How to detect when a workbook is closing?

Question

The Workbook.BeforeClose event triggers when the workbook is about to close but before the saving message prompt which allows cancelling it.

How can I detect when the wo

Answer 1

In order to get around your edge case, you need to handle the case where the workbook is deactivated within 1 second of closing it, but only when the save prompt was displayed.

To check if less than 1 second has elapsed, use a high resolution timer to store the time in the Workbook_BeforeClose event, and then compare against it in the Workbook_Deactivate event. Assuming that clsTimer is a suitable high res timer, your code should now be:

Private MyTimer As clsTimer
Private StartTime As Currency

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(ByRef Cancel As Boolean)

    closing_event = True
    Set MyTimer = New clsTimer
    StartTime = MyTimer.MicroTimer
    check_time = VBA.Now + VBA.TimeSerial(Hour:=0, Minute:=0, Second:=1)
    Excel.Application.OnTime EarliestTime:=check_time, Procedure:="disable_closing_event"

End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_Deactivate()

    If closing_event Then

        If Not ThisWorkbook.Saved Then
            'The Save prompt must have been displayed, and the user clicked No or Cancel or pressed Escape

            If MyTimer.MicroTimer - StartTime < 1 Then
                'The user must have pressed Escape and Alt-Tabbed
                closing_event = False
            Else
                'Your Windows API calls here
            End If
        Else
            'The workbook was saved before the close event, so the Save prompt was not displayed
            'Your Windows API calls here
        End If
        Excel.Application.OnTime EarliestTime:=check_time, Procedure:="disable_closing_event", Schedule:=False
    End If

    Set MyTimer = Nothing

End Sub

The class module for clsTimer looks like this:

Private Declare PtrSafe Function getFrequency Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "QueryPerformanceFrequency" (cyFrequency As Currency) As Long

Private Declare PtrSafe Function getTickCount Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "QueryPerformanceCounter" (cyTickCount As Currency) As Long


Public Function MicroTimer() As Currency

    ' Returns seconds.

    Dim cyTicks1 As Currency
    Static cyFrequency As Currency

    MicroTimer = 0

    ' Get frequency.
    If cyFrequency = 0 Then getFrequency cyFrequency

    ' Get ticks.
    getTickCount cyTicks1

    ' Seconds
    If cyFrequency Then MicroTimer = cyTicks1 / cyFrequency

End Function