Controlling Alerts and Updating in MS Excel OLE Server (153043)

RESOLUTION

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. In order to effectively disable screen updating or displaying alerts in Microsoft Excel while Microsoft Excel is an OLE server in an OLE Automation session, you must either make sure that the calls are made from Microsoft Excel by running a Microsoft Excel macro to perform the tasks or write the code in such a way as to prevent the occurrence in the first place.

Workaround 1: Running a Microsoft Excel Macro from an OLE Controller

You could use the Run method from the OLE controller to tell Microsoft Excel to run a macro that exists in Microsoft Excel. From this macro you can effectively include DisplayAlerts or ScreenUpdating before the commands in question.

If Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 is being used as the OLE controller application, you could alternatively place the Visual Basic code that controls Microsoft Excel into an in-process (DLL) OLE Server. The classes provided by the in-process server must be created in a Microsoft Excel macro, not by a Visual Basic program, unless the Visual Basic program is another DLL loaded by Microsoft Excel.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Workaround 2: Write Code to Avoid the Behavior

You can anticipate what methods may cause a dialog box to appear and write the code to avoid the dialog box. This could also be true for screen updating, but it sometimes can't be avoided.

Following are two examples of code using Microsoft Project as the OLE controller application that will avoid prompts for user input. This code could easily be applied to other OLE controller applications that support OLE Automation.

The following Visual Basic for Applications macro uses OLE Automation to delete a sheet in a newly created workbook and to save the workbook to the hard drive. It avoids using the Delete method (which produces a warning message) and uses the Move method, instead, to avoid the message.

1. In Microsoft Project, create a new module sheet. To do this, on the Tools menu, click Macros, and then click New. For the Macro Name, type Delete_WorkSheet and click OK.
2. In the module, on the Tools menu, click References.
3. In the References dialog box, select the Microsoft Excel 5.0 Object Library check box and click OK.
4. On the new module sheet, enter the following macro (notice that the first and last line of code already exists from step 1 and does not need to be repeated):

   Sub Delete_Worksheet()
   
            ' Dimension variables.
   
            ' This assumes that a reference has been made to
            ' the Microsoft Excel 5.0 Object Library.
            Dim oXL As Excel.Application
            Dim oWBook As Object
   
            ' Starts a new invisible instance of Microsoft Excel.
            Set oXL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
            ' Adds a new workbook to the running instance of Microsoft Excel.
            Set oWBook = oXL.Workbooks.Add
            ' Moves the first sheet of the workbook into a new workbook
            ' and makes the new workbook active.
            oWBook.Sheets(1).Move
            ' Closes the new workbook containing the undesired sheet
            ' without saving changes.
            oXL.ActiveWorkbook.Close False
            ' Save the original workbook minus the first sheet with
            ' name as listed below. If running the procedure on the
            ' Macintosh, you will need to change the next line to a valid
            ' location on the hard drive similar to the following:
            ' oWBook.SaveAs FileName:="Macintosh HD:test.xls"
            '
            oWBook.SaveAs FileName:="C:\my documents\test.xls"
            ' Closes the original workbook without saving changes.
            oWBook.Close False
            oXL.Quit    ' Closes the invisible instance of Microsoft Excel.
   
            ' Clear memory by removing the contents of the two object
            ' variables created.
            Set oXL = Nothing
            Set oWBook = Nothing
   
         End Sub
   						

The following Visual Basic for Applications macro uses OLE Automation to save a workbook to the hard drive with the same name as an existing workbook. It avoids the prompt "Replace existing file?" by saving the file as another file name and renaming the file back to the desired name. The same algorithm could be used when you're opening a Microsoft Excel file that's in an earlier file format and re-saving it as the same name in the normal Microsoft Excel format.

1. In Microsoft Project, create a new module sheet. To do this, on the Tools menu, click Macros, and then click New. For the Macro Name, type Avoid_Replace_Existing and click OK.
2. In the module, on the Tools menu, click References.
3. In the References dialog box, select the Microsoft Excel 5.0 Object Library check box and click OK.
4. On the new module sheet, enter the following macro (notice that the first and last line of code already exists from step 1 and does not need to be repeated):

   Sub Avoid_Replace_Existing()
   
            ' Dimension variables.
   
            ' This assumes that a reference has been made to
            ' the Microsoft Excel 5.0 Object Library.
            Dim oXL As Excel.Application
            Dim oWBook As Object
            Dim Fname As String
   
            ' Assign workbook file & path that will be replaced to string
            ' variable. If running the procedure on the Macintosh, you will
            ' need to change the next line to a valid location on the hard
            ' drive similar to the following:
            ' Fname = "Macintosh HD:test.xls"
            '
            Fname = "C:\my documents\test.xls"
            ' Starts a new invisible instance of Microsoft Excel.
            Set oXL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
            ' Adds a new workbook to the running instance of Microsoft Excel.
            Set oWBook = oXL.Workbooks.Add
   
            ' Checks to see if the file already exists.
            If Dir(Fname) <> "" Then
               ' Turn off error checking in case the file, "temp.xls"
               ' does not exist and causes an error when we try to delete it.
               On Error Resume Next
               ' Delete the temporary file (if it exists).
               ' If running the procedure on the Macintosh, you will need
               ' to change the next line to a valid location on the hard
               ' drive similar to the following:
               ' Kill "Macintosh HD:temp.xls"
               '
               Kill "C:\temp.xls"
               ' Disables "On Error Resume Next" and will allow
               ' Microsoft Excel to halt with an error for the remainder
               ' of the code.
               On Error GoTo 0
               ' Save the file in the normal format as 'temp.xls'
               ' If running the procedure on the Macintosh, you will need
               ' to change the next line to a valid location on the hard
               ' drive similar to the following:
               ' oXL.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs FileName:="Macintosh HD:temp.xls"
               '
               oXL.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs FileName:="C:\temp.xls"
               ' Close the workbook without saving changes.
               oXL.ActiveWorkbook.Close savechanges:=False
               Kill Fname 'Deletes the original file from the Hard Disk.
               ' Renames "temp.xls" as the file & path in the variable Fname.
               ' If running the procedure on the Macintosh, you will need
               ' to change the next line to a valid location on the hard
               ' drive similar to the following:
               ' Name "Macintosh HD:temp.xls" As Fname
               '
               Name "C:\temp.xls" As Fname
            Else
               ' Otherwise, if the file did not already exist in the path
               ' given, just save it there normally.
               oXL.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs FileName:=Fname
            End If
            oXL.Quit ' Closes the invisible instance of Microsoft Excel.
            Set oXL = Nothing 'Removes the variable from memory.
            Set oWBook = Nothing 'Removes the variable from memory.
         End Sub
   						

   Application.DisplayAlerts = FALSE
				

   Application.ScreenUpdating = FALSE