Question

The Excel 2003 API has a GetSaveAsFilename method that pops up the Save As dialog. This takes in various parameters, including the file type (xls, txt, csv,…), something like the following:

GetSaveAsFilename(Missing.Value,
                  "Microsoft Office Excel Workbook (*.xls), *.xls",
                  1,
                  Missing.Value,
                  Missing.Value);

My issue is, I see only “*.xls” in the dialog File type dropdown. If I skip the file type part (the 2nd parameter), I see just “All Files (*.*)” in it. How can I get to see the normal list that contains all possible file types without creating a long string of all file types and passing it to the method?

Answer 1

Here’s a link that may be able to help. The relevant post is the third item. It’s not an ideal solution (which would be some constant), but it could be a way for you to programmatically loop through the available filters and build up a string to use in GetSaveAsFilename.

Here’s the relevant part of the code:

Sub Main()

'Declare a variable as a FileDialogFilters collection.
Dim fdfs As FileDialogFilters

'Declare a variable as a FileDialogFilter object.
Dim fdf As FileDialogFilter

'Set the FileDialogFilters collection variable to
'the FileDialogFilters collection of the SaveAs dialog box.
Set fdfs = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogSaveAs).Filters

'Iterate through the description and extensions of each
'default filter in the SaveAs dialog box.
For Each fdf In fdfs

    'Display the description of filters that include
    Debug.Print fdf.Description & " (" & fdf.Extensions & ")," & fdf.Extensions

Next fdf

End Sub

Hope this helps!