Loading an Excel Add-in

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You can load a Microsoft® Excel add-in in one of three ways:

  • **Manually   **Select the check box next to the name of the add-in in the Add-Ins dialog box on the Tools menu.
  • **Automatically when Excel starts   **Save the add-in to the ..\ \Excel\XLStart subfolder. You can change the location of the XLStart subfolder on the General tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu).
  • **Programmatically   **Use the Add method of the AddIns collection to add the add-in to the list of available add-ins, and then set the Installed property of the corresponding AddIn object to True.

For example, the following procedure loads an add-in by first checking whether it is in the AddIns collection and adding it if it is not. Then, the procedure sets the add-in's Installed property to True. To call this procedure, pass in the path and file name of the add-in that you want to add:

Function Load_XL_AddIn(strFilePath As String) As Boolean
   ' Checks whether add-in is in collection, and
   ' then loads it. To call this procedure, pass
   ' in add-in's path and file name.

   Dim addXL            As Excel.AddIn
   Dim strAddInName     As String
   
   On Error Resume Next
   ' Call ParsePath function to return file name only.
   strAddInName = ParsePath(strFilePath, FILE_ONLY)
   ' Remove extension from file name to get add-in name.
   strAddInName = Left(strAddInName, Len(strAddInName) - 4)
   ' Attempt to return reference to add-in.
   Set addXL = Excel.AddIns(strAddInName)
   If Err <> 0 Then
      Err.Clear
      ' If add-in is not in collection, add it.
      Set addXL = Excel.AddIns.Add(strFilePath)
      If Err <> 0 Then
         ' If error occurs, exit procedure.
         Load_XL_AddIn = False
         GoTo Load_XL_AddIn_End
      End If
   End If
   ' Load add-in.
   If Not addXL.Installed Then addXL.Installed = True
   Load_XL_AddIn = True
   
Load_XL_AddIn_End:
   Exit Function
End Function

See Also

Excel Add-ins | Creating an Excel Add-in | Running Code Automatically When an Excel Add-in Is Loaded or Unloaded