Open file in excel from labview

Question

I need a way to open an existing Excel file, that may or may not be open already.  I am using the attached "Open Specific WorkBook.vi" from the examples.  My LabVIEW program must be able to either open a specifc Excel workbook and worksheet even if it is already open.  Is this even possible, or would it be better to close it (if open), the open it again?
Attachments:
Open Specific WorkBook.vi ‏37 KB

Answer 1

As you probably know, nothing "bad" happens when you open Excel if it's already open, it just doesn't come to the front of your LabVIIEW ap. To get it to the front, Minimize the Excel window then immediately Maximize it (or Normalize it) programmatically with a PN.  I have tried many of the other methods (but not all of them) to no avail, this works for me. There may be a more elegant solution.
There are other known methods to bring an ap to the front, with callbacks etc, but they can be clunky, or require Userlib32, etc. Since this property node already exists in your ap, it's comes at little expense.
Of course, you may want to check that the ap was open before you do this, but even that is optional, at the expense of a little flashing on the screen.
Richard
Attachments:
windowState.gif ‏4 KB