Maximum length of file name?

[Eric_NY]

Does Excel impose a different limit on the length of file names than Windows
does?

I'm trying to open a file with a long name. (The name including multi-level
nested folders plus the file name itself.) I can see the file in Windows
Explorer, but when I try to double-click to open it in the normal way, Excel
gives me the message: <file name> could not be found. Check the spelling ...

When I try to open it from within Excel using File Open, the file does not
even appear in the folder.

Obviously one solution is to shorten the file name or folder name and that
seems to work. But I often work with files in multiple-nested folders, so I'm
trying to understand what the problem is.

I'm using Excel 2003 and Windows XP, and the file is on a network file server.

Thanks.

 

[Sheeloo]

There is no difference.

It might be due to the network... the way it passes the filename to Excel.

Try to copy it to your hard drive and try to open...

 

[Joel]

You start running into problems when the path name gets to be approximately
128 characters. Yo get different error messages depending on the exact
length of the filename. Some error message say it can't open the file and
others can't find the file. We have mapped netwrok drives at work and we add
additional mapped drives to help solve the problem.

Instead of mapping to

H:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1\task1

Add a new mapped drive to

x:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1

Then your filename will be book1.xls instead of
H:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1\task1\book1.xls.

 

[Eric_NY]

Good idea! I like that.

You start running into problems when the path name gets to be approximately
128 characters. Yo get different error messages depending on the exact
length of the filename. Some error message say it can't open the file and
others can't find the file. We have mapped netwrok drives at work and we add
additional mapped drives to help solve the problem.

Instead of mapping to

H:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1\task1

Add a new mapped drive to

x:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1

Then your filename will be book1.xls instead of
H:\projectdir\subdir1\folder1\task1\book1.xls.