Can't Display Dialog Box from VBA Macro If Workbooks Hidden (125765)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, if a workbook is not visible in the workspace and you run a macro or procedure that attempts to display a built-in dialog box that requires that a workbook be active, you may receive the following error message:

Run-time error '1004':
Show method of Dialog Class failed.

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers 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 requirements. To work around this problem, you must make at least one workbook visible in the workspace before you attempt to display the built-in dialog box.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro is an example of how to show the xlDialogSaveAs (Save As dialog) when all open workbooks are hidden.

   Sub SaveHidden()
       ' Sets the Visible property to False.
       ActiveWindow.Visible = False

       ' Sets ScreenUpdating to False.
       Application.ScreenUpdating = False

       ' Sets the macro workbook Visible property to True.
       Windows(ThisWorkbook.Name).Visible = True

       ' Displays the SaveAs Dialogbox.
       Application.Dialogs(xlDialogSaveAs).Show ("Book1.xls")

       ' Resets the Visible property to False.
       ActiveWindow.Visible = False

   End Sub