Launching Standalone Program from within Excel.

[ExcelMonkey]

Is it possible to launch a standalone program from within Excel. That is, I
want to have a .exe - that I have created in VB 2005 - launch based on the
click of an icon or click of a menue item from withing Excel.

The idea being that I have chosen to create the project in a standalone for
and not as an XLA. The question now is how to launch it from Excel or am I
restricted to launching it from outside of Excel?

If its possible I am assuming that I will have to create some logic in my
standalone program which creates the linkages in Excel (i.e. tool bar/menu
items) upon install.

Thanks

EM

 

[Charles Chickering]

This will require some kind of workbook in Excel. You could theoretically
place the code in personal.xls but then you have to assume that your users
have personal.xls. You're probably better off with an addin to hold the code.
The code you need in Excel is something like this:
Sub LaunchYourApp()
Dim RetVal As Variant
RetVal = Shell("YourApp.exe", vbNormalFocus)
End Sub

You can have your program install the addin via ActiveX if you would like. I
can send you some code to do this if you would like. Let me know.

 

[Nigel]

Use shell e.g.

Result = Shell("C:\windows\system32\calc.exe", 1)

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Try it this way...

Shell Environ("COMSPEC") & " /c """ & FileName & """"

where FileName is your executable's name (with extension) qualified by its
full path.

Rick

 

[ExcelMonkey]

Thanks for the repsonses. Yes it would be helpful to see an example of the
XLA code.

I was originally going down the XLA path when I began building this
application. I was simply going to make it an XLA add-in. But I decided
that I wanted to create some security in the application that went above and
beyond the general password protection in XLAs. The catch is that the
stand-alone application does not yet feel like an integrated add-in (like an
XLA would). I want to try to create some connectivity with the user while
they are in Excel. Ironically, I may have to introduce an XLA element to
this!

Thanks

EM