workbooks(i).Name
    Next
    s = s & Chr(10) & "Enter a number from 1 to " & n
    v = Application.InputBox(prompt:=s, Type:=2)
    i = Val(v)
    If i >= 1 And i <= n Then
        Workbooks(i).Activate
    End If
End Sub

2021-12-14 12:08:11

BJ Thomas

Hello and thanks for such great tips! I also received an error in Office 365 - is this version restricted or am I the actual issue? Thanks! BJ

2016-06-18 06:57:01

Steve Askins

Allen - useful approach but I find it does not work if one of the open work books has more than one window open.

I get a Runtime error 13 and the debugger hightlights i=Val(v)

Any suggestions?

Steve
PS hope your son's wedding goes well!

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2022 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.