Save your VBA project. The .txt file acts as the input. You can also output results to a new .txt file from Excel. Even experienced users encounter problems. Here’s how to solve them. 1. Bitly Rejects the .txt File Format Error: “Invalid file type. Please upload a .txt, .csv, or .xlsx file.”
FileNum = FreeFile() Open FilePath For Input As FileNum Bitly Microsoft Office 2016.txt
Close FileNum End Sub
Open the .txt file in Notepad (not Word) and re-save as UTF-8 without BOM . Or use Excel’s CLEAN() function on your URLs before exporting. 3. API Rate Limiting Issue: Shortening 1,000 URLs via VBA fails after 100. Save your VBA project
Ensure the file is truly plain text. In Word 2016, when saving, select Plain Text (*.txt) and uncheck “Allow character substitution.” In Excel, use Save As > Text (Tab delimited) . 2. Office 2016 Adds Hidden Characters Problem: Bitly sees https://example.com as https://example.com (with a non-ASCII character). Even experienced users encounter problems
| Original URL | |---------------| | https://www.yourlongwebsite.com/page1 | | https://www.yourlongwebsite.com/page2 |
' Path to your "Bitly Microsoft Office 2016.txt" FilePath = "C:\Users\YourName\Desktop\Bitly Microsoft Office 2016.txt"