Using VBA Macro To open Link to picture - image

Question

My goal of this program is to open a picture in a folder by selecting a cells value in the active row which im using the line to do.
picture = Cells(ActiveRow, 6).Value
I am getting a Run time error '1004' Application-defined or object defined error
Here is my full code
Sub Picture_Click()
Sheets("Master").Unprotect Password:="Conti1"
Sheets("Records").Unprotect Password:="Conti1"
Dim picture As String
Dim ActiveRow As Long
Worksheets("Master").Activate
ActiveRow = Rows(ActiveCell.Row).Select
picture = Cells(ActiveRow, 6).Value
ChDir"P:\926_TM\03_LocalExchange\Tracking_and_Labeling\LabEquipment\pictures"
Workbooks.Open picture
End Sub
I am trying to use the value from the selected cell to be the name of the picture file in the selected folder, the picture I would like to open.
also I am getting a value of -1 for ActiveRow
Any help would be great!

Answer 1

You can't open a picture with the Workbooks.Open method, as that method is exclusively for opening workbooks.
One option is to use a Shell command to open the picture. In this example, I will open a picture located on the the Pictures folder named Test.png
Private Sub OpenPic()
Shell "mspaint.exe C:\Users\USERNAME\Pictures\Test.png"
End Sub
This will open the picture in paint.
Adapting this method to your code:
Sub Picture_Click()
Sheets("Master").Unprotect Password:="Conti1"
Sheets("Records").Unprotect Password:="Conti1"
Dim picture As String
Dim ActiveRow As Long
Worksheets("Master").Activate
ActiveRow = ActiveCell.Row
picture = Cells(ActiveRow, 6).Value
Shell "mspaint.exe P:\926_TM\03_LocalExchange\Tracking_and_Labeling\LabEquipment\pictures\" & picture
End Sub
This assumes that the value in Activerow, 6 includes the file extension.
As an aside: I would add that you don't need to define ActiveRow at all and could just use it as-is.
So this:
ActiveRow = ActiveCell.Row
picture = Cells(ActiveRow, 6).Value
Can be rewritten as:
picture = Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 6).Value
And you can omit the ActiveRow variable altogether.

Answer 2

ActiveRow is a Long, so you cannot select a row and say that is a number. You would simply write
ActiveRow = ActiveCell.Row
In the immediate window, if you write ?Rows(ActiveCell.Row).Select, it will return a Boolean Value, not a number.
Also to open a file you should use the FollowHyperlink method:
from msdn:
ActiveWorkbook.FollowHyperlink Address:="http://example.microsoft.com"
Your link would replace the one in the example of course.
picture = "P:\926_TM\03_LocalExchange\Tracking_and_Labeling\LabEquipment\pictures\" & Cells(ActiveRow, 6).Value
ActiveWorkbook.FollowHyperlink Address:=picture

Answer 3

This answer will help you to open in default photo viewer.
I tried,
Sub image_opener()
Dim photo_path As String
photo_path = Worksheets("Sheet1").Range(Selection.Address).Value
PID = Shell(photo_path, vbNormalFocus)
End Sub
but the above code didn't work for me. I think the McAfee in my PC is preventing the excel from running that shell command.
So, I created a openImg.bat file containing
%1
%1 basically takes the input from the user.
Normally we can open image using this openImg.bat by,
openImg.bat path_of_image/image.jpg
So, I edited the VBA accordingly
Sub image_opener()
Dim photo_path As String
photo_path = Worksheets("Sheet1").Range(Selection.Address).Value
PID = Shell("bat_file_path\openImg.bat " & photo_path, vbNormalFocus)
End Sub
photo_path = "image_path/image.jpg" . Finally I setup a shortcut key for the macro from Developer>Macros>Options>Shortcut Key .
The above worked for me.