After creating a workbook or after working on one, you may want to save it. To visually save a workbook, you can click the Office Button and click Save You can also press Ctrl + S. If the document was saved already, it would be saved behind the scenes without your doing anything else.

To support the ability to programmatically save a workbook, the Workbook class is equipped with a method named Save. Its syntax is:

Workbook.Save()

As you can see, this method takes no argument. If you click the Office Button and click Save or if you call the Workbook.Save() method on a work that was not saved yet, you would be prompted to provide a name to the workbook.

To save a workbook to a different location, you can click the Office Button, position the mouse on Save As and select from the presented options. You can also press F12. To assist you with programmatically saving a workbook, the Workbook class is equipped with a method named SaveAs. Its syntax is:

Workbook.SaveAs(FileName,
		  FileFormat,
		  Password,
		  WriteResPassword,
		  ReadOnlyRecommended,
		  CreateBackup,
		  AccessMode,
		  ConflictResolution,
		  AddToMru,
		  TextCodepage,
		  TextVisualLayout,
		  Local)

The first argument is the only required one. It holds the name or path to the file. Therefore, you can provide only a name of the file with extension when you call it. Here is an example:

Private Sub cmdNewWorkbook_Click()
    Dim SchoolRecords As Workbook
    
    Set SchoolRecords = Workbooks.Add
    
    SchoolRecords.SaveAs "SchoolRecords.xlsx"
End Sub

If you provide only the name of a file when calling this method, the new workbook would be saved in the current directory or in My Documents. If you want, an alternative is to provide a complete path to the file.

If you have a workbook in your computer or one that was sent to you, you can open it. To visually open a workbook, you can click the Office Button and click Open. You can also press Ctrl + O. This would display the Open dialog box where you can locate the file and click Open. If a workbook was sent to you by email or otherwise, you can double-click. This would automatically lauch Microsoft Excel and display the document.

Microsoft Excel is a multiple document interface (MDI) application. This means that you can open many workbooks at the same time and be limited only by the memory on your computer. For this reason, thhe ability to programmatically open a workbook is handled by the Workbooks collection. To support this, the Workbooks class is equipped with a method named Open. Its syntax is:

Workbooks.Open(FileName,
	       UpdateLinks,
	       ReadOnly,
	       Format,
	       Password,
	       WriteResPassword,
	       IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended,
	       Origin,
	       Delimiter,
	       Editable,
	       Notify,
	       Converter,
	       AddToMru,
	       Local,
	       CorruptLoad)

FileName is the only required argument. When calling this method, you must provide the name of the file or its path. This means that you can provide a file name with its extension. Here is an example:

Private Sub cmdOpenWorkbook_Click()
    Workbooks.Open "SchoolRecords.xlsx"
End Sub

If you provide only the name of a file, Microsoft Excel would look for for the file in the current directory or in My Documents. If Microsoft Excel cannot file the file, you would receive an error:

As you can imagine, a better alternative is to provide a complete path to the file.

As mentioned already, Microsoft Excel is a multiple document interface (MDI). This means that the application allows you to switch from one workbook to another, or be able to display all of them sharing the same screen. If you create or open many workbooks and while you are working on them, each is represented on the taskbar by a button. You can click the button of the desired workbook on the taskbar to access it. As an alternative, on the Ribbon, you can click View. In the Window section, click Switch Windows and click the desired document. The workbook you are currently using would have a check mark on it:

When many workbooks have been opened in, to display many of them, on the Ribbon, click View. In the Window section, click Arrange All. This would display the Arrange Window dialog box. From there you can select one of the radio buttons:

• Tiled: The workbooks would display side by side:

• Horizontal: Each workbook would display horizontally

• Vertically: The workbooks would display side by side:

• Cascade: The workbooks would be presented one on top of the other:

To access a workbook:

• You can click its title bar
• On the Ribbon, click View. In the Window section, click Switch Windows, and select its name from the list

To support the ability the programmatically accept a workbook, the Workbook class is equipped with a method named Activate. Its syntax is:

Workbook.Activate()

This method takes no argument. Therefore, to call it, you can get a reference to the workbook you want to access, then call the Activate() method. Here is an example:

Private Sub cmdSelectWorkbook_Click()
    Dim SchoolRecords As Workbook
    
    Set SchoolRecords = Workbooks.Item(2)
    SchoolRecords.Activate
End Sub

You can also do this with less code by applying the index directly to the Workbooks collection. Here is an example:

Private Sub cmdSelectWorkbook_Click()
    Workbooks(2).Activate
End Sub

If you create or open many workbooks and while you are working on them, each is represented on the taskbar by a button. You can click the button of the desired workbook on the taskbar to access it. As an alternative, on the Ribbon, you can click View. In the Window section, click Switch Windows and click the desired document. The workbook you are currently using would have a check mark on it:

To programmatically refer to a workbook, access the Item property and pass either the index or the file name of the workbook to it. Here is an example:

Private Sub cmdSelectWorkbook_Click()
    Workbooks.Item (2)
End Sub

After refering to a workbook, if you want to perform an action on it, you must get a reference to it. To do this, declare a Workbook variable and assign the calling Item() to it. This would be done as follows:

Private Sub cmdSelectWorkbook_Click()
    Dim SchoolRecords As Workbook
    
    Set SchoolRecords = Workbooks.Item(2)
End Sub

One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Excel views is that you can juxtapose two or more workbooks to share the same screen. After creating or opening at least two workbooks, to let them share the screen allocated to Microsoft Excel, on the Ribbon, click View. In the Window section, click View Side by Side. This would open the Compare Side by Side dialog box. From there, click the workbook that will share the screen with the current workbook:

After making the selection, click OK. Each workbook would be displayed each horizontally while they are sharing the work area of Microsoft Excel. Each workbook would have a title bar on its top, the vertical and scroll bars:

To access a workbook:

• You can click its title bar
• On the Ribbon, click View. In the Window section, click Switch Windows, and select its name from the list

To close a workbook, you can click its system Close button.