Share via

FileDialog.InitialFileName Property

  • Article
Office Developer Reference

Set or returns a String representing the path or file name that is initially displayed in a file dialog box. Read/write.

Syntax

expression.InitialFileName

expression   A variable that represents a FileDialog object.

Remarks

You can use the '*' and '?' wildcard characters when specifying the file name but not when specifying the path. The '*' symbol represents any number of consecutive characters and the '?' represents a single character. For example, .InitialFileName = "c:\c*s.txt" returns both "charts.txt" and "checkregister.txt."

If you specify a path and no file name, then all files that are allowed by the file filter appear in the dialog box.

If you specify a file that exists in the initial folder, then only that file appears in the dialog box.

If you specify a file name that does not exist in the initial folder, then the dialog box contains no files. The type of file that you specify in the InitialFileName property overrides the file filter settings.

If you specify an invalid path, the last-used path is used. A message warns users when an invalid path is used.

Setting this property to a string longer than 256 characters causes a run-time error.

Example

The following example displays a File Picker dialog box using the FileDialog object and displays each selected file in a message box.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Sub Main()

'Declare a variable as a FileDialog object
Dim fd As FileDialog

'Create a FileDialog object as a <strong class="ui">File Picker</strong> dialog box.
Set fd = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)

'Declare a variable to contain the path
'of each selected item. Even though the path is aString,
'the variable must be a Variant because For Each...Next
'routines only work with Variants and Objects.
Dim vrtSelectedItem As Variant

'Use a With...End With block to reference the FileDialog object.
With fd

    'Set the initial path to the C:\ drive.
    .InitialFileName = "C:\"

    'Use the Show method to display the <strong class="ui">File Picker</strong> dialog box and return the user's action.
    'If the user presses the button...
    If .Show = -1 Then

        'Step through each string in the FileDialogSelectedItems collection.
        For Each vrtSelectedItem In .SelectedItems

            'vrtSelectedItem is aString that contains the path of each selected item.
            'You can use any file I/O functions that you want to work with this path.
            'This example displays the path in a message box.
            MsgBox "Selected item's path: " &amp; vrtSelectedItem

        Next vrtSelectedItem
    'If the user presses Cancel...
    Else
    End If
End With

'Set the object variable to Nothing.
Set fd = Nothing



End Sub

See Also