How to Avoid "Save Changes?" When You Close a Workbook

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. Before working with each example below, perform the following steps:

1. Open a new workbook.
2. Insert a new module sheet:
   
   
   • In Microsoft Excel 97 or Microsoft Excel 98, point to Macro on the Tools menu, and then click Visual Basic Editor. In the Editor, click Module on the Insert menu.
   • In Microsoft Excel versions 5.0 and 7.0, point to Macro on the Insert menu, and then click Module.
3. Type the sample macro code into the module sheet.

The Saved property returns the value False if changes have been made to a workbook since it was last saved.

You can use the reserved subroutine name "Auto_Close" to specify a macro that should run whenever a workbook is closed. By doing this, you can control how the document is handled when the user is finished and has instructed Microsoft Excel to close it.

Example 1: Closing the Workbook Without Saving Changes

To force a workbook to close without saving any changes, use the following code in a Visual Basic module sheet of that workbook:

   Sub Auto_Close()
       ThisWorkbook.Saved = True
   End Sub
				

Because the Saved property is set to True, Microsoft Excel thinks the workbook has already been saved and that no changes have occurred since that last save.

The DisplayAlerts property of the application can be used for the same purpose. For example, the following macro turns DisplayAlerts off, closes the active workbook without saving changes, and then turns DisplayAlerts on again.

   Sub CloseBook()
       Application.DisplayAlerts = False
       ActiveWorkbook.Close
       Application.DisplayAlerts = True
   End Sub
				

You can also do this by using the SaveChanges argument of the Close method.

The following macro closes the workbook without saving changes:

   Sub CloseBook2()
       ActiveWorkbook.Close savechanges:=False
   End Sub
				

Example 2: Closing the Workbook and Saving the Changes

To force a workbook to save changes, use the following code on a module sheet of that workbook:

   Sub Auto_Close()
       If ThisWorkbook.Saved = False Then
           ThisWorkbook.Save
       End If
   End Sub
				

This subroutine checks to see if the file's Saved property is False. If so, then the workbook has been changed since the last save, and it saves those changes.