setting the default extension in clscommondialog

[bravefool]

I have created the following function to show a popup file selection window. It works great except for one thing, it does not accept the default string properly, or rather it ignores it. What I have tried to do is to pass "*.doc" as the default extension but it does not take. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Phil

Here is the code:

Function DoComDialog(title As String, def_ext As String)

Rem This subroutine allows the user to pick a file and path from a popup menu
Dim commonDialog1 As New clsCommonDialog

With commonDialog1

.DialogTitle = title
.Filter = "Excel Spreadsheets (*.xls)|*.xls|Word Documents (*.doc)|*.doc|All files (*.*)|*.*"
.DefaultExt = def_ext
.ShowOpen
DoComDialog = .Filename

End With

End Function

 

[Crowley16]

the correct syntax for adding filters is:

.filter.add "name", "[delimited file types]"

this is assuming you are using the access native open dialog.

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[bravefool]

Thanks for this. I am using comdlg32.dll. Maybe my mail wasn't clear, or perhaps I misunderstand you, but my question is concerning the default extension for the dialog box. I want to be able to select Word documents as being the initial filter. The filter selection dropdown is working as I have it...

Thanks again,

Phil

 

[Crowley16]

if you're using the windows native dialog, then the delimiter you need to use is vbNullChar

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[bravefool]

It is this line that doesn't seem to be working:

commonDialog1.DefaultExt = def_ext

I set def_ext = "*.doc" and it still shows "*.xls" in the popup. Where and how would I apply vbNullChar?

Thanks a million!

 

[Crowley16]

by default, the default extension is the first one you put in your filter string...

however you can set it by putting in the extension WITHOUT the *.

ie.e def_ext = "DOC"

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[bravefool]

Just tried it, it doesn't work. Any other ideas?

 

[Crowley16]

it works fine for me...

are you sure it's not something else?

look at the methods for the library...

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[bravefool]

Could it be that I need to set something else? FilterIndex perhaps? Did you use exactly the same code as me?

 

[Crowley16]

I did use a filter index...

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[bravefool]

Ok. So now here comes a dumb question:

What do I need to set the FilterIndex to?

Can you show me the code you used that worked so I am sure I am not missing something?

Thanks again.

 

[Crowley16]

I set the filter index to 1

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[bravefool]

I now have solved the problem. I got rid of the DefaultExt altogether and set the FilterIndex equal one of 3 constants which I defined to have the values 1,2 and 3. It simply takes the nth entry in the filter list. So in my example Word would be 2 and I pass a constant called defWord to my function.

Anyway, thanks again for all of your help!

Phil