The following function will work if \My Documents\ is omitted, but I need to get to my documents.

OpenTextFile("test.txt");

function OpenTextFile(file) {
    var ObjShell = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");
    var wShell   = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
    var path     = wShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%\My Documents\");
    ObjShell.ShellExecute("Notepad.exe", file, path, "Open", "1");
}

as is, it gives me an error: Unterminated string constant Line 7 Char 80

The following function will work if \My Documents\ is omitted, but I need to get to my documents.

OpenTextFile("test.txt");

function OpenTextFile(file) {
    var ObjShell = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");
    var wShell   = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
    var path     = wShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%\My Documents\");
    ObjShell.ShellExecute("Notepad.exe", file, path, "Open", "1");
}

as is, it gives me an error: Unterminated string constant Line 7 Char 80

• javascript

• 1 Is the backslash escaping the quote at ("%userprofile%\My Documents\")? – j08691 Commented Sep 12, 2013 at 19:10

3 Answers 3

In a String, \ is the escape character. If you want to include a \ you have to escape it.

wShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%\\My Documents\\");

You must remember to escape the \ - like this:

"%userprofile%\\My Documents\\"

OpenTextFile("test.txt");

function OpenTextFile(file) {
    var ObjShell = new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application");
    var wShell   = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
    var path     = wShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%userprofile%\\My Documents\\");
    ObjShell.ShellExecute("Notepad.exe", file, path, "Open", "1");
}