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How to: Activate Workbooks

Visual Studio 2010

The Activate method of the Workbooks collection activates a Microsoft Office Excel workbook and selects the first sheet in the workbook.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

To activate a workbook

Use the Activate method of the Workbooks collection.


((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook)
    this.Application.Workbooks[1]).Activate();

You can index into the Workbooks collection using either integers (indicating the position within the collection) or workbook names. If you want to refer to a workbook by name, you must use the name as it appears in the title bar, which does not include the file name extension until you save the file.

To reference individual workbooks

Use the position number or the name of the workbook.


Excel.Workbook wb = this.Application.Workbooks[1];

// Before Book1 is saved:
wb = this.Application.Workbooks["Book1"];

// After Book1 is saved:
wb = this.Application.Workbooks["Book1.xls"];