Am I using DoEvents incorrectly? or is there an alternative besides what I'm doing?

Hi,
I have a macro that opens and modifies a lot of different files. Currently the only way I can make this work is by using a lot of Application.OnTime commands, which is making the code extremely unwieldly.
for some background, the reason I do this is as follows (simplified):

I Start with a template that I input data on, then execute the Macro.
The code goes like this

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If I try to run the code like that however, it gets an error when trying to modify the downloaded file, because it doesn't recognize that the file has been opened, a subscript out of range error. (if i run through line by line the code works because the system processes that the file has been opened)
so what I ended up doing is this:

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This works, but is making it very hard to keep track of everything since it cant all be called in one sub.

My googling makes it seem like I should be able to do what follows, but it doesn't work.
Am I misinterpreting what DoEvents does / is there any alternative to get something like this?

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Any advice is much appreciated.

I think we need to see the rest of your code, especially the part that downloads the file. Is it an asynchronous process? There may be another way to run a loop to check to see if the download is done before moving on. Otherwise you may want to just use Sleep or Wait instead of setting a timer.

Normally once VBA starts to run, the Excel user cannot do anything until the code finishes. Excel will ignore anything the user tries to do. DoEvents returns control to Excel long enough to process any queued up user actions, such as mouse clicks or typing text, then returns to code execution. It is often used, for example, in a loop to allow a user to continue working in a worksheet while the code runs.

Hi, sorry for the delay - I really do appreciate the help.
I have been running a LOT of tests and I'm starting to think this is an SAP nuance, not an excel one...

Based on your input, and what I have been reading, can you tell me if I'm understanding correctly the following:
1. DoEvents is for user inputs - not for allowing excel to process functions like opening a large file.
2. Sleep or Wait can be used to allow excel to process functions like opening a large file before moving on to the next line of code.
3. excel will not wait for a line of code to be finished executing before moving on to the next one
ex: this may fail (but not always?)

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ex) this should always work at a high enough xxx value

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Again, thank you very much for the assistance.

1. DoEvents is for user inputs - not for allowing excel to process functions like opening a large file.

Correct

2. Sleep or Wait can be used to allow excel to process functions like opening a large file before moving on to the next line of code.

Incorrect. A single line of code, such as opening a file, is an atomic function. When the line starts to execute, it maintains control until it finishes, and then when it is done the next line executes.

The exception to this is a call to an external process. For example, there is VBA code that will tell Internet Explorer to open a web site. This is an asynchronous process. That is, it just sends a request to IE then executes the next line of code. Meantime, IE is doing its thing. If VBA needs to know when IE is finished, it has to keep checking, because IE is a separate process outside Excel. That why I asked you if the process that opens your file is asynchronous. If you are simply using Open, then this exception does not apply to you.

3. excel will not wait for a line of code to be finished executing before moving on to the next one

Incorrect, as explained above.

In your original post you talked about downloading a file from SAP, but in your later post with a code sample you show that you are simply opening a file, not downloading it from anywhere. So in your last post the Wait statement is useless.

Like I said, I really need to see all of your code to help you with this.

Thank you so much for the reply! - I understand these concepts now and was able to adjust accordingly!

It seems that most of the SAP GUI scripting is definitely an atomic function, but the open function (from within SAP) seems to be an asynchronous process so I needed to stick the wait after that.

I am truly grateful for your explanations. Thank you

Glad to help, hope you get it all working. I have never used SAP.